Training

A lot of Carriers mostly Bottom Feeders will hire with no experience.
Most of the 'Schools' are setup for you to get your CDL.
The 'Real Training' is when you go to work for a Company. (Well that's what they say anyways) And then it depends on your Trainer or Mentor...a lot of them are no good.

 

When you go with a trainer, you are at the whims of a trainer. I had 7 years of driving and recently did 3 days with a trainer. I got fired. Sure it was my fault, I know, I don't believe but I know. 16 cents a mile for 10 weeks is low pay but if it is your only choice then what choice do you have? The economics of the situation require you to have another choice. Is there a small local company you could work for. I have always worked for some local outfit between OTR jobs. This is harvest time. Hauling grain is good money but the harvest is going to be off this year.

Hosteling is a great way to start back into the industry. 12 hour days of nothing but moving trailers really gets your skill level up fast. Grainger Industries pays $20 per hour for that. 4 days on 4 days off. Almost all big companies have that. GM, Ford, lots of jobs. Once you have hosteled for a bit the world of trucking opens up.

 

At my school we had "refresher course" guys come through all the time. I think the best time to do them Is when they are starting new classes. Mots of the first week is filled with pre-trip study, And learning to shift on paper. My school I get 2 free refresher courses, and that's what they told me come when new classes start. I'm sure In a refresher course you can re-learn backing, and all the driving you want In the one week a new class starts. We had A guy come through for a refresher that worked for swift and said he quit for personal reasons in January of this year. Now at this point our class had just started driving on actual pavement. They took 4 of us out at a time with one instructor In a cascadia w/53 foot trailer. This kid made me feel like I was going to die! He was so convinced that he knew how to drive better than the instruction that was given to him. He took an offramp so fast I was convinced we were gonna roll it. One of the people in the group wanted off, and said He would stand there and wait for the next group to come through. If they would have stopped I may have gotten off with him. I have never heard anyone yell the words "DUDE STOP!!!" with more meaning than that day.
But I digress to answer your question yea I think most schools do just enough to get you the CDL, sure you can go through a refresher, and run through the gears on the road, But I think I will be your company trainer that says "ok you drive" that you really learn from. My first driving job my trainer drove down the street, stopped the truck, got out, and said "OK you are driving, don't crash".

 

Amen to the above post......look around for schools that offer refresher training. The school I went to did it for $395 for a week. And .16 a mile is total BS unless it's a team and you get paid for all miles driven. There are a lot of companies that will bring you on at a decent wage once you finish refresher training. Look around.....call around.....

 

well.....do the math. $1000 a week at .16 a mile works out to roughly 6500 miles a week or nearly 1000 a day. Not sayin' it can't be done, not sayin' it ain't been done. But what I am sayin', is 10 weeks of that would be a living hell (for me anyway). Look around, you can do a lot better.

Good luck.....