Needing a Mentor/trainer

You will need a school. As much as I think so little of the schools. They only get you a license and a certificate. But the certificate gets you started.
I doubt if you spend 6 months with someone over the road, that any decent company will still touch you without having that diploma or certifcate from a driving school.
It's not what we think of the schools but what the insurance companys say. And the insurance companys have a lot of say in trucking.

 

A new CDL holder is expensive to insure. Nice thought but reason for the schools and training companies. They self insure so they can train a newb.

 

Have you found any compaines that will take an O/O with no experience?
Can you get insurance for a truck with no expereince?
Or was you looking for an O/O to run a year with to get the min. 1 year experience?
Most O/O would not want to let a new rookie learn in his truck.
I'm sorry if I sound discouraging. Not meaning to. I just see you trying the almost impossible. but anything is possible. Sadly most things almost impossible come at extreme cost.
I would suggest looking at a few schools. The diploma will save you time and money, even though it may not teach you much.

 

attitude DOES have much to do with success...going hand in hand with being able to hear negative input but not necessarily listen to it. dunno how much validity my idea has, or if youd be able to find someone very easily, but if what you are saying is you are ready NOW to buy a truck, seems to me it would be easier to find someone willing to teach you in YOUR truck, and work out some sort of equitable team deal following that. of course who you will need to find kinda depends on what kind of knowledge you bring to then table. do you have contacts for loads? do you know where to find them? this seems VERY complicated, i see many ways to fail. but with any business comes risk, and only you can properly evaluate that. heck, for the right deal, im sure youd find quite a few drivers willing to give it a shot to become a team for awhile with you, but youd be giving away your autonomy for whatever time you made the deal for, and youd be taking all the risk. guess it depends on how badly you want to avoid school and 6 months in starter mill jail.

be advised...your only option for going a more traditional route is NOT a company school and a contract. you can go to a private school, and sign onto a starter/mill company for as little or as much time as you want/need. i maintain that this is usually the better choice anyway.

in any case...i hope you get where you want to go as soon as is possible. you seem to have a great attitude, and great enthusiasm as well. its refreshing. try to keep it.

 

I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm sure you mean well, BUT You are trying to take a short cut and get out of "paying your dues" No one in their right mind are going to let you scrape their gears and fenders while you learn to drive a commercial vehicle. If your ready to buy a truck, buy one and hire a driver/trainer(then you can pay for the clutches and fenders and transmissions). Even doing that it's going to be almost impossable to get a company to let a unlicenced driver drive on their insurance which is exactly what you will be classified as until you get a CDL. Please do everyone a favor (especially you) and go to a "acredited school" (I highly rcomend Millis' school/training program) in a year you'll have a better understanding of how the trucking world works. Then you can make an educated decision about being an O/O.I hope have not hurt your feelings or discouraged you in any way because that was not my intent. I'm just trying to give you a more realistic view of how the trucking industry works. If you don't have the patients/desire to get a good education, and some quality training and to invest the time to aquire/hone your skills to get to a level where you can "SUCCESSFULLY" own and operate a commercial vehicle then you will not like this industry at all.(I've been trucking since 1984 and been an O/O since 2000 and still learn something every day)

 

I think the route your trying to take is the better one. It seems like most of the schools are just out to get money. I learned the way your wanting and think it's by far the best way to learn. I started when I was 17 and have had my CDL since i was 18. I had family that had trucks so it was easy for me to get started. Good luck and hope you can find someone to get in with