When looking for a company to work for......

use your GI bill for a school.

NC has a good one out that way. don't remember name.

then try Epes Transport. they hire students.

 

A terminal near where you live holds FAR more benefits than not. I would say (and this is just me) that a terminal within driving distance of my home is worth a penny or two drop in pay; and I'll tell you why:

I live in a part of the country where it gets darn cold in the winter. If I park the truck at a terminal and plug it in or not plug it in (depending on what the terminal offers)---if it doesn't start for me, there is no service call, and someone else gets to deal with it while I stand in a nice warm building. If I park it at my house, or somewhere near the house, and the same thing happens...it is MY problem, MY time, and probably MY cost for a service call.

If the truck is due for service; I am not wasting MY time sitting at a service center or terminal waiting for the service to be done. I park the truck....go home....and enjoy MY free time the way I want....then jump in a freshly serviced truck for an uninterrupted week of running.

If the company pisses me off; I turn in the truck, jump in my vehicle, and go home. No bus, no train, no plane, no shipping belongings....just clean it out, turn it in, and one finger salute on out the driveway.

I understand that my answer comes off as "all about me"...and that's because it IS. We do enough free crap in this industry---a terminal near the house eliminates atleast some of it.

 

http://www.tsa.gov/stakeholders/transportation-worker-identification-credential-twic® You don't need it (depending on where you want to drive and what you're going to haul), but it's nice to have.

I just had my road test with SEFL (LTL company). Both them and ABF (just to name a couple) hire recent grads. They don't just pitch you a set of keys and say "knock yourself out..." they make you do OJT to make sure that you're good to go before you head out on your own.

I don't view OTR as a "pay your dues" thing, but clearly the OTR companies do...which is why I don't think that would be a good fit for me. That and I value home time. Many of the OTR companies make it sound like they're doing you a favor by allowing you to take a 36 hour reset at home every couple of weeks.

As for all of the companies wanting 6+ months experience..."I want a toilet made of solid gold, but it's just not in the cards, now is it?" There's a driver shortage. Many companies either need to waive or reduce their experience requirements or live with having empty seats. Hell...some of the companies in my area expect people with 1+ years experience to work for $14-15/hr. That's jack #### in my area. Especially when you can get on with ABF for $18/hr or SEFL for $21.75/hr.

Companies like that (the $14-15/hr ones...again...my area has a VERY high cost of living) should be happy with any qualified (on paper) warm body they can put in a seat. To me....it's literally not worth accepting the liability that's associated with operating a commercial vehicle for that amount of money.

 

You don't need to 'pay your dues' anymore. Forget what the driving school told you, and listen to what we're telling you. The industry has changed drastically since the instructors at your school drove, so they likely won't know.

Every company out there is SCREAMING for drivers.

 

I have to agree. Put in apps and knock on doors, all they can say is no. I have never agreed with the whole "need x amt of years otr" to qualify for driving jobs. I don't want to get anything started, BUT....Almost anyone, with a minimal amount of instruction, can drive up and down the interstate for hours at a time. I drove for 4 months OTR before I landed a local job. There is no amount of driving OTR that could have prepared me for what I was getting myself into. You gain real experience as a local driver. I would bet I back up more in a day than most OTR drivers back in a week. You have to stay on your toes at all times. Heavy traffic, school zones, back roads, small 2 lanes, dead end streets, even peoples driveways sometimes!

 

I've been lurking this website for a couple of years as I've been pondering off and on about getting into trucking, after some recent BS at the (9-5) I've decided to just do it already and quit thinking about it constantly. I have to say that 2 of my buddies lucked out and landed local gigs right out of CDL school, however I think a lot of the time it comes down to people not having the funds to go a private school in order to get their CDL, for instance (me). Which leaves me in the position of either A. Trying to come up with said money for private school, or B. Sucking it up and signing on with an OTR company to get my feet wet.

 

Check with your local community colleges/tech schools. Talk with the financial aid dept and find out if there are any grants and/or scholarships you can apply for. Here in TN there are grants through the state lottery and WIA (Workforce Investment Act). That paid for half the costs of tuition, the other half I paid on my credit card. My out of pocket costs were about 600 dollars.

 

Thanks for the heads up Chops. I have heard about the Worforce deal, the community college situation is out reach for me due to not having my GED, (I'm a pretty intelligent individual however, I dropped out of high school my junior year to do home school since I blew out my knee and could no longer play football, so I lost interest in school. Ultimately I made bad decisions and ended up getting a decent job and never finished my home school and never acquired my GED because I never got questioned on it for any job.) I did have a buddy go to a school in Dallas that I believe was called Continental where he payed 525 up front, and then payed 6 more payments to pay it off, I thought about looking into that as well.

 

Close to your terminal reduces travel time to and from home.