CFI Driver's What's Your 20? (2017 edition)

I ran a guy down that hit and ran on me. Depends on the circumstances. Parking lot hit, driver was in the bunk, slow truck gets away.

 

Trainer told me about his mirror getting knocked off at a Loves by a Schneider driver who was backing in and knocked off his mirror and then hauled ###, luckily he was in his truck awake and was able to get his trailer license plate number and they were able to track that driver down.

 

Happy Veteran's Day! This message goes out to all CFI drivers that have served our great country as I have. Even though I have never worked for CFI, my son did a couple years ago and I am a 14 year retired ConWay Freight driver who follows your posts with pride and enjoy each of you. Drive safe, be proud and hopefully you enjoy a free meal offered by most major truckstops. Thanks again

 

I am not a CFI driver yet but plan to start the training program by the end of the year. (I let my cdl go 10 years ago like an idiot because I had a management gig) I was going to go on board with CFI last year but had some unexpected family issues come up and I want to make sure I have everything buttoned up in my personal life when I start my otr career. This may not be the right thread for my question but it is the only thread I found with so many CFI drivers in one place. I have researched for over a year all the different companies out there. CFI is, in my opinion, the best company to sign with out of the gate. I struggle to find any negative about them. My question is as current employees of CFI do you guys know of anything that is less than favorable? This may sound like a strange question but with me being just weeks away from committing to this company I just want to be sure I have done my due diligence researching the company. I seriously doubt anything could be revealed to me that would change my mind on going with CFI. There are some shady, crazy companies out there from what I've seen.

 

@Rossman Good place to ask, welcome to the thread. Just so you know, we have a couple of trolls lurking through here. I am sure you see that everywhere on the web. Look at the rating for something as silly as an Applebees.

I have been around for almost 8 years. I left twice for greener pastures, was gone for less than a month both times, and came back. The Pastures were browner. I hired on from Fot=rt Myers, Florida. That is no longer in the hiring area, and they still hired me back after I quit, both time.

We have changed company names twice in the 8 years. One change was not real nice, but it didn't really affect my miles because so many drivers quit. The current change has been over a year now. The company that purchased us also owns Transport America. On the day it happened, I checked the pay scale at Transport America. The appeared to be about 2 cents a mile higher than us at all experience levels. Next thing I knew, we got a 2 cent raise across the board. So they are paying attention.

I have had an expected raise and an unexpected one since that 2 cent raise. No complaints.

I have never had a problem getting home when I wanted to. Some former drivers will tell you different. It is a little stressful hitting a certain date, but they always seem to get me there.

Never had a wrong pay check.

The nature of the business is bad weeks get followed by good weeks. Don't complain about a bad week, complain about a bad month.

We are in automatics. The industry is going that way. Its not that bad. Just different.

As a side note, I had troubles with cancer a few years ago. They worked with me to get me home when I needed treatment or scans or whatever.

You can't refuse a load. It no biggie. Nobody wants to be on the east coast. but it happens. I have been east of the Appalachians for two weeks now. Its grueling. High traffic, lack of parking, etc. I spoke nicely to my manager (travel agent). The cycle will be broken tomorrow. If you aren't a pain, your travel agent will work for you.

Safety wise, they don't want you to chain up unless you need them to get to a safe place. I have shut down for snow, ice, fog, wind, and never been questioned or second guessed. One morning I shut down for fog, when I did drive, about 2 miles, it was totally clear...Apparently I was parked in a little trough. They didn't question me, and believe me, they know the weather everywhere. Felt a little silly, but, it proves my point.

That's a general overview. Feel free to ask any specific questions. LOL, doing a 34 hour restart and have wifi access, so I have the full computer keyboard instead of just my phone so you got a little more out of me here.

Hope it helped.

 

Thank you for your individual employee experience there. From what you have said it reinforces my decision to go with CFI. I did read a lot of articles of their changes as a company. Oh btw idk what a troll is lol. I have seen it mentioned on many threads here tho.
I also seen they are in the process of updating all their trucks. What type of truck could I expect to have after completing training? Do they update an existing driver and hand down his truck to the new driver? Just curious to what the process is.

 

Pretty much if you see any comments from someone name's surferjoe or darkness or whatever. Ignore them. They're always popping up in this thread talking bad about cfi with nothing to actually hold up their opinion. I was in the same boat as you last december-march when I was in school for my CDL. Out of all the companies I looked up. Cfi was the only one that I actually saw people saying good things and very very little negative things. Today I've been with cfi since April 1st. And hands down it's the best company I've ever worked for to date. I may only be 25 but I used to be a manager at Florida hospital and I'd think that would say something.im really sleepy right now so I don't feel like tylijg huge paragraphs out so that's all you're gonna get out of me lol... But cfi is great I couldn't recommend them enough.

 

My new ride...

Pink rims and knobby tires...a Florida beach cruiser.

 

Very fitting.

 

How many calories to the mile do you get on that thing