No touch freight, rookie driver

Abilene comes to mind, but Phoenix AZ might be a problem.

 

@Dave_in_AZ
Buy this guy a couple corn dogs and he can help you, I think he is around Phoenix area MUST BE FLYING J CORN DOGS otherwise don't bother

@Chinatown
Keep your dog on a short leash around this guy
He knows lots of trucking companies and how they operate. The resident expert

 

Not all companies hire in all places.

 

Use the jobs section of this website. That's how I found my company and I've been happy.

 

There are exceptions, but most refrigerated companies are "driver no-touch" freight.
Do some research on these:
Eagle KMC Transportation in Phoenix.
Jim Palmer Trucking - has APU
Roehl Transport - this company pays you $500.00 weekly while attending their cdl school.
Contract Freighters Inc. (www.cfidrive.com)
Celadon
Stevens Transport - has APU. Probably ship you, by bus, to Denver for school. Lodging & meals provided.
Swift and Schneider will probably both hire you. Swift has their own cdl school and Schneider uses private schools.
Keep it in perspective; most new drivers don't stay with their training company too long;maybe a year or long enough to fulfill the commitment for cdl training. Having said that, I'd look at companies with driver comfort amenities such as APU as first choices, then work your way down the list from there.
APU (Auxillary Power Unit) is used when the truck engine must be shut down and not allowed to idle except for short periods of time. The APU gives electrical power for use of refrigerator, television, computer, heating/cooling, etc.
I'd put Jim Palmer Trucking and Stevens Transport at the top of the list, simply for the creature comforts provided for driver comfort on the road.

 

Most companies with their own cdl school provide meals and lodging. That's a good question to ask when researching. They all provide transportation from your home to their school, even if it's cross country.

 

Knight has female trainers, and from what I hear they are pretty good if not better than Swift, but either would work for a rookie position. Neither "pay well," for the amount of time you will be away, but they will pay better than a starting position at a starter LTL company and both will have no touch freight most of the time. Keep in mind that even those companies will have times that you will have to touch freight, be it off loading or during the loading process, but that's very rare from what I hear.

 

Crete has an 8 week training program and female trainers. I trained through them and my trainer sucked, but the rest of them were good. They pay top end of the pay scale to new drivers.

But they can be selective who they take out of school, so you need to be one of the tops in your class.

If you want to do reefers they also have Shaffer Trucking. Not sure if they hire in your area.

I also here good things about Prime.