Getting Started....

Driving school > company training. Don't get locked into a company contract if you can help it.

 

Your CDL school will have the same few companies come in and recruit during each let's call it semester. Those companies are familiar with that school, whatever it is and wherever it is. That's a signal that school is OK with those trucking companies.

Ideally, and not just ideally like we should save for retirement and floss after every meal, you should first pick a company to work for and then pick a school that makes you eligible for that company. Your best shot at making this job work for you is finding a good match for your life and skills.
Companies in the industry range from crappy to happy with most opinions about them being based on the fit between that particular driver and that particular company. So a bad driver/company fit will translate into "that company sucks" with little good info you and I can use to objectively weigh the real quality of a company.

Almost nobody should expect to stay at their first trucking company. You can't get a good idea about what it will take to be happy somewhere until you have worked as a driver. Then in a few days to a few weeks, and certainly by a few months, some things will be blindingly obvious you must have or must avoid some things. There is no generic trucking company or generic truck driver.

You say you are set on flatbedding, OK then. I now someone in the middle Tennessee area that works for Boyd Brothers. BB also recruited heavily at the CDL school I attended. BB seemed to go above and beyond helping him when this driver was brand new. That's 100% of what I know about them. Others my have more recent or comprehensive opinions and I wouldn't challenge them.

Don't just file away "that company sucks" or "that's a good company" from anyone's recommendations. Get specifics, analyze the details and distinguish someone complaining the company didn't make them happy and a company asking a driver to do the #### job.

Lastly, every new driver grossly underestimates the importance of hometime. Maybe it's not possible to know how important HT is until you have done without it and you have some issue back home. I was single, broke, needed nothing but paychecks and I quit after a year to go back to a low paying difficult job in a region I hated because "only having weekends off" was depressing me. You MUST seriously evaluate if your family is independent enough to have you gone all but a couple of days per month. Family problems are probably the largest reason for newbies leaving quickly. Only you and your family can coldly look at how well you do when you are gone. Hope is not a plan. It's far cheaper to get a different job than different family. Ignore this at your peril of job/family.

 

I don't know enough about flatbed companies to help you decide which company to work for. This industry is different than many others. In most jobs you need the training before you can get the job. In this job, you can get the training, that's the easiest part. The difference between a company that fits and one that doesn't is more importan than anything else, so don't start training until you know which of one or two companies you WANT to fork for. Some companies don't accept just any old CDL school. They hire newbies from a school or two or they only use their own school.

Beware of "the pre-hire agreement." It's not really an agreement. It's "promise" to look at you and decide IF they need drivers and you meet ALL of their requirements. It's an offer not worth the paper it's written on. You are pre-hired with every trucking company in the USA TODAY. A CDL school will likely give you good advice about your employability if you are honest about every possible blemish on your employment and driving record. Trucking company recruiters can be much less careful or honest about evaluating you. Some are good, some say everyone is eligible, regardless of the truth. Call the Risk Management or Safety Dept of trucking companies and ask their opinion about your driving history or anything you think might not be stellar. Stick to the facts (date, citations, $ damage) and go light on the story, they won't believe your story anyway, that's their job. Nobody believes truck driver stories until they know what kind of employee you are, then they doubt you at every opportunity.

Just keep monitoring this board. Lots of guys know tons about different parts of the industry.

 

Good luck and thanks for your service. Don't worry about finding the perfect job up front, just get your cdl and get rolling. Boyd and TMC have a good reputation for starters but there are better companies for experienced drivers. Just find a company that doesn't completely suck and stick it out for 6 months to a year then more doors will open and your accidents will be older