Needed advice for a wannabe truck driver?

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Let us know if you decide on the private school and we'll give you job leads.
Coast to coast jobs are easy to get. Local jobs are there also.
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Here's just one company out of a couple dozen names we can give you.
Roadtex Transportation - www.roadtex.com
5428 MADDOX AVE
LAS VEGAS
This company is headquartered in New Jersey, but has facilities scattered all over the USA.
Plenty more names for you though.

 

Britton Transport
@MrEd can give you tips on applying for this company.
The company has an excellent reputation for drivers.
Click -> Home - Britton Transport

 

Why not go and talk to some smaller local companies. Just tell them everything and see what they can say. Heck a owner OP can train you. You dont need school. I would see taking care of a family member full time as a desirable quality. Knock on some doors before paying for school or joining the the mega #######.

 

Local work USED TO require a few years of Over The Road (OTR) to even be considered. No longer. Most companies are so short-handed they now often accept brand new drivers for local work. It just depends on the company and the shortage drivers in your area.

 

Companies are suspicious of people with no or spotty work history that they are hiding being in jail. So as much documentation showing where you were and what you were doing will often help, even if it wasn't working for pay. Any evidence a driver can collect that doesn't come directly from him is best.

 

There is nothing wrong with a 1 year contract at a company that is a good place to work. Especially with your work history, you really need 1 full year with one company. IMO, signing a contract with a good company is like signing a contract with a life jacket. You need the life jacket if you are floating in the ocean, you wouldn't throw it away anyway, sign the contract. So as long as you research carefully, not sign any contract with any company and hope for the best like 90% of newbies do instead of doing 5 minutes of research to find a better company. Sign the contract.

Under no circumstance would I suggest you work at CR England. I guarantee any web search you do will show them prominently in the results and they will hire almost anyone. You will not make half the money you think they are promising, you may receive very little and very poor training, and you will deal with terrible customers. If you sign a contract with them, that's next to slavery unless you are willing to torch the next year or two AFTER you leave them and work for an even worse company. Don't start a downward spiral in companies, life quickly gets too hard and the money and conditions are worse and worse. Get through this rough patch by getting on with an OK company and then choosing more wisely after that and you can turn everything around.

 

Major trucking companies have been lowering their criteria, some are desperate to get any driver they can these days.

Sooner or later you will find a company to get you into their program but you should not just go with the first company to give you a chance or you may end up working 18 hours a day earning $170 which is less than a minimum hourly pay in some states.

I would advise you to read the reviews and avoid companies that ask drivers to do a lot of freebies (give you a bunch of work that takes hours to complete such as to move trailers around nearby yards, take random reefers to wash without being paid a dime for all those hours of work).

You may go with an independent truck driving school like it has been suggested earlier in this thread, most major trucking companies will reimburse you for it. I am not sure if smaller, local trucking companies do tuition reimbursements, as much as I understood, most smaller companies will not train and hire newbies because of higher insurance rates.

You should not be concerned about finding 'any work at all' these days, some of the worst trucking companies are going to be the first ones to offer you a job because not too many drivers want to work for them, you should be concerned about making the right decision.

Talking about Swift, I spent a week in the training program they had going on and off in Kansas City to get my CDL several years ago, the instructor was not able to do parallel parking while she tried to teach us the students how it should be done, she gave it a try a couple of times using several pull-ups before she gave up on it (she said she was a state examiner who got hired by Swift not too long ago and she needed to practice some more). She said up to that point she had two classes and no student finished the training as they all left before the test dates, I left too. Swift those days was lacking in truck drivers, trainers and instructors.

 

as far as your 10-year work history goes surely you know someone who owns a company that will say that you worked for them. that is all you need is somebody that will verify that you worked for them they're not going to dig deeply into it. as far as the training goes that would be up to you how you do it if you go with one of the training companies such as Swift England prime you're going to get chewed alive but if you can deal with it for a year after that you can move up into the real world of trucking. not saying the real worlds any better but there is definitely better companies in the real world best of luck good don't let your beginning of it get you down because it gets better with more experience.

 

Here's a good one that hires new cdl school grads:
Freymiller - www.drive4freymiller.com - click on "Recent Grads"
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Veriha Trucking - hauls nationwide for the Las Vegas entertainment industry.
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Calex Logistics - www.calexlogistics.com
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SRT - www.southernref.com
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Butler Transport - www.butlertransport.com