New CDL grad looking in the Baltimore area.

Hanson and Adkins

 

First of all congratulations on being a new CDL holder although you didn't say just how much commercial driving experience you actually have. You have just opened the door to more job opportunities. You're going to hear a lot of different opinions on this website but I will tell you that in the beginning there's a lot of challenges with driving a semi-truck. There are also a lot of things to know when it comes to loading and transporting vehicles on a 10 car stinger. If you are a brand new driver I know that you are not going to like this answer and like everyone else you will probably have some trouble with delayed gratification but I highly recommend that you get yourself about 2 or 3 years of over the road experience driving a semi truck before you get into hauling cars.

This won't make much sense right now but down the road when you get some experience under your belt you'll understand what I meant.
At this stage of the game you are a very green driver and I like to say that a new CDL is a license to learn and it really will take some time before you get completely comfortable behind the wheel. Most car hauling companies that I have ever talked to share the same opinion.

Even driving a commercial vehicle most people want you to have some kind of experience and the only way to truly get this experience is signing up with a over-the-road company that has a driver training program. You will share a truck with a driver trainer for a short period of time and then you will be given a road test.

It's kind of a screwed up situation the way the truck driving industry is set up but most of the driver trainers out there don't have all that much experience themselves. This is a result of what is called the "corporate push." There was a time when driver trainers usually had a significant period of experience under their belt but then it got to the point where you could qualify as a trainer with as little as a year and now it's even less than that. And let me tell you something drivers that only have a year of driving experience are still wet behind the ears.

I've been out here for 37 years and take my word on this and get yourself some Commercial Driving Experience before you jump into car hauling.
Because what's going to happen is if you find an open door in car hauling you're going to find yourself having to learn about driving a truck and learning about hauling cars at the same time and to me that is a recipe for disaster.

Now if you do have at least a few years experience there are several companies these days who have a small training program. There's a lot to know with car hauling and most car hauling companies require you to have some kind of experience before they will hire you but some of them have recently implemented a training program to attract young drivers to the industry. Try and find a company that hauls used cars before hauling new cars.

 

Pride Transport has a Sprinter Van account hauling from the factory; I think it's sprinter vans; could be some other type of trucks/vans. They hire new cdl grads.