millis transfer training

My dad was a driver and driver trainer with Millis for the last few years of his career before retiring. He said that he had never seen an automatic tractor owned by Millis, unless it was maybe a yard rig for moving trailers around, but as far as over the road, no automatics.
My dad also said that even if you were a CDL school grad, you had to do your time with a trainer and then assigned a truck and turned loose, depending on how well you did out on the road. He said he usually spent 3-4 weeks with CDL school grads. and of course longer with brand ,new zero experience drivers receiving their training with Millis, and typically rode with more than one trainer. My dad also would do "check rides" with experienced drivers that had 6 months and more truck time. He would usually sign off on those guy's after a week on the road with them or he would run a little longer if he wasn't certain that they were ready to go it alone. He said it all depends on the new driver's skills and abilities. At that time Millis had given my dad the biggest Kenworth aerodyne conventional known to man! It even had a back up camera and those annoying alarms that went off when another vehicle got too close to the tractor.
Two beds, upper & lower, fridge, microwave, T.V & DVD player, extra generator for those idle times as to not drain the batteries to far down. My dad had driven for Schneider previously and then was an owner operator, and felt that Millis took care of their people pretty well. Case in point: My dad and his trainee are out on the west coast, trainee has a family emergency, dad calls Millis and tells them the kid needs to get home ASAP. Dad took the kid to the airport and dropped him off to fly home. Hooked up with the kid a few weeks later and completed his training. Some companies would can a guy or gal for having such a scenario occur. Hope my story helps. All in all.
Best of luck to you and remember to bring up these things before committing to a particular company.

 

There are a few automatics in the fleet but they are for drivers who can't use a clutch or gear shift due to medical reasons. For example for someone who is missing a leg or lost a hand.

 

Greetings,

I have some questions that perhaps one or more of you can answer for me. I'm considering attending Millis training sometime in the near future. I do however have some issues I'm questioning. For one thing, I've spoken to two recruiters there and have gotten information on driver turn-over. One claimed turn-over at 23%, the other said it was "far lower than that." In doing some math, my question is: at 820 tractors in fleet, even with a 25% trun-over, we're talking about a little over 200 positions available annually. With three schools in operation, minimally attended with 6 students, in school about 45 weeks a year (low estimate) they're training over 800 students a year, for 200 available positions. This fact scares me a bit. Of course theres no guarantee of hire, nor should there be. But, the difference between cost of training increases to 5000.00 if not hired as a solo and remaining employed for a minimum of a year. How have/are any of you dealing with facts suggesting only 25% of students actually make the sucessful leap to 1 year solo? It would seem to me that a lot of students/trainees have GOT to be shafted out of a job just based on stastics. a 4500.00 debt is a lot to stomach, before I even turn on an ignition.

 

Classes are run only once a month. Not all students graduate. About 70%. Some classes have less than 6 people.

 

There were 3 in my class a year ago. One ripped his truck in 4 pieces going to fast down a mountain, the other couldn't read signs. Most who don't make it, its because they weren't cut out for the job in the first place. They think its go down the road and make a pile of money when its far from that.

 

Some of your numbers are good, some not so much.
3 schools with an average of 6 making it out PER MONTH (remember, this is a 3 week school that doesn't overlap) = 18 driver a month and 216 per year.
Of those 216 who actually make it with a trainer, probably half (at least) won't make it till the end of the year for one reason or another.....chose one.
And indeed, they (Millis) will want their money back....... I know from personal experience.

So, in the end, your analysis, while flawed somewhat, is correct. You are basically making a $5000 bet that you will be able to:
a. make it through class
b. make it through training
c. like it and be successful enough at it to see it through for a year

Millis is a good company and has some real advantages in the overall trucking world and if I could, I would go back to them tomorrow.
BUT, really, in hindsight, I wish I had done what I'm doing now and that's pay $1500 to a local PTDI certified technical college to get my CDL and not owe anyone a dime.
I think that a lot of people see company sponsored schools as some kind of a short cut, when in fact, it's many times the longer road.

Best of luck and know that you are thinking the right way and asking the right questions........

 

Yes they do have a few automatic trucks but it would be worth you while to start and stay with a 10-speed.

 

not true I currently work for the company and have been driving for 19 years, definitely can shift a truck, but yet I was given an automatic truck before they gave me my 2013 cascadia manual 10-speed.

 

Im currently a solo driver with millis had my hometime is as follows work for 11 days then i take 3 days off and Im always home on the day i choose. As far as the solo/team driver question, I've been here for awhile but haven't seen many teams except for student trainer teams

 

Well said and pretty much nailed right on the head. Here's the thing that I have seen as the major difference with Milli's program vs the big fish companies out there. That is, they are running there program with the end goal with retaining good long term drivers for them and not looking at them as a temporary seat filler. They only run 1 class every four weeks for each of the 3 schools. As an example, my class had 3 drivers with only 2 of us finishing out leaving 2 in the end. They are not turning out 800 drivers for 200 available positions a year. Success at Millis will be based 100% on yourself, they give you the training you need, not everyone is cut out for this career. Another thing to keep in mind, with Millis is they might start having more people through the schools in the near future because of the very low turn over rate because they have a lot of very senior drivers that will be nearing retirement and those seats will need to be filled.

I can say from personal experience so far that Millis is an extremely good option to go through as a training program. A person interested in this must really think hard, long and do some research, because in the end you need to commit to 1 year of employment with them or repay your training costs. Making it at Millis will depend on you, they are not out to try and train people to fail there, they want you to succeed and be happy there, this is from my experience so far. So far I love the place and couldn't see myself driving anywhere else. Just my 2 cents!