I'm in SoCal, should I take the "easy" route of one of the megas with "free" CDL in Fontana? Or?

Yeah, South Dakota is the easiest, only needing a MailBox. @WesternPlains can fill you in on that.
Prime Inc. trucks are nice and you can live in it. Get a full size truck as your assigned truck, not a lightweight, since you'll be living in it. You'll need the extra space and a refrigerator.
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The downside of free training is the comp may not tell you all the truth. I did the CR England free training long time ago and it was pretty good but all o hear now are cazy stuff about them today. Like they have 3 bunk trucks. 3 guys in one track. That cazy, back when I did it they only had 1,800 truck.

Most companies only tell half the truth. Like you get one day off for every week out. They forget to say they if you want more then 3 days off you have clean out your truck. That was a CR England trick. So that's the downside of the free training because once sign the paper your locked into them. Lots of people seem to get into trucking and think it's like a regular job. It not you work 70 hours a week no overtime pay and it 7 day aweek job. Even that 70 hour work week can be more depending on how you log stuff.

My dispatch said go home for 34 hour reset if I want. O but you have leave the house like 4 am Monday to pick load at 8am. Then work 14 hour day because I have another load to pick Monday afternoon after my first load. Plan on being in North Carolina Tuesday. That a total of 905 miles plus one live load and 3 drop and hooks in 2 days. I'll just stay on the road and keep rolling. Avoiding getting up at 4 am Monday and going to bed 8pm Sunday because I have drive 500-600 miles or what every I can to make NC sometime Tuesday.

 

Oh my Gawdy! Ok everybody! Be vewy vewy careful! Look around carefully for Rod Serling! Check all your dark corners of rooms! China promoting Prime? We are undoubtedly in the Twilight Zone!

 

Well, Jim Palmer Trucking is another good one, but their hiring process takes a lot longer than Prime.
If he's not in a hurry, he can try that company.

 

Jim Palmer Trucking is in Missoula, Montana and Montana borders South Dakota.
That might work best; he can get his cdl in Montana, then scoot across the state line to South Dakota and get the MailBox and switch his Montana CDL to South Dakota......no more state income taxes.!

 

You just have to give up your first born.
Many companies allow intelligent life forms in the trucks. Not allowing Intelligent Life Forms are in the minority.... Besides... Most female drivers have Pit Bulls. Then I get to offend them by seducing their Pit Bull.
Pretty typical conditions. Just don't let them pressure you into leasing. They try real hard. Not a good deal.

 

Hey @Adieu I'm in SoCal myself. Just so you know Swift will let you commute to their school and it saves you $750 the cost they charge for lodging. Don't know if you still get the "free" breakfast and lunch though. From what I gather from lurking around, the students that go to CR England either couldn't get into Swift, or failed out of Swift. I have considered the same options as you for a while now, and I have state/federal job retraining funds available to me that I'm trying to get switched over to a private 160hr trucking school (currently registered and a student at OCC in Construction Technology). And while Swift will let you commute, when you do your OTR training, they won't let you park at the yard down there in Riverside because that's technically not your "home" terminal. Until you complete the schooling and training, you're still considered a trainee/potential employee. As far as low/no tax states, personally I've been looking at NV for a while. I lived and worked in Reno a while back, but it's gotten expensive. Apartment I used to rent for $700/mo now goes for $1250/mo. Los Vegas is a little cheaper because they took a harder hit during the housing crash. Best advice I can give from my own perspective is do the research, ask a lot of questions, and READ EVERYTHING and UNDERSTAND it before you sign on the line.

 

There is no chart to compare that I know of. You have to call and have them send the usual online marketing materials. Then do a comparison from that. It's not so much as what one company has over another. It's what you get out of it. To believe what most people post here, everyone who goes to a mega for training either does their year and moves on to a "real" trucking company, or has a preventable, gets fired and goes back to McD's. I've been on the fence for over a year now on this, and the reason I haven't just went to a mega is because things just haven't added up for me. Not with the companies mind you, but personally. When and if I do jump in, I figure I'll be away from here for at least 2 months, probably 3 before I get back. Just a logistics thing. If you really want info about a particular company, go to the "Motor Carrier Questions" link on this site, and click on a particular carrier, Swift/CR England/CRST etc... And ask those folks if they went through company sponsored training, and about their experience.