Career Change

I think it’s best to pay for your own training. Where do you live?

 

Will just speak to CR England .... they gave me numbers of 28 cpm ..... split .... as trainee for your first two months, then 28+4 cpm ..... split .... as trainer for the next two months, and then on months five, 32 cpm, gone three weeks home for 3 days, roughly.They also blew me up on thru email AND text... same message several times. Never will I ever consider working for a company who spams you hiring you.

Also did the math and with those numbers split, you would literally have to keep the truck moving for an entire month, maybe one day off (if its even legal), for you to bring home 500-600.... nope.

If you go w/a company offering training, you will likely have to work for them a bit... not sure how long. I am doing mine out of pocket so there is no indebtness.

 

Don't even look at cpm as a deciding factor. I was making $65K per year @ .36 cpm because of accessorial pays. In fact, when I accepted the job I didn't even ask about cpm. I finally asked the guy training me how much I was making for cpm and he told me .36 cpm and that all drivers make the same because they all do the same job. This is true, I'm not making it up. When I took that job, I had already been driving almost 20 years, so already knew cpm isn't very important; it's the accessorial pays that matter.
Where is your location? We can't really give advice for companies unless we know the hiring area you live in.

 

Best of luck to you. I am seriously looking into leaving IT into trucking.

 

Go to a truck stop and talk to drivers of particular companies.

If you can afford to GET your own training.. do it. You'll write your own ticket.

Some of these starter companies are grinder mills and will work you for slave wages... and leave you sitting around.
If you're only getting 2k miles per week in 7 days that means you're only moving around 300 miles/day. That's 5hrs driving or less.
That's a LOT of sitting.

Do your homework, or you'll be disgruntled quickly.

 

Get your own schooling like a community college if you can, it's a lot cheaper. FORGET CR England! A Big nope! Of those you named Roehl would be my first choice. I am pretty much convinced now it doesn't really matter which company you go with your first year, they are all about the same. Some better in some areas others worse..stick it out. People knock Swift, never worked for them but they do have lots of options. Maybe also consider Crete, they seem like one of the better starters and I have talked to quite a few of their drivers that have been with them for a long time. Once you get that forst year or two move on if you need to. talk to drivers at different companies, research, go somewhere that requires experience, rewards and appreciates their drivers, offers bonuses etc.

 

If you are financially able to do so, paying for your own CDL training is a good idea, as it reduces your liabilities to your first employer.

Just be sure that the company you train with is acceptable to the companies you want to work for. Call some companies who you might want to work with, and ask them what training companies near you are acceptable as training companies.

Billybob's Truk Skool where they train ya to drive a truck is three days isn't going to be acceptable to any company worth a ####.