School tuition secrets

Roehl transport offers a really good driving school. They also offer a 14 on 7 off schedule and a 7 on 7 off schedule. Gary IN would be their nearest terminal to you.

 

According to an email to me from one of Roehl's recruiters, they do not hire anyone not within 100-125 miles of a terminal. I do not qualify and I'm in Western Michigan. Swift has a New Boston terminal and has a Family Plan with slip seating and less than 2,000 miles a week. They're worth checking out.

 

Tom,
Swift Academy will cost $3900 but it is in the form of an interest free, no credit check loan. They will reimburse every paycheck half of what you will be expected to pay and, if you stay with them as a company driver for 26 months, your loan will be reimbursed in full and your tuition will be free. (If you are not local to one of the Academies, the cost of the motel, $500, will be a similar loan situation but without the reimbursement.)

As DenaliDad mentioned they also have a Family Plan where three drivers share a truck in what Swift calls one of their comfort zones or close to home. You drive for a few weeks, pack up your stuff, get off the truck, take a week off and come back to drive as the next driver is taking a week off.

Bear in mind you will have to go through the three week Swift Academy which is for the sole purpose of getting you your CDL-A and the most basic skills in operating your equipment in a safe and controlled manner. THAT IS ALL you will get. You will then be required to go out OTR with a mentor (trainer driver) for 240 hours or about 5 to 6 weeks to develop your driving skills and learn how Swift operates. IF you measure up, you will then be assigned your solo truck or go into the Family Plan.

I would recommend filling out the online application which will likely prompt a recruiter to contact you. In your post you stated, "I would like to go over the road for maybe 6 months, then scale back to part time work......like 2 weeks on and 1 week off." Say that to the recruiter and nothing else. The more you tell a recruiter of your desires, the more likely you are to be "sold" which is often merely a defendable shell of the truth. Do your research here and wherever else you can find online. Try to filter out the whiners and losers who will bash a company they say sucks when actually they need to look in the mirror to find what sucks.

I am in my second week of Swift Academy-San Antonio and I can tell you it has been a great experience. I can now parallel park a big rig even though I suck at p parking the car! Understand if you are accepted for training at Swift you will have some great people doing their utmost to start you on the road to trucking. The rest is up to you.
Best luck,
Frank

 

Tom, Swift is the largest carrier in the U.S. You would do the first two weeks of your CDL training at their academy near Memphis in a place called Millington, then be sent either to Gary or New Boston - probably Gary, since it is larger - for the final week of road training before returning to Michigan to take your Michigan CDL test. You would be assigned to the New Boston terminal, just like me, because you live in Michigan and very close to the terminal.

The recruiter I talk to in Columbus, Kris, told me that if an applicant even mentions "lots of hometime" or something like "two weeks on, one week off," the applicant will be put on the Family Plan and will slipseat a truck. That means you will not be assigned a specific truck and will share one with other drivers while you are "on duty."

Call Swift's recruiting number and have a chat with them.

 

The truth on schooling costs.............

attend the least expensive school that will get you the job you want !!!

30 days after you have started a drivng job, the school that you attended will be

immaterial !!

With a failure rate of more than 75%,

keep your costs at a minimum !!!

 

At a good company, perhaps one in 10 folks you go through traing with will be there in a year..
To start at a company with less than 2000 miles a week = starvation, also slip seating for a newbie is the same.....
As a newbie, the pay is simply too low for the first year not to work 5.5 days per week on a regional schedule at the very least, and that can be tough...
schools want to get you to call, to find out the $$, then they make a sales pitch...think they use the same guys who sell timeshares and used cars....
Going to a company sponsored school may ne the cheapest on paper, but limits your options...sometimes to the same crappy company that taught you....remember, the best companies don't need huge recuing departments to advertise.....

 

Call the school and ask them. Be aware that alot of places like that use a tactic of not giving out price over the phone. They want you to come in and talk to them and they will give you the price then. Tell them you are not willing to do that and they either give you the price on the phone or you are not interested.