CDL training ideas?

Swift Refrigerated CDL Truck Driving School
EARN YOUR CDL IN AS LITTLE AS THREE WEEKS!
Make sure you tell the recruiter you want refrigerated division. You'll make more money and never be laid off during a recession because you'll be hauling food and medicine.

 

If you want to be home daily I would consider looking at LTL and Food Service Companies. Many of them will start you as a helper or on the dock and later will train you to get your CDL. You'll also make more than most OTR Jobs once you get established in a driving role. ABF, Estes, Old Dominion, and Yellow all have a program like this as do many food service and beverage companies.

Going over the road is the easiest path to getting your CDL but you don't have to do it that way. With a little more effort you can find a job that will eventually allow you to get your CDL with no out of pocket cost while making a living and being home every day.

A quick search of indeed shows ABF has a Driver Development job posted in Norristown. ABF is a company people dont just work at. They retire from there.

 

Get your CLP, then enroll with a community college or respected CDL school in your area. Make sure it’s ELDT certified. Use the WIOA grant program to pay for the school.

Doing it this way you have options and can work for any company that you want. Most programs are 4-5 weeks long.

 

Look at beer and soda companies in your area, the ones that deliver to convenience stores. Some of them will start you out loading, or even as a drivers helper, then put you through CDL school. They seem to have a hard time retaining drivers because of the labor involved, so they often train from within.

 

Do that if you want totally wonker hours.

Dry van is just as recession-proof as reefer.
Easier work, more drop/hook. better able to set your own hours, no annoying additional fueling or that constant sound and vibration.

 

I'm gung-ho reefer trucking. I speak from experience of 18 years of it. Dry van is ok, just a matter of preference.

 

Reefer sucks.

Typical Dry Van delivery..30 minutes
Typical Reefer delivery 5 hours

I would take one of those trash truck jobs you keep trying to push over ever doing reefer again.

 

According to an ABF Driver I recently spoke with, they’re offering a great hiring bonus right now. Says they can’t find replacements for all the retirees. Said he made 109k last year working local.

 

I know you love it.

But you should admit it...
The dry and warm stuff is equally as important as the wet and cold - if not more so.

If things really go south, it will be the dry and warm that are the only things available.
Never forget that keeping things cold/frozen is a fairly recent luxury in human history.

 

18 years?
I bet 10 of those years was spent sitting at food warehouses, lol

Seriously, I just spent 7 hours at King Soupers food warehouse in Denver delivering a load..7 freaking hours! I did read the reviews and knew what I was getting into and that I would get an extra $200 detention… Check in at noon, check out at 9:30pm.
Luckily my next pickup was 1.5 miles away with overnight parking..

Costco store I just delivered a dry van load of bottled water..15 minutes from arrival to departure!