Before I sign the dotted line . . .had a few questions

Your friend that quit his first company after only 3 months possibly was viewed as an unstable job-hopper by the company. So yes, take your time doing your research and just know that you might have to grin and bear it for a while before better opportunities come your way.

 

Some companies ads have something like, "Must have 2 yrs. experience or cdl school graduate."
Some have something like, "Must have 1 yr. experience or recent cdl school grad."
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Here's an example from Freymiller. They hire new cdl grads. fresh out of school, but if the driver goes to a company right out of school, then quits before 6 mos. Freymiller won't hire them. In other words, "New cdl school grad or 6 mos. experience."
Qualifications

• At least 23 years of age
• Class “A” CDL
• 6 months verifiable OTR tractor/trailer experience in last 2 years.

 

Thanks, @MBAngel - I submitted a contact request at the Arizona@Work website asking about assistance for trucking school change of career. I agree with you about @Chinatown - based on his recommendations, I applied at Freymiller as well as Schneider. I too want to go OTR, at least for the first year, and see if I can rack up some decent money by running hard as a team member. Going out with your husband sounds optimal for that type of work, my significant other abhors truck stops! Lol. Been also looking at smaller companies when I can find them, Google searching doesn't always reveal all.

HDS is a good school, I think - some companies indicated you only needed 6 mos experience if you went to HDS, AIT, or Swift school. Nice to know they weren't too expensive either. I am going to talk with Southwest Truck Driving school here in Phoenix, see what they have to offer.

Look forward to hearing about your trucking adventure!

 

Southwest was my 2nd choice school. Nice ppl. But hds is accredited, which means that they can do better loans if you don't qualify for Arizona at work.

 

@MBAngel and @FryDaddy, have either of you talked to Phoenix Truck Driving Institute? Was wondering what your opinions are if you have. I haven’t seen a lot of talk about them.

 

I am in tucson, so I did not talk to them

 

Can you get in where your friend works at that's making $1300 a week in Phoenix? What kind of driving is he doing?

 

hello I am new in trucking with only 10 months experience but from talking to other drivers, I would pay for your own CDL training I've heard horror stories of getting in these contracts with companies and then if you don't stay you end up owing them 5k or so. 45k in the first year is reasonable, you could even make more currently I work for Swift and gross about 1300 weekly with their walmart dedicated account in NY. They have people driving the dedicated account now that only have 3 months total experience that were originally otr but they are surge drivers now working this account and they get a guaranteed $250 a day plus $15 a stop which you make about 15-18 stops a week. You just have to look around I also worked for US Xpress and Roehl. Did team at US Xpress for 3 months which I did not go home. I was not impressed miles wise we never averaged more than 4k miles, always would start with a good run from PA or GA to Washington state then get sent to California and be stuck making runs from the Bay area to LA to Phoenix. To much traffic over there specially for a team once took us 2hrs to do 15 miles to get to Korean Air LAX, couldn't make any money doing that. Plus team is scary my teamate only had 1 month more of experience and was super reckless he would speed through curves in mountains going 70 in a 50mph cure warning zone which again is posted for cars, not pay attention, ran the truck in a ditch, took out a fence, hit a lightpole, got 2 wreckless speeding tickets, fell asleep while we were going through Wyoming,....etc finally wrecked the truck b4 they fired him....lol it was a scary 3 months on the truck with him. I wouldn't recommend unless you really trust that other person behind the wheel, your life is at the hands of them. Lots of other negative things to with teams just trying to keep it short. If you can buy your own truck I have met and talked to many OO that make 3k a week take home pay and even met a kid that was 25 pulling landstar that showed me his settlements running only 4 days a week and he was making 2k-2300 take home a week for only 4 days....tons of options and ways to make money in this industry as I have learned in only 10 months, just do your due diligence and talk to other drivers out on the road a lot of them have tons of knowledge you can learn from. Recruiter wise try to get everything in writing when deciding, recruiters are known for embellishing, its just a numbers game to them to get people in the door so of course they will tell you what you want to hear. Just get started somewhere once you have some experience like 6 months lots of companies will hire you, Best of luck to you!