Current Fontana Roadmaster Student Deciding Between Carriers

Hello all, it has been an interesting first week full of computer safety videos, DMV tests, and my first awkward attempts at shifting smoothly, but I now have a permit and many questions. I'm in the Fontana Roadmaster class and live in the north San Diego area. I'm a veteran about 3 and a half years out of the Marines. I've been using the 9/11 GI Bill for my schooling thus far. My main question is which companies offer the military apprenticeship program? The Roadmaster placement person gave me a short list, but probably just the ones the school has connections with (kickbacks perhaps). I've been looking for an exhaustive list of VA approved carriers and have come up short, so any guidance will be helpful. So far I've looked at Swift, Werner, and Covenant.

My downsides are that I have unconventional work experience, my last 3 years out of the Marines has been spent going to college, and I'm concerned about that being unverifiable work experience. I got paid to go to college, but I don't want to go to an orientation and get told to go home on my own dime. If anyone else has experience with using that time as work experience that would be helpful.

My biggest concern is my 2 misdemeanors. I have one from 2005, resisting arrest without violence, underage drinking led to police being called and the classic mistake of reaching for a cigarette being mistaken for reaching for a weapon. My other is from 2009, public disorderly conduct stemming from a noise complaint. Both were just fines with no jail time. I know some places only accept one misdemeanor, some none, some felonies, so again I'm worried about orientation problems. I'm kicking myself for not starting the expunge process earlier, I know it takes several months. The upside is that once I have some years and miles under my belt my next application wont have either listed as they are both eligible for the expunge process.

My last question is what company would you recommend for someone who wants to eventually specialize in tankers. I eventually want to move back to Idaho and it seems dairy tankers and fuel tankers will be in demand. I'm just looking down the road, I understand I won't start off driving tankers at all. But it would be a huge plus if the carrier at least had a small tanker division to get experience with.

Other than those concerns my driving record is good and I do think I'm a decent fit for the industry, there's just so many directions to go in that a lot of consideration is needed. Big thanks to the forum in general, I've been lurking and absorbing information here for awhile and you folks steered me away from CR England, so I hope you can help again.

 

Thanks for the input, I hadn't been looking at prime but I will. Also I didn't know about having to verify with the employers every month. As far as my review of Roadmaster in Fontana; so far so good. The first week we had about 16 students, then a few left after the urinalysis, and also a few left because of the school payments. Unless you have a 620 credit score or higher, or a cosigner with 620 credit, they'll send you packing. In my case the GI bill pays for it. You have to cover the cost of your physical, permit, drug tests, and hotel costs (although they do a payment plan for that), I decided I'd save 500$ and sleep in my truck.

It's pretty boring at first, you watch a lot of video clips on the computer. Boring but kind of helpful too. You're really just studying the general knowledge, air brakes, and combination trailer portions of the permit test. The practice test was very close to the real deal. At the end of the day there's a 3 hour lecture and study session which was usually entertaining compared to the computer screen. Start on Monday, permit test on Wednesday, and get to cruise around a little bit on Friday in a tractor if you successfully got your permit.

That pretty much sums it up so far, as I just finished week one. The next two weeks is all pre-trip, backing, maneuvers, and road time. So I'm excited about getting behind the wheel more. Anyways, off to check out Prime.