Background check

some companies will use this against you, I've never understood the logic, for all the explanations given, if why an employer, unless it's a bank, cares about your credit report.

 

It often depends on the company and the position hired for.

often they want to see if what they are paying you will cover your bills.
also if you can not manage your own money why should a company trust you to handle Their Money?

Since the HOME OFFICE may never meet you it is one tool to see who you are.
pay late means you may be late to work do not take accountabilty or responseability for your decisions ect.

they can draw many conclusions from a credit report.

Granted we live in unusuall times so some things do not have the same weight that they used to.

but if you owe your bookie don't expect to have a dedicated run hauling computers. lol

you should be fine run your own report to see what is on it. good thing to do anyway.

 

I doubt this is a career killer. I do know some jobs frown on it but not sure how the trucking industry looks at it. Find out if a company will hire you before you pay for training. Welcome, the TTR Forum is a great place to research and learn about the industry. Here's my standard copy and paste advice based on the horror stories we read every day on this forum. Take it for what it's worth.

You need to research and find out what the important questions are. You can make an above average living but you will make sacrifices that other jobs don't require. Read the "good companies" and "bad companies" section on this forum and get an idea of what company you want to work for and what kind of trailer you want to pull. Don't just go to school and then try to figure out where to go.

I don't know your financial situation. Don't take training from a company if you can afford it or get it with financial aid. You will be their slave for up to year. If you leave they will trash you DAC and credit record. Check out your local community colleges and employment office.

Just know that most training and trucking company recruiters will do nothing but lie to you. They will let you talk about what you want and then tell you what you want to hear. Trucking is about moving freight to make money for the company. Your home time, family, paycheck and everything else comes second.

It is not like any other job. Local is usually backbreaking delivery work 10+ hours a day, 6 days a week. Often you unload dozens of times a day or you are a salesman. In my area most dump truck jobs pay less than a good factory job. Regional is lots of loading and unloading time, fewer miles than OTR and not as hard as local but will wear on you and push your HOS limits. OTR is out 3 - 5 weeks with 3 - 4 days home, less manual labor and more miles.

You'll probably have to pay your dues before you get the gravy job. Weekends off, if you are lucky enough to get something like that starting out, may be home Thursday afternoon and leave Saturday night or home Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon. Loads deliver on Monday early and you leave in time to get them there. Often your home time will be in the middle of the week.

Regardless of your driving choice, after school you will go through company training. For OTR this can be six weeks to three months with little or no home time. The first phase is usually $400 a week and the second phase is $500-550 a week. Some pay less. One company pays 12 CPM for training.

One last thing, you don't want to wait around too long after training or you'll have trouble finding a job. If you get out before you have a year in, when you try to come back a few months later you will find they want you to start over.

 

Compared to someone with a DWI or a Felony, you have it easy.

I dont know how old you are but age discrimination is rampant in the USA, so if you are pushing 50 or more, you need to take what you can get, since most companies wont care what you did in the old country but they DO consider age.

It's illegal here to usea persons age against them, but they wont tell you why you didnt get hired, or they will use a legal excuse.

Good luck to you. I hope you find a job soon.

 

Your age shouldn't be a problem.

If you take company paid training you sign a contract to work for up to a year at most companies. Here at TTR we call it indentured servitude. If you leave early and don't pay they will trash your credit report (might not be a problem in your case/might keep you from getting training financed too) and your DAC (a report that big companies use to report negative things on drivers). If they trash your DAC, then many big companies won't hire you.

If you pay for your own training you can work wherever you like for however long you like. If you job-hop though, it will get hard to be hired by a good company later. If you leave under bad terms they can still trash your DAC.

The moral of the story is research and make wise choices. Know what to expect and be ready to endure the bad times. Starter companies don't offer much but you have to start somewhere.

 

pick a company, apply as a student, get a prehire they will run back ground ect when you get the offer then go to school.

I got my prehire then gave my notice start school end of August