4 week or 5 month training program?

4 week program is all you need.

 

You’ll learn more on the job on your own than any school can teach you, whether it’s 20 days, 20 weeks, or 20 months.

 

This would be called a "recruiter"....and recruiters lie. You should know this..you were in the Navy...
Never
Again
Volunteer
Yourself

 

Navy recruiters don't lie!
Withholding information is not lying!
I think so anyway!

 

Great post, I’m in a similar situation. Salute brother.

 

Jasonacer, take the 4-week CDL course. Learning warehouse operations might give you some perspective about how they work, but it won’t make you a better driver/OO. Save the money, you’ll want to be in a solid personal financial position before you buy your own truck.

Use your first few years to learn how to be the most efficient driver you can be, master the rules & regs, and start learning about the ins and outs of the industry. Begin building lasting relationships with your company and their customers. Learn what makes your company successful.

Becoming an O/O means that you are starting a business - tailor your personal education toward entrepreneurship. If you want formal instruction, take some accounting and business classes. If I remember correctly, you should be able to take advantage of transition assistance for some of this. Of course, there are a million books on these subjects too.

 

4 weeks and you can get other endorsements whenever you want .

 

Just cause the schooling is longer doesn’t mean more time behind the wheel. A lot of the benefits you mentioned from the 5 month program can be learned in the 4 week program. Paper logging and elogging is fairly simple long as you understand the 70/14/11 rules and can add up to 24 and 70. Which also extends into trip planning . Once you get your company truck you’ll know what it can do for example my truck is governed at 63 so I plan 50 mph for everything so if I have a 500 mile trip I plan accordingly. it’ll change depending on what area you are traveling through also, even If the gps is saying it’s clear you can always tack on an extra hour or 2 if you’re traveling through the Chicago area. Also get an atlas don’t completely rely on the gps all the time. Atlas has all the low bridges listed and phone numbers just Incase you ever need them Pre trip is going to take a solid week till it’s just fluidly fundamental but once you get it it’s important that you aren’t just going through the motions to pass the test and that you don’t stop doing thorough pretrips cause it’s seems like nobody in the truck stop does them as you will be rolling with 80k.
Endorsements... study them and take the test for them when you first get your license find out the rules of the tests(in Michigan you can take them once a day until you pass it meaning if you pass your road test / air brakes, combinations vehicles and tanker but fail triples and hazmat.. you would only have to comeback and pass hazmat and triples. Find out how they do it in you state. In Michigan it’ll save you about 30 to 50$ for the upgrade fees and it’ll save you from having to wait in that line using up hometime when you have a job and could be with family or procrastinating from doing it at all)
So I’d say four weeks and if you got a smaller class ask if you can focus on slow manuevers... and as far as the owner op thing while pounding the road think of ever truckstop as a library of brains to pick. Sure you will get your complainer but a lot of my run ins with other truckers had them leaving me with golden nuggets of information

 

You should not stress about damage.

Sometimes wife and I used to sign for the load meaning we are personally liable for the lost money should that load fall off.

If I had a trucking company I would have a small number of abusive early tractors which is now today's mechanic being training to fix stuff I broke.

And you wonder why Company Officers get their pencils in a dither and hide inside under a sweat of body odor.

 

I finished my Swift training and got my CDL wirhin 12 days. My cousin got his CDL in an expensive 8 week course at a top rated training school. We both sucks and noobs out of school training.

We learn by doing and the school's job is to help you get your CDL. Once you have your CDL, you need to be train on the job by a good trainer. In my case, I was lucky to be assigned a great trainer from Swift who was a company driver. Yes, even Swift have good trainers. At the time, I thought he was a bully and an ### for making me do so much work. He made me fuel, backup up at all customers, and told me to practice backing for hours at a time when we were at a customer. He also carried orange plastic cones as guides and point of reference for me to back. He taught me proper time management and trip planning as swell as reading a road atlas and referencing to the Atlas regarding bridge laws and other restrictions. GPS do not show a good overview of your route especially if you want to avoid tolls or certain areas. My trainer showed me how to chain up in the mountain, and many many things. Thinking back, I have been bless to have such a great trainer.

Now we didnt get along well at first. On my 3rd week of training, I packed my stuff and was going to walk out on my Swift trainer because i thought he was too rough on the edges. We both had a serious conversation afterwards and I am glad I finish my training with him.

My brother who went to the same Swift training class and finished the same time as I was assigned a totally different kind of trainer. He gat a leased purchase trainer. They both got along great and my brother thought he had a very cool trainer. As it turned out, after we both got done with our training and teamed up. It was very clear that we both got very different training. My brother did not know how to backup. He didnt even know how to open the doors on a dryvan box. Hell, he did not know how to fuel.

Morale of my story is that trucking schools cannot teach you behond clasroom work and show a few examples that you will soon forget. You need a good on the job trainer. We learn by doing.