Exceptions to the 1 year OTR experience

I was told the same thing when I was going through school. Unfortunately I was not going to a school that they approved. It has to have a specific accredidation, not sure which one but they can tell you if you ask. They may even have a list of approved schools that you can choose from, not sure.

 

All the recruiters at these comapnies want to do is suck you in. They will promise you the world, but they have nothing to say about it. The recruiters told me I would have to do 4 weeks refresher with a trainer and then I would be on my own. Director of Recruiting said, "No, I want you to drive for someone else for a full year before I will hire you." Seems odd, they don't like high turnover rates at their comapny but they want a person to go somewhere else for awhile then come to them. To me, that is not right. It is called hypocrisy. We want you to come stay with us for years but it is okay for you to go drive for someone else for a year so we will then accept you.

 

I just finished truck driver training school with Southwest Truck Driver Training school in the Phoenix, AZ area. They are an accredited driver training school. We did the required 160 accredited hours which the most companies insist on for hiring purposes. The companies that my placement director suggested to apply to were May Trucking Co., Crete Carrier for starters. Companies highly rated (by drivers) like Heartland Express, Yellow, Walmart, Knight, and Marten require 1 year OTR experience. The message apparently is that we can pick and choose those drivers that we think are the ones who fit our profile/needs so we can be very picky about who we hire. For me, I'm just trying to get started OTR and get some time behind the wheel to get seasoned. If those don't work out, you can always go with Werner or Swift to get started if necessary. He also suggested that I get immediated OTR experience straight from Truck Driver training school because the OTR companies won't hire you unless you're fresh out of school. If you go past 60 days, you'll be asked to take a refresher to get back in tune with OTR driving. He then suggested that I try to get a year in with a single company. Once the year is up, I'll come up for air and see where I stand wrt earnings and conditions. I feel fairly well prepared to begin the real world learning process as my road trainer gave me lots of good hours behind the wheel and excellent instruction in the 45 docking, parallel parking, serpentine backing, and straightline backup-pull up. My driving test went very well under the dry road conditions. I'm a big proponent of seeing the reality of things, not sugar-coating the facts. I've always felt it hurts less in the long run having too much knowledge rather than not enough. As I've learned from a friend named Bob, who died some years ago, ...."information is your friend". You can never have more information than you need.

 

Yes, they will take driving school graduates. I just graduated from ATDS in Elm Mott, Texas with PTDI certification. I was told by the Job Placement Director that you must finish school with no less than a 95 avg. to be considered by Crete. I finished with 98.5 avg. so I sent them my app.. After passing their work history verification. It got handed over to their safety dept. on Friday(03\21\2008). I will let ya know how it goes.

 

Well, I just got the phone call I was waiting on.... Every thing is good to go as soon as I start my Haz-Mat endorsement paperwork which they will reimburse me for. Wasn't expecting to be reimbursed for it but I'm not going to refuse it..lol. I'll keep ya posted.

 

Well, I passed my HazMat test at the DPS. Got an afternoon appointment tomorrow for the fingerprint\background check. I go to Crete's Wilmer terminal for my road test, physical, and drug screen on Monday the 31st. I have to wait a day or two for the drug screen to come back. Then I go out with my trainer for 8 weeks of training at $500.00 per week.

I'll keep updating to let everyone know how things are going. Maybe I can get a Mod. to move this to its own thread so everyone can know exactly what to expect when they go to Crete.(Hint-Hint)

 

Zepurple,

Just wondering how things are going for you did you find the company to begin with.
My husband, CBtrucker, is having to start over as well in his lifes work. we are checking into a company sponsor training but want to make sure its the right one. Right now its between Scheinder and CFI (only found out we pay for schooling they send us to not sure about that trying to find out cost.
Hope you found a good company out there and are happy out there!

 

Yeah, I haven't had access to the internet for a couple of weeks, so I haven't been able to update recently.

I am now in my second week of training with Crete, and I couldn't be happier. My trainer is very easy to get along with and has answered just about every question I had coming into trucking.(Besides the ones answered on this site of course.) I'm getting $500.00 weekly during training and will be making $0.34 per mile upon completion. With incremental raises to have me a $0.41 per mile at the completion of one year Not too shabby for someone fresh out of school with no prior experience if you ask me.

I will keep updating when possible.
Be safe out there...

 

You might want to confirm the incremental raises. To the best of knowledge (I could be wrong, it's happened before) that is what you will be paid through your entire first year, no raise until then, at which time it goes to .41cpm