Newbe needs help selecting a company

Apparently I misread their website. My Bad. ATS offers tuition reimbursment. The link said paid training so I thought they trained drivers for their CDL. If you're not already in a school there is an excellent truck driving school a little bit southwest of Tulsa that is PTDI certified. That's where I trained and got my CDL.

Sorry about the misprint.

 

Swift screwed up my DAC in away that was positive for me . I filled out an application and reported an at fault accident with $5000.00 damages I had last October. Swift did not put the accident, but just an incident with no info. The company I applied with said if I had not listed the accident they'd hire me now, but they now want to double check it. He said I should be hired anyway but wants to make sure all the eggs are in their proper place.

 

dbook,

Welcome to the forum. I'd have responded to your posts earlier, but I've been out training for the past two weeks.

A little background:

I've lived a while. THis is my third career - the first two being communications and computer based. I've owned (partner) my own company (still own my shares - just don't work there any more. I did a LOT of research before 1) picking this as a job and 2) picking the company I work for.

I'm not going to dispute anybody who says "This is a bad company" - whether it's true or not for that company, we know it's *possible* for any given company to just out and out suck.

Yes, I think such companies exist. Just as I think some great companies exist. The problem with finding a great company is one of definition. What I think is wonderful, you might think is unbearable.

So - Instead of looking for good/bad comparisons, look for descriptions of what the company does - OTR? LTL? Tank? where they work, WHAT they haul, home time, pay, benefits, etc. Determine what factors are important to you, and what the correct answers should be. Then look for a company that most closely matches your criteria.

For me:
Pay is not such a big deal. high pay per mile is good, but I'm not going to freak over low miles. I have a lower limit I can work with - and it's pretty low. Most any company would do.

Home time IS a big deal. I don't need a LOT of it, but I need it relatively frequently. every 2-3 weeks.

Company size. I decided early on in my life that I don't like large organizations. They tend to fill with fluff and BS, and start worrying more about what form to use than they do about getting the job done. For this job, I drew an arbitrary line at 1000 trucks. No company with more than 1000 trucks made my list.

Newbies. Of course, they have to hire a newbie. Else I'd be wasting their time and mine with my application. I've found that, generally, if a company offers to teach you (get your CDL and such) they'll hire newbies.

Reputation. Yes, I know I said that the good/bad thing is pretty much mouth noise - but talking directly to the drivers from that company should give you an idea what the company is like, on the whole. Also, if you can check out their drivers/rigs at the local truck stop, that should help even more. Are the trucks new and clean? are the drivers healthy? happy? *clean*?? You can disregard tattoos as a marker, by the way - I had some very interesting conversations with heavily tattooed drivers these past two weeks.

Being an ex business person, I'm sure you see where this is going.

I maintain strongly that getting your CDL through a carrier is generally a mistake. Even if you have to get a WIA grant or something, do your level best to get your CDL from a good school. PTDI certified. With CDL in hand, you can THEN ask for a job. One year commitment with a carrier for putting you through their CDL school is NOT a short term commitment. Not in this industry

This forum (and others like it, but IMO not as good) are excellent tools, yes - but nothing beats sitting out at the Pilot or TA and actually watching faces as questions are answered.

 

Great post, LurchGS. You have hit the nail on the head. Since we are all different we will look for different things in a company. That is why some like a company and others hate it. And, really the only way we can find out is do the research then take the plunge. Then do the best we can to make a go at that company and if we find it just is not a match, then go back to the research stage.

 

The program is federal, and should be available via your local unemployment office. Depending on your prior job, you may or may not qualify for WIA, but there should be other offerings as well.

that school at the college (Mohave Community) is probably the SAGE school. I don't know if that campus is PTDI certified, though - not all of them are.

Before I went to school, I applied at .. um.. 4 carriers. US Express, Werner, Watkins & Shepherd, and May. This was primarily for the pre-hire letters needed for WIA.

After school, I applied at about 50 carriers. I was accepted for orientation at Watkins & Shepherd, but -- excuses aside, I blew it and didn't attend. Had offers locally (one I'd have loved, but an experienced driver grabbed it the day before I was to be hired. Oh well.)

Applications went to .. that I can recall off the top of my head: Maverick, TMC, Shaffer, Crete, Stevens Transport, Schneider, Old Dominion...

Many of them are not hiring in my area. Most of those had the courtesy to either call or email me and let me off the hook.

I got a positive response from Schneider and May on the same day. Schneider required that I have my passport or birth cert... so I accepted May. (I got other responses since then - but it's moot, now)

Anyway, May orientation was 3 days, unpaid. After that, I went immediately to a truck with a trainer. The other surviving orientation classmate was sheduled to leave on a truck the following Monday (I left on a Friday).

That was 2 weeks ago.

Since I wend to CDL school on a grant, there's no money to pay back. However, they DO have a tuition reimbursement program. I don't know the particulars, since I'm not using it.

Since I'm driving with a trainer, I can say "yes"- they are providing training. I'm not sure if it's luck of the draw or if they actually put some thought into it (I think luck of the draw, from what my trainer is saying about a previous trainee), but my trainer and I get along famously. We've agreed to stay off some subjects pretty much )religion, politics, etc( - but out tastes in music are alike, we share hygiene opinions (daily showers), and he's been good about making suggestions to help me improve my shifting.

We've been driving essentially as a team for the past week - which makes him feel good. It's pretty boring sitting in the B seat all day while somebody else drives, after all.

Neither of us (nor the company) puts up with any shenanigans with the log

so. yeah, we get along just swell.

It may all go to hell when I get my own truck - but so far, I'm more than happy with both the trainer and the company.

Note - they don't have APUs yet, but research into them is active. The idling policy is, considering the industry, pretty liberal.