Any advice?

There are advantages in going with a school instead of a company for the CDL itself.

First off, if for whatever reason it's really not a good fit with your first company you can leave without owing them any amount of time. Also many of them will teach you on a manual so you don't have that automatic restriction on your license.

As mentioned above, in the current market you'll need to go with who will actually hire you...ideally get over a year experience and then a lot of doors open up, especially if the conditions have become more favorable by then.

 

Don't get too indecisive for too long. At some point, if it's really what you want to do, you just gotta pull the trigger, go for it, and hit the road. It's so many guys on here that delay getting experience looking for the perfect situation. Well.....you don't get experience looking for the perfect situation sitting at home. All these companies, their pretty much the same. When you get a job, keep your head down, run the miles, do whats asked of you. Focus on getting experience. Don't listen to what others say about where you work because trucking is all about what you put into it.


As for school choices, I don't really see what difference it makes whether you go company sponsored or private CDL training. There have been success stories in both. You'll end up at a beginner company either way. If there's an avenue to get the ball rolling, take it.

 

Correct -- finishing up a CDL on your own at a tech school/comm college DEFINITELY levels the playing field.

Bonus points: if you then go job hunting with the relevant endorsements already on your CDL (tanker, hazmat...& doubles/triples).

Those endorsements will then help you:

• stand out from other job candidates
• have access to more/better-paying CDL opportunities

-- L

 

With a GOOD training school, you will learn how to drive different models of trucks and trailers, you will get licensed on a manual, and you won't have to put up with at least a year's worth of cr@p from one of those 'we will train you' companies. Maybe Schneider is the exception to that blanket assumption, but that's based on what I knew of them 30+ years ago.

You will more than likely have to get SOME sort of a loan, but the payments won't be onerous. Actually, I'm glad I did just that some 37 years ago; I had a federal student loan from that, then some 12 years later when I went back to college to get my engineering degree, I got MORE federal student loans. When the student loan forgiveness schemes cam into play the fact that my first student loan (now 'rolled in' to my college loan) was well older than 20 years old, I gained some $35k forgiveness solely because of that $6k trucking school loan I took out in 1987. I'm glad I just kept making regular monthly payments. Paying off a federal student loan ahead of time NEVER makes sense.

So, through a combination of luck and not rushing through my degree program, I got my degree in mechanical engineering from a highly respected school for less than half-price. This was only because I decided to go to a 'real' truck driver training school. Thank you, NTTS (if you are still actually in business, that is....).