Enrolled in CDL school w/ fellow Marine vet, looking for good paying OTR company for teaming.

I am new to CDL too. But in So Cal. If I lived in North Carolina, I would definitely look at G&P Trucking out of Charlotte.

The reason I say that is that the company has been covered extensively on YouTube (trucker Jim and Red Viking Trucker) and I also spoke to a third trucker for G&P when I was in Alabama. All had good things to say.

 

Probably the two best team outfits for new cdl grads are Old Dominion Freight Lines and Trimac Transportation. Probably split a quarter million dollars per year. They're both picky about which cdl school you graduate from though.

 

Chinatown, the criteria for what constitutes a "good" trucking school seems more tied to total hours, availability of grade transcript, accreditation, ie, what looks good to the insurers.

 

Makes it difficult sometimes if a preferred school isn't in the area where a potential driver lives. Trimac and Old Dominion have the schools they hire from listed. Old Dominion pay is something like $ .75 cpm and that's not split; that's for each driver.
UPS also hires new cdl grads for OTR and their pay is something like $ .7042 not split. They hire off the street for those jobs; not out of the warehouse. Have to apply online.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quest Global is looking for established teams because it's difficult for them to match drivers for teaming. They sometimes cut slack on the 3 mos. experience requried for an established team.

 

Hey Chinatown, thanks for the info. I have seen Trimacs list of preferrd schools online. Am very curious about ODFL list of preferred CDL schools, have not seen one. If you have a link, please let me know. I do know of two CDL schools Old Dominion has hired drivers out of in the past (One, CDS in WA state , another school in York, PA).

 

I don't have a link for Old Dominion schools.

 

You're brand new, you won't be a team for a while. You'll have to both go through training individually.

I know our company treats teams like gold. I knew a guy got hired in mid oct. By mid Nov he was in an almost new truck teamed with his wife, automatic, the latest and greatest. I've been working here since June of last year and the only reason they upgraded me was because my old half million mile rattlecan had a mechanical issue and they had to tow it away. I'd still be in it if it wasn't for a POS belt tensioner installed by TA a couple of weeks earlier. The truck they upgraded me to wasn't as new as the one they gave the guy who teamed with his wife.

And low and behold, 2 months later on ice the wife jackknifes the almost new truck and rips the cab off the frame. And here I am, bee-bopping along in my old POS standard that rattles more than a snake's tail and not hurting a thing. And I had to wait several more months to be upgraded only due to my old truck dying.

Pretty sad.

 

Old Dominion and Estes Express both have "dock to driver" programs now.