Breaking Up OTR Training

I have never heard of such a thing.

 

If you search for the right company it is possible. I've ONLY worked at companies where I was gone for a week and then home on "the weekend." Often that means getting home late Fri or early Sat and then being parked in a customer's loading dock at 7am Mon morning, 500 miles from home. To find these companies there is no substitute than getting info from drivers at that company. Not talking to recruiters, not reading want ads, not ASSUMING you'll get the miles, pay, time off mentioned in ads. You CAN do it if YOU put in the work. If you have narrowed your first company selection to the same companies Google tells every newbie about you will be lucky to be home even once per month and you will make half of what you think they are claiming you will make. "up to X" means you are not going to make anything like X, but Bob made X before he retired after 35 years OTR.

My first company required riding with a trainer for 8 weeks, the hardest 8 weeks of my life, but I was returning to the company yard every 5-7 days for a "weekend". Weekends in trucking are not what normal people think of as weekends. They don't start at 501pm Fri and last until 0900 Mon am. The weekend is whatever fits between getting back from your last trip and the required start time of your next trip to be where the customer wants Mon morning.

 

Where is your location; state & nearest city/town? Maybe there's a school near you where you can commute each day or go home on weekends.
If you graduate from a private school; there's a few companies that will let you take the wife on day one.

 

Here's why this is a bad idea -

It takes a few years, of day to day driving to really start to perfect your craft.

The first few months, let alone weeks, you really need to focus on the task at hand, which for you is not crashing into anything, and learning everything else that goes along with this.

I let drivers do whatever they want, Bring a pet alligator if that's your twist. But not out of the starting gate.

 

Never heard of that. You'll forget what you learned and it's too expensive to keep routing you back home and picking you up again.

OTR ain't a 9 to 5 mon-fri job so why would training be?

 

Sounds like she is locked in the basement and needs the bread and water once a week lol

 

Ok, had to re-read the post.

I think you're talking about your on-road training AFTER graduating a CDL school, right?

If so, yes, it's possible.

You just need to hire on with a regional carrier that has a hub where you live.

Many carriers have regional driving divisions, not that you want to drive regional, but in order to get home weekly (or even more often) you'll want to TRAIN regionally.

Werner has a Dollar General account and those drivers often get home every other night.

After graduating training with a Dollar General driver, Werner would be quite happy to transfer you into their OTR division.

 

I re-read your message. You are trying to get "free training" from a truckin company with their own school. That means you are working for them for 1 year after you get your license. If all of that is what you are discussing your training period will be whatever that trucking company is already doing. No trucking company I know of typically runs their own CDL school and then sends graduates out with trainers for 4-6 weeks and will change that to free training, then ride with a trainer for 1 week, home on weekend, then out for another week, then home, etc. etc.

I've been preaching this pretty frequently recently, so I know some are already tired of reading it again. EVERY newbie seems to think they will casually go through CDL school, get their license AND THEN start looking for which company to work for. That's not a good plan, especially if you MUST get "free training" or borrow money to pay for CDL school. Once you sign the contract for "free trainign" or start the CDL school on borrowed money you have pulled the pin on a hand grenade. It's a little late to START looking for a trucking company you can be happy at.

Research, find a few trucking companies near you you think you might be able to stay at for a year or three. Research them in more detail. ONCE you have picked a trucking company near you, talk to drivers working at the company now doing the type of work you will be hired to do. Find out from them about pay, schedule, home time customers, etc. Once you are certain that's where you want to work, THEN decide how to get your CDL. That trucking company may have their own school, or contract with a school and only hire newbies from that school. EVERY CDL school will find someone that will loan you money to get a CDL. Half of trucking companies have Tuition Reimbursement to help repay CDL school loans.

YOU DECIDE WHAT YOUR SCHEDULE, PAY, BENEFITS, HOME TIME, etc are when you pick a trucking company to work for. You WIL NOT change the trucking company to fit your needs, you find a company that ALREADY fits your needs. There are many trucking companies where you only stay OTR for a week at a time, home weekends*. If being out no more than a week is important find those companies. Don't believe the media hype about "driver shortage" and think that means you can dictate to trucking companies how things are going to be if they want you. They want drivers, but they don't want the ones that want the company to change. Every student/newbie/driver decides what features are most important to them. Your job is to find companies that pay what you want with the home time and benefits you want.

 

Man that sure would be a hell of a ride with a frickin gator starin u down for 11 hrs straight