CDL school or sign contract?

I paid for my own Diesel Driving School , Sun Prairie Wi , in 1986 it was 14,000$ that included tuition , housing , meal allowance.
The class lasted 13 weeks , with weekend access to the driving pad , being from out of town I stayed over on the weekends and took full advantage of the pad and hung out with the shop crew trying to learn all I could.
I was hired right out of school by HO Wolding and put in a truck by myself in January , loaded up with a load of Tater Tots heading into New Jersey , out of Plover Wi.
Never forget my first trip , terrified in a blizzard , but I made it and with time you will to.
Great time to get into trucking pays way better and so are the trucks.
Good Luck..

 

Actually, you can know if something negative about a company is true without having to work there.

Perhaps our own illustrious @Farmerbob1 can tell you a little bit about Crete since they fund his lifestyle.

 

@rjjr1963 - Crete is one of the more sane Megas. They pay decently well, their dispatch team is fairly professional. Their trucks have fewer bells and whistles than a lot of other megas. Crete trucks have Opti-idle systems, not APU's. They also have fewer electronic gizmos in the trucks. Mine, for instance, has fully manual door locks.

The biggest complaint I have about Crete is that they really need a larger, more aggressive IT staff with a goal to improve IT infrastructure for drivers. Our implementation of the fully ELD compliant Peoplenet software has been more than a little embarrassing. It's slowly getting better, but it's been *ugly.*

 

Do they hire drivers right out of school? I'm planning to do my training in Lincoln at the community college. Do they give good miles? I know nothing about trucking but watch videos and see some people wasting a lot of time loading, dropping and waiting on dispatch etc...at other companies. How is that aspect with Crete?

 

I’ve never seen a community college or state vo-tech school with tuition over $2,000
My states CDL training at the vo tech schools is about 275 class hours , takes about 36 days of class , costs $1,600
And has lots of companies recruiting out of the class
One local company does oversize overweight loads and hires students with newly minted CDLs
Find a state vo tech or community college course
Please do not borrow thousands from a trucking company ,and sign a loan agreement for their pathetic class that no other company will recognize

 

They do hire at least some drivers and train them. I do not know details. Crete tends to have good miles as well, if you want them.

 

I work at a community college and teach the road and range portion of our CDL program. I highly recommend going that route. Often times colleges get grants in that would cover your tuition. I would inquire about those. I fell into it years ago by getting a grant and found I love driving. I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

Sorry! I forgot to add that we've had multiple people come through that have never driven a stick. Sometimes it's a good thing!

 

Often, people who are looking to get into trucking are doing so on time constraints that make the pace of learning at a community college unfeasible.

For instance, I was laid off and spent a year living on savings, looking for a worthwhile job in IT support near my home. Never found it. My money was getting tight when I seriously turned to trucking as an option.

I had the option, if I had started much earlier, to choose a community college and take the class there, but I ended up using federal grant money to pay for my three-week CDL school due to the fact that I had been layed off, and my job sent to wonderful, war-torn Serbia.

I knew trucking could make me a good living. I also knew it would end up costing me my house, since I had nobody to take care of it for me while I was on the road.

Community college CDL courses are a great idea if trucking is a long term goal. Sometimes, however, the community college route simply does not make sense.

 

I was in the same situation as you in early 2018. Was a year younger than you, making crap money at a job I hated with people I despised. I was free to move anywhere and do anything. I was living in southern California and was ready to get out. So I started to look online for community college CDL schools nationwide. I was looking for one with affordable pricing and also I am working toward my degree so one I can take classes at the same time. After hours of research I settled on Southeast Community College in Lincoln NE. Best decision I have made in quite a while. Best return on investment, period! I contacted Mike the program director, received quick feedback from him. I applied for the summer 2018 session. Got accepted. Sold all my belongings in California except my car, got in the car and drove to Lincoln NE. Looked into renting a room in a house but fell through. Stayed in a motel for three nights and came across a video on YouTube about a guy that converted his Prius into a mobile home. I drive a Prius so I said why the hell not, bought a small comfy foldable memory foam mattress and started sleeping in my Prius at truck stops and Walmart. For showers, I signed up for $10 a month gym membership at planet fitness. The weather was really nice at night to sleep comfortably with no AC. For money, I did food delivery for Postmates. I was already signed up with them and they were always offering bonus for doing deliveries in Lincoln. Got enough money from it to cover the expenses I had.

Long story short, a little more than a year later now since I got my CDL from Southeast, I make pretty good money ($80k+), I have saved quite a chunk of money from my driving salary, I LOVE working. This job fits me so perfect, I don't feel as though it's doing work.

I would recommend Southeast Community College highly. I received great training and it only cost me around $1500...it will be even lower for you since you are NE resident. I say go for it. A lot of companies come to the school to recruit drivers. You can hit the ground running after you get your CDL. Don't do the company training route as that is only good if you have no other option. From the sounds of it, you have the option to do exactly as I did.