A Couple's Journey With CFI

Hello I am Tierael, I am new to all of this obviously. I have been on the forums here for several weeks doing research into just about everything related to trucking I can. Thanks to all of you my Fiance and I have chosen to go with CFI. I am creating this thread here to illustrate our journey through the training process until we are both upgraded into our own truck. After which I will mostly post in the What's Your 20 Topic.

So for some background, we have had a rough time of it the last several years ever since we met. Financially things just haven't gone our way and we ended up here in eastern Virginia after a recent eviction in our home state of northern Indiana. Can't say we really miss the place, we never wanted to be trapped there anyway. We were lucky my grandparents owned a bit of land here and are nice enough to allow us to stay at their property on this mountain. So how did we come to trucking as the answer? Well local work around here is really sparse and both of my Grandparents were truckers for a long time, my grandfather is still at it in fact. So I did my research and figured this was a good line of work to get us off this mountain and hopefully climb out of debt eventually.

I know the journey ahead will be incredibly difficult and I have a good idea of what we are getting into. We both agreed on this course of action and we choose CFI thanks to the recommendations of those that frequent this forum. Since we are new to the industry we wanted top-notch training and CFI seems like it will provide that. I really like that they run newbies and trainers as a solo outfit as compared to the rest of the industry. Plus we really don't have the means to afford schooling/training on our own so a company sponsored thing was our best bet.

So right now, we have our 2-Year DOT Medical Cards, and we are preparing to take our CLP test this coming Monday. After which we will contact the recruiter again. It was touch and go there for a bit as I didn't have us apply early enough it seems. Our work history kind of sucks due to the lack stability and we really want to be somewhere we can work at for awhile especially considering I'm about to be 30 and she's 26 so getting a solid retirement built up is at the front of my mind. Anyway luckily despite my fiance's work history we just received a call today and were both accepted. We've already been studying but we felt we were in limbo waiting for that call because we had our hearts set on this company. Now that it is out of the way, I am going to help my Fiance finish her studies and we will both be hitting the practice tests hard in preparation for Monday.

 

Yes, I have noticed that some people do ask for advice, but proceed to think they know better than the person that gave the advice or merely wanted validation on what they already wanted to do. My age, and hardships thus far have helped humble me, I hope. I am looking forward to all of the advice/suggestions that anyone is willing to give me, and I appreciate all of it. So far from my research, everyone's experiences have been helpful.

From what I gathered based on my research, CFI does 7,500-10,000 miles with their finishers-trainees. So about 3-4 weeks I gather. This is something we have both discussed, and we are already prepared for. We really hate being apart for more than an hour, but we've been preparing for that as a means to an end in regards to our training. That is why we will make a good team I think, we have worked together at other jobs in the past, and we compliment each other well, and truly enjoy spending every waking minute together.

From what the recruiter told me, "Men train Men and Women Train Women." Now as my research shows, recruiters aren't always super truthful, and whether a female finisher will be readily available is another concern of ours, as there isn't a ton of women in this industry, to my knowledge. The other concern is a non-smoking finisher as my fiance is very sensitive to that stuff, and again the recruiter assured us that getting non-smoking finishers wouldn't be an issue. I am hopeful and I can tolerate a smoker if I have to, but I am more concerned with my fiance so hopefully that works out in her regards. I'm not too worried about her general safety because she wears the pants in our relationship. I'm a bloody coward, but I don't believe in typical gender stereotypes. We are all different and similar in some ways so it's pointless for me to hide that.

Yes, I am the male, she's the female. I think I've done enough research for the both of us, and we have a pretty good idea what this company is about. Thank you for your input though, I appreciate it. No offense taken btw, she's more liable to protect me though. It's one of the reasons I love her, I am timid and shy and she's the opposite, so it works well for us.

 

Thank you I appreciate your sentiment and insight. Like I said, I have been doing my best to do my research so that we don't end up as steering wheel holders, who think the world owes us something. We both are willing to work hard to succeed in this industry. I don't intend for us to be one of those that jump into this lifestyle, without having some idea of what we are getting into ahead of time. I have seen a few post on these forums that go into OTR and quit after a month or two because they didn't quite realize what they were getting into. I realize that until we are out there we may not know if it truly fits us, but we are going to give it a honest shake for a year a minimum before passing judgement.

I have been keeping up to date with that thread actually. I've read every thread in this forum relating to CFI, so luckily there have been a lot of questions that have been asked, and answered already. I wanted to make sure I searched for stuff before I asked questions about it. @Chinatown, @Ultratowel, and @RoadRooster have all shared very informative posts that have assisted me. The team I believe you may be talking about is @Cerberus XVI, and I have followed their time with CFI as well. I have done my best to do my due diligence.

 

It's great to finally get some personal paragraphs of wisdom from you RoadRooster! I've seen a lot of your posts through the forums and your humor has certainly brightened my day from time to time.

Much of our stuff is in storage at the moment due to all of the moving around we've had to do the last few years. Her car was repossessed just a month ago, and that weakened her spirits to say the least. My car is all we have left, but luckily we don't owe too much more on it. I will be sure to look into that guy though with my Fiance, so thank you for that lead. I am not sure where we are at the moment with our debt at the moment, unfortunately. Before we moved we were on track to start climbing out of debt, but we slipped due to circumstances. We will have to go over our finances together again soon to get an idea of where we are at.

I have heard a lot about the rental car thing, however I wasn't sure how economical that would be especially considering how far we live away from civilization at the moment. Though we don't care for it much here on the mountain, and would like to relocate eventually. I think that was the other advantage with us as we really have nothing tying us down anywhere in particular. To be honest, it kind of sucks being so nomadic, and having no where to set down roots. It definitely feels like our plans have been set back by this misfortunes, of both our doing and external forces. The idea of living out of a truck on the road for a bit doesn't bother us, especially because of what it can mean for our future.

I definitely appreciate the background and the financial advice and I will definitely talk it over with my fiance. I have seen a few uplifting tales of trucking being what turns people's lives around in one way or another, so I really hope that we both can make it true for us as well. We are both hoping to start as soon as possible and we look forward to seeing you, and the other drivers of CFI out there on the open road someday. Good saying though, I'll make sure to write that down somewhere, very inspiring stuff!

So far the CLP/CDL material hasn't been too difficult for me, but I am finding the Hazardous Materials Section a little bit difficult to absorb. I believe CFI gives us 120 days to obtain the endorsement though so I think we will have plenty of time to go over the material, get the money for the background check, and finally test for the endorsement before the end of that period. We are throwing everything we have into this!