Just starting school and got 2 prehires

Werner gave me a really nice key chain.

It really doesn't matter what company you start working for. No one hires someone right out of school because they are the greatest driver that ever slapped on a pair of gonads. They hire you because you will work cheap and move on before they have to pay you benefits. Your job is to charge the guns and take one for the team. Really would you hire yourself?

We all start somewhere. Both of those companies will put you with a trainer who will be a complete #######. Just keep your mouth shut and learn as much as you can. 6 months down the road you can look for a better company. 2 years and you can look for a great company. 5 years and go into business for yourself. 7 years, your wife has left you and taken your kids, your dog, your pickup, house and anything else you had, and you can look for a Country and Western recording contract.

 

a lot of werner newbies get stuck on family dollar accounts
loading unloading at each store that is a lot of work
decide what you want out of trucking
flat bed reefer local OTR then look at companies
pre hires are meaningless really
until they hand you a fuel card your not employed
you go to orientation not employed until then they only do
preliminary background checks etc

 

a longtime TTR myth that I wish I could stop not true. As said many times before, there are nearly half a million trucking companies. Don't take the path of least resistance and go with the usual suspects like weiner, cr england, us express. No one has to take crap really. Get out and do some due diligence. Google all the trucking companies in your area, walk in and try to talk to people. make a good impression and people will be more inclined to help you.

You also have to have half a brain,basic vehicle control skills, a clean MVR and clean background. This is where most wannabees get hung up, as they usually can't pass a drug test or have misdemeanors/felonies for assorted crazy ####. This is usually the biggest part.

 

That's like trying to decide whether you want to put ketchup or hot sauce on your bowl of poop. In the end, its still a bowl of poop.

And like centuryclass said, the real crime of it is that the schools and even quite a few drivers will lead you to believe that eating a bowl of poop is your only viable option for getting started in this industry. I never worked for any mega carrier. I found better options even though everyone at my school was telling me it would be impossible for me to get started in the industry unless I worked for a mega carrier.

And why were they telling me that? Because those mega carriers pay for a large portion of the schools annual budget. Going to school for a CDL is a good thing and I encourage it. But you need to realize that there is a scam going on behind the scenes. The mega carriers can't make a profit unless they have a healthy and endless supply of inexperienced drivers who will allow themselves to be over worked and under paid and treated poorly in general while doing it. So these carriers make deals with the schools where they cover some amount of the school's budget in exchange for the instructors encouraging students to sign with the carrier as well as keeping the students uninformed about other employment options which might be available to them. Its a scam.

Don't let them scam you. Apply to every company you can find that isn't a mega carrier. Be prepared to be turned down by most of them. But keep knocking on doors until someone lets you in.

 

that's not always true. you may not believe it but there are smaller companies out there that will train a recent grad and pay better with good benefits and they know you as a person not as a truck number. They do exist.

 

What would be considered a small company, one with 1000 trucks or maybe 500 or less? I'm just curious that's all because I have just started checking out schools in my area and would like to catch on with a "smaller" company if possible when I get my CDL. Also, are all of the company recruiters that come to schools from the mega carriers or will there likely be some local, smaller companies there as well? Thanks

 

A small company would likely have less than 100 trucks and operate out of one location. Companies of that size generally don't have recruiters and generally don't canvas schools for new drivers.