Company Schools VS Private Schools Questions

Community college is the best route, because you are not stuck with a company you don't like, but you still have to stay with a company for a year before any others will consider hiring you anyway, so I don't see what the harm is in going with a "school" company-- other than they have reputations for messing with your pay. You have to consider that you have to house and feed yourself also during school. That makes the 2000 in tuition go up, as well, usually there are a few books, DMV tests, fingerprinting, and so on that raise the price even higher.

 

That's true, and if you can find a company that will pay your properly and treat you right after you graduate, then it's not a bad route. But .26 per mile (which is the going rate at student companies) is an absolute insult to anyone even considering to be a truck driver. On a normal 2500 mile week, you're talking about a $400 difference in pay between a student and a driver who is paid what they should be paid.

Now I agree that students should start out making less than experienced drivers, but not that much less. Here's some math:

If I drive 3000 miles in one week and work a total of 60 hours doing it at .41 per mile, I'm making about $20.05 per hour.

The same driver, doing the same exact work as a new guy at .26 per mile, would be making about $13 an hour. That's a HUGE difference for two people doing the EXACT SAME WORK.

However, a company that starts at a more reasonable rate of about .35 per mile, the driver would be making $17.50 an hour. That's much closer, more reasonable, and definitely a living wage.

 

My personal suggestion is this:
Find a genuinely decent truck driving school through thorough research. Work like a son of a gun to come up with the money to FULLY pay for all the training possible, in addition to getting and FULLY paying for permits, the CDL itself, and all the endorsements that you are able to acquire. Hopefully, the school will help place you with a decent trucking company.
By the time you are ready for your first job, the trucking company has hired you, most likely going out with one of their trainers, all your tuition costs will be a thing of the past. You will NOT be indebted to any company or tied down to any contract.

Good luck to you!

God bless you and your family! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

I'd rather go thru a company-sponsored school, my personal opinion. Reason, because is once u graduate, 100% guarantee you'll have a job...

 

The biggest thing I saw about CDL schools were they were all recruited by Covenant, USXpress, Stevens, Schneider, Swift, etc...all the same companies you don't want to work for in the first place. Now, I agree, going to company sponsored school can be a gamble but not all of them are bad and set you up for failure. Also, someone commented that a good company wouldn't require you to sign a contract to work for them if you used their training...why not? Why does a company invest their money to train someone and NOT protect their investment? Unfortunately, some companies and DM's use that against people but not all do. Their are good companies out there that will train but they are not the big 5 or 6 most popular ads you see.

 

I was a trainer for USX for 5 years. I found that the students who graduated a program at a community college received far better training than those who went through one of the big driving schools. Most starter companies offer tuition reimbursement, so if you do some research before you sign with a company you should be able to have the loan payments made for you to take care of the school costs. You really want to pick a school that will teach you more than the bare minimum to get your license. The more you know getting into the industry, the better your chance for success.

 

Because, if you're hiring into a new job, ALL companies have to train their employees. However, none of them require a contract. Why? Because they work hard to treat their employees with respect, provide them with good equipment that they need to do their job, and pay those employees well, and in turn those employees make their companies a lot of money.

If a company is truly confident in its training program, its equipment, its pay rates, its freight volumes, its culture, and in the people that they hire, then people will continue to work for them. A contract is simply a way to guarantee that you get your money back that you have invested because either you're not confident in the employee themselves, or you're not confident that your company treats drivers well enough to keep them around.

You'll notice that these "contracts" require a driver to stay a certain amount of time, but there's never anything in them that says you'll get a guaranteed pay rate with normal raises, or that you'll be guaranteed to run and be paid for a certain number of miles every week, or that you're guaranteed to get decent equipment. All of the commitment is on the driver, the company makes no promises.

You're making all the commitment, and they're reaping all the rewards. Especially when you consider that both companies and schools receive an $8,000 to $10,000 tax break for every student they train to have a new job skill, regardless of whether or not you stick around. So your training is being paid for already by your tax dollars, and then you have to pay for it again if you don't complete the contract.

That is a scam, no matter how you look at it, period.

Maverick had invested almost $10,000 in me before I ever went solo, the same as they do for every driver. No contract. They keep me here to recoup their investment because they have new equipment, excellent pay rates, good miles, plenty of freight, they get me home on time as much as they can, and they treat me with respect and don't lie to me.

And the interesting part... Maverick doesn't get that tax break because they're not eligible. Why? They're too selective in their hiring process. You have to be willing to hire anyone who can physically do the job in order to qualify for the tax break.

However, I 100% agree with MiFamilyGuy. Get your training through a long, thorough program at the college. You will be so thankful that you did. And I totally forgot about tuition reimbursement. Get that loan if you can, the company you work for will very likely pay the payments for you as long as you work for them. There you go, paid training with no money up front. Please don't get involved in the company sponsored school scam.

I am completely convinced that is why so many new drivers either fail or get into horrifying accidents right after they start. They're not stupid, they didn't get the proper training. It would be like trying to be an air traffic controller without proper training. No physical work involved, but a lot of mental work, and you have to know what you're doing.

Good luck in your choice, and I hope you have a successful career.

 

It appears to me you are only looking at this from one perspective instead of both sides.

What you say is conjecture and assumption as far as how much of a tax break a company gets. Unless you see the books, you are only guessing.

If a company trains drivers and they have no protection, that driver can take that training and just walk away. That company becomes a training ground for other companies and the truck company isn't in the business of just training drivers but moving freight. Yes, they have to assume a certain percentage of people wont make it but they still can't afford to train drivers that just hop to another company leaving them scrambling to try and find a driver.

Yes, I would think that spending 3 months at a community school would give a person a better education than a 3 week school...it only makes sense. But, depending on the program, some community colleges suck ### and some are awesome, same as different companies training programs go.

How many non-trucking companies out there make employees sign non-compete agreements if they train them on certain skill sets on the job? Quite a few do...none of them want to spend their time and money training employees that will walk away and work for someone else. How many non-trucking companies out their hire veterans or people on food stamps and welfare to take advantage of tax breaks? ALL of them do. But they also make them sign those agreements if they train them to those skill sets. The tax breaks aren't what pays that companies bills, getting the actual work does.

Most, if not all, companies that hire students KNOW the students are only coming in with a CDL an no practical knowledge of driving, even those CC students. Sure, they have book knowledge and range knowledge but they have the same working knowledge as a 3 week student as far as OTJ goes. So, the point you are making has merit but the issue should be the training a new driver gets from his trainer. THAT's where the driver really learns his trade, on the road with a vet that knows the ropes. A good trainer is worth his weight in gold, in my opinion.

If I were to come to you and you would train me for weeks, at your expense, to drive for you...wouldn't you want some kind of guarantee that I won't run to your neighbor after we are done and work for him for .01 cpm more? You #### sure would because you couldn't afford to supply the knowledge and equipment and time to teach me the skill and have me jump ship as soon as I can. You'd go out of business.

All this is from a company's perspective. And it takes both the company and the driver to make it all work. These threads remind me so much of the baseball strikes back in the 80's. the players (drivers) say they bring the talent and have the right to dictate their income. The franchise (company) says they supply the opportunity, equipment, and venue for the players to play. Who is right? Both of them are.

It takes a team to make a successful organization, and that's from the President to the janitor. Some companies are better than others, obviously. What is up to the driver is to find the right company to work for to get them where they want to be and sometimes that means working in the Minor league to get your skills up to the level of professional.

I agree with your last paragraph completely. It all hinges on training.

I'm not trying to stir the pot or argue with anyone, but this is just how I see it.

 

Well, I disagree with you on some points, but I have to start off by saying that I appreciate the fact that you can put forth a contradicting point of view without descending into trading insults and getting into a flame war. So I definitely thank you for that.

I guess I'm just old fashioned in the sense that I believe that if you pay a competitive rate and provide a good workplace, people will work for you. Heck, these student companies make those contracts so they can drag drives in at .26 per mile, which is so low to the point of being insulting.

However, companies like Prime and Maverick are trying to raise the bar, offering much higher starting rates. And I hope some other decent companies follow suit, and students do their research, and it'll force the others to step up their game.

I'm willing to bet the low pay is a big reason for turnaround, and the student companies don't care, since they already have a fresh new group of students ready to take the place of those who leave. I feel like they're taking advantage of people's desperation in a rough economy.

I'm not commit to a contract here, and the only reason I would consider leaving is to go owner/operator, since Maverick does not offer that for temp control. But I don't plan on doing that at least before the end of this year, because that gives them at least 18 months of productive work out of me, paying the back for everything they invested. Plus, they may change their minds about letting temp control drivers lease trucks, and then I won't have to go anywhere.

I definitely respect both you and your opinion, especially since you have the ability to actually debate something with intelligence as opposed to "oh yeah, well you suck!"

However I will always encourage drivers to either attend a college based school or do it on their own. I'm still paying off the $6,000 for my school, which did nothing for me because I already had my CDL, but was led to believe that I had to graduate from a school before anyone would hire me. If only I had found Maverick a month earlier... But hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

 

Captain X, I agree...it is pleasant to able able to disagree and still get along. Don't get me wrong, I plan to drive and want to make as much money as possible. And I agree, Maverick seems to be an extremely good company to work for. If I were to go flatbed, that would the company of my choice to work for. And you are right, some companies just plan on taking a dump on their employees and know they need a steady stream of people coming to be able to meet their work loads. Sooner or later, it catches up to them. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of innocent people with them. That I definitely don't condone but in this industry, like every where else, it is buyer beware. I have been burned before and sure to be burned again, and trust me, that just burns me up!

And your last paragraph about already having a CDL and going to a crappy school for the sake of graduating a school...that school should have informed you of your options. It's only the ethical thing to do. Having to pay back that $6000 SUCKS!

I'm glad to have discussed this with you. Hopefully this conversation will make some people think about doing some research before just diving in. We all make our own beds...sometimes I wish I could trade mine for a room at Motel 6...at least there would be a light on there LOL