Who to pursue?

There are no DOT standards or requirements for the training of CDL drivers only testing. You can walk into the DMV in your hometown and pick up the study manual, study the manual, pay the fees, and take the test. You will however need a truck to do the road test in and that's it.

Most companies that hire student drivers have a standard which is normally 350 hours from an accredited school. Every company is different so call around to a few companies you are interested in and see how many hours they require.

Company sponsored training vs. non-company sponsored training

Their are far to many reasons to explain here why company sponsored/paid training is a very bad idea, if you really want to know there are a lot threads on this web site alone explaining the down falls and horror stories driver have been thru fulfilling those contracts.

So I will explain some of the benefits of attending a non-company sponsored schooling path.

1. Most accredited schools have FASFA and other financing options. Some state labor agencies even have free money.
2. Most schools offer lifetime job placement and normally know who is hiring locally before it is even advertised.
3. Most schools will have you pre-hired before you even finish schooling
4. If you attend a non-company sponsored training you receive all of the tax credits and deductions and NOT the company. Like tuition, books, maps, clothes, pens & pencils, notebooks, cost of a laptop/computer, cost of a printer, ink, paper, cost of the medical exam, permitting fees, meals, travel expenses, etc..
5. Normally you will start with a higher CPM rate than drivers coming out of their own school.
6. Most companies have tuition reimbursement up to $10,000 which is paid directly to you weekly or monthly with no contract.
7. You can leave the company anytime you want cause you owe them ZERO!
8. When you are in school you may find you like hauling something different than what you thought or you may receive better job offers. You are not locked into one company for the next 12-15 months so you can do whatever you want.

 

Don't know about the other companies but as for Werner, I think they still have one of the longest training requirements at about 275 hours. Depending on the trainer it could take four to eight weeks. If you get a trainer that's on a say dollar general acct he or she could be home every weekend. So that will drag it out to about eight weeks. When I went thru my trainer was on the family dollar out of va and it took ten weeks becuase it was 325 behind the wheel training. I didn't have a bad experince at all during my training, I was fortunate.

As for the schools to get your CDL I would try to get that on your own so that your not committed to any company for a long time should you not like the company.

 

I wouldn't go with Swift. Too many horror stories and you sign your life away for a year. I would go with Roadmaster or look into funding from a grant. I would look at community colleges that have CDL programs. Out of the companies you rec:

Werner: Put at bottom of list.
May: Both dry and Reefer. Nice trucks and decent training program
JBS: Reefer
Watkins Shepard: You'll get a lot of backing practice with this company as they tend to do a lot of LTL stuff which is a good thing.
Prime: Good training program and options as in flatbed and tanker besides reefer. They do some floral loads which can be great as you get a lot of practice.
Swift: You could do better than both Swift and Werner.

Try adding the following to your list: Schneider, TransAm, FFE, US Xpress, Melton, Maverick, TMC, Roehl.

Do not sign on with a company for CDL training. Go to a school where you aren't obligated to a contract. PM me if you have any questions and ill be happy to answer.

KH

 

Might consider dock work or yard hostler at a ltl company.

 

Do you want to be OTR or eventually go local. If you want local you don't have to go OTR even though people say it.

 

Prime
Schneider (tanker division)
JBS
Watkins & Shepard

That would be my choice in that order.
While you're in school, try to get the tanker/hazmat endorsements along with TWIC. If you want Canada runs, also get a passport.