Having a hard time deciding how to go about getting my CDL

I got into dry bulk out of trucking school. In two weeks after being trained they handed me a dry bulk tanker for cement a R model mack and said go to Baltimore Blue Circle Canton load for Rockville Fuel and Feed off I-270. Get going yer late.

That kind of tanking is EASY.

2 months later I saw the gasoline division making three times net what I was making (550 a week net in the late 80's compared to 1200-1500 net on the gasoline tanker side) I asked them to transfer to gasoline. They laughed me out of there, First off I am 21. Second off insurance needs gas haulers to be 25 flat.

I was gone from that company in three months because a suit in rockville fuel and feed ordered me to move my trapped rig rather than wait a #### hour as the one next to me pumped off his cement. The result was his truck was totaled by me and my trailer was unserviceable to anyone for three days. Suit never got his cement. I was right fully fired pronto for that stupid day. It's all on me.

Gasoline? HA. (Thank god....)

 

I know that in school, I got my 160 hours. That wasn't all driving... in fact, I only actually sat behind a wheel on the road about 8 hours total. The rest was either classroom time, or backing practice, during which I shared a truck with 3 or 4 other students, so... Not a lot of actual time in trucks out of that 140 hours. It was a lot more sitting and watching others, and learning through their experience. I don't know how that translates to a trucking company and "real" work. But when you have a new cdl, no matter how you got it, you'll need to go thru the "on the job training". Maybe if you actually have real life hours driving they can count that as a job and you may even have reduced on the job training. But I really don't know about that, since I went the school route.
In school, we learned three things, and all 3 are detailed in your cmv manual from the dmv. First is the pre-trip inspection. Next was the main backing maneuvers - straight back, offset back, and parallel in my case. Last was the driving test, which scored points on what you do wrong. If you go to a state examiner to do the test, you'll have to take the initiative to make sure you know those with a focus on passing the test. So, read the book, and focus on learning for the test.
And I actually meant for you to log with paper logs after you get your cmv, even if your company has eld records that can be printed out. Keep track of all your hours. Remember, you can't drive a cmv if you have more than 14 hours on duty a day, or 70 hours on duty in a week. So, that 20 hour day you put in, you wouldn't be allowed to drive a cmv back to the shop, as an example. So, log your backing practice hours, log your actual driving hours; also log your on duty hours so you know you're not violating hos. You have to pay attention to hos when you have a cmv and you do drive. All paid work counts for hos rules. You may not need the entire 140 to 160 in actual experience as opposed to school experience to actually start with a company, but that's what I was told by the schools I interviewed with before choosing school.
Chinatown could tell you which companies are in your area and hire ppl with new cdls... Then you could actually talk to someone who is hiring. But do your research first. Many companies will hire you quick, no matter your exp, but they are really bad to work for. This site has a lot of posts on companies about how they are good or bad. You can talk to ppl who work for those companies about things like pay rates and equipment, and when you have a couple you like, then call the company and talk to the hiring ppl. The recruiters lie - they'll tell you highlights or "we pay up to" but not details specific to you. It's always best to pay for your own school (or taking a loan and hiring on with a company that will help you pay that back), rather than hiring on with a company that will pay for school, or has a school. This is different from the "on the job training" you get from any company after you start, which can be as long as 8 weeks.

 

You sure make a good position.

Ok. Great I don't have a case or a leg to stand on anymore lol. I say this. Talk to the different companies, @Chinatown is one of the best here about that. If it's bennies you are after then examine the companies to get the best. I do concede some of the positions you have shown to me and I learn something so thank you.

I hope that you have a conversation with family doctor about that inflammation, potential food intake issues etc. Any time your gut is not quite stable as far as bad BM etc something is off. Nothing to worry about on my end a whiff of bad water somewhere unfamiliar 2000 miles from home might contain parasitic microbes which will cause you travelers BM. You carry bottled water by the case inside the 18 wheeler as a defense.

Remember to pace yourself. You are about to be involved in something greater than yourself to use a wore out encouragement. This country has so many good things and a little bit of bad to go with it.

Do not forget to purchase civil judgement law-suiting insurance from someone that provides you car insurance etc. I carry half a million on myself for a few dollars a month so that if I hit something or shoot someone in my house breaking in and get sued... (I have been sued twice in trucking) you have a form of defense financially.

Do whatever you can to pay off your own CDL, no indentured servitutde to the company ever if possible and build some kind of savings with each load assigned to you. If it paid 300 delivered in two days, you ate on 40 total and stuck the other 200 after taxes etc aside. Eventually you have thousands in savings. 9-11 destroyed our payroll people and company. Our boss said we can go to unemployment sit there who knows how long or keep trucking. We had 14000 that day we kept trucking. (9000 was committed to a replacement of a storm damaged room at home.) and it was 6 weeks before payroll caught up.

I cannot emphasize that the food quality will vary, sometimes to the poor side. Truckstops are not the homes of the road that they were once long ago. They have been turned into profit machines with no place for you to sit down anywhere and gulp down crappy fast food or self serve that has bacteria from thousands before you.

Look at your immunizations where possible. Example, Mumps Measles Reubella MMR. If you don't have that, get it among others. People are filthy by and large in general because hygiene in trucking is not that good.

I hope you do well. You are prime age for that. Prepare always for a future where the body breaks down and you cannot do this work anymore probably in your late 50's early 60's who knows.

 

Jumping back in here, and forgive me if you already mentioned it, but you said you've been practicing: who is giving you instruction, and are they with you the entire time you're practicing?

As far as paid training through a company, I have no issue with it as long as they're teaching you correctly, and you understand that a contract is typically required to "reimburse" the company for the time they have invested in your training, which depending where you go, can be valued by the company upwards of $30,000.

While you don't see the point of paying tuition for "three things", the reality is, assuming its a good school, you're learning much more than that. To give you an idea, the FMCSRs number in the thousands, and are constantly being revised, and frankly, some of them can be fairly complicated to understand, even for those of us that are veterans in this field. Heck, I've been driving for 25 years and only recently switched from local to regional driving, and I feel like a rookie all over again in some respects.

 

Your logic plays out, but the insurance companies run this industry. Even though most of the larger carriers are self insured to some degree they use insurance hiring guidelnes. You may find a low paying general carrier that will hire you as a student (not many) but this issue will come years down the road when you want to upgrade to one of these better carriers. At the time I started hauling fuel I had 10 years experience and they would not accept me unless I could provide my PTDI school certificate and acceptable school transcript. So even though you may question the value of attending a quality school, the insurance companies do see value and the lack of a certificate, with a minium amount of hours (most 140 hrs) will hamper your career getting those high paying jobs with quality benefits in the not to distant future.

 

Call the companies you're interested in and ask their criteria for hiring you.

 

I agree, you have at your disposal everything you need to learn - trucks, drivers and actual experience. I also agree that schools do teach a bit more than "just" the test, but a lot of that was just what they've experienced as real drivers in their 20+ years of driving. The kicker is going to be the insurance requirements for the company you want to work for. My school also offered a 3 month 10k class, and that taught more about the fmcsa regs and logging and all that. But my one month school barely taught me how to shift, and I learned to back to pass the test, and pre-trip and a couple other things like coupling and uncoupling, and snow chains.