Kansas City, Kansas native, interested in trucking!

A big truck manual and a car manual are two very different things, so that won't be a problem.

Paid CDL training comes with a catch, you usually have to stay a year to pay it off. Not necessarily a bad thing, just something to be aware of. Look up some of the big companies and look at their hiring areas and give them a call. Bigger companies are usually the only ones that offer paid CDL training.

 

I looked at the APEX website and it's a 4 week school which is 160 hrs. That's what most trucking companies want. There's a company right there in Kansas City that hires new cdl graduates; Butler Transport. Call and ask if they hire from APEX, which they probably do.
Their website has a page dedicated to new cdl school graduates.
www.butlertransport.com
RECENT GRADUATE REQUIREMENTS

• Class A CDL
• 21 years of age
• No at fault accidents in the last 3 years
• Edit : on their website, click on "Driver Portal" for information on the transmissions they use in their trucks at Butler Transport. There's 3 films on there explaining the transmissions. All this will be taught during orientation with the trucking company

 

Whatever you do; school or trucking company, etc.......you have to
have enough training to where you feel comfortable driving a truck by
yourself. Don't go out until you are ready......no one else can make that
decision for you.

Company I work for has a bad habit of not really training the new
drivers. A little over a year ago a driver shows up.....he had some
experience but he didn't really feel comfortable.......he insisted the
company do more training before he went out. He spent an extra
two weeks in training....... he has turned out to be one of the better
drivers we have. That extra training gave him the extra help he needed.

Trucks can be a little intimidating at first. But with adequate training
and plenty of time actually behind the wheel......success can be yours.
Good Luck.

 

Your problem with asking a trucking company to pay for your training is the fact that you are stuck working for them....under their schedule and for whatever pay they think is appropriate.

Going to a private school gives you the flexibility to go to work for whatever company you choose.

I looked at Apex Institutes website and they are a 180 hour program, which will meet every companies hours of training requirements.

Their job placement page lists companies like Coca Cola and Sysco, those are great paying home every day jobs. You'll never get that with a trucking company paying your way.

Truck Driver Job Placement Services | Apex CDL Kansas City

 

Butler is a horrible company with a reputation to match.

 

Not knowing how to drive a manual is a good thing. You won't have any bad habits to break.

That said, DO train and DO test with a manual. Otherwise, you'll have the dreaded "automatic" restriction on your license. Which means you'll have to test again if you want to drive a manual later in your career.

And, I concur with the folks above about paying for your training out of pocket, if you can. Opens up more doors and doesn't lock you into working for a company for a year. Although, a year is the time most recommend to stay at your first trucking job. That clean first year at one carrier will also open a lot more doors.

 

Truck Driver Student

School in the morning and work the dock afternoons/evenings (starting $15.69/hr) is the likely schedule you’d be looking at.

Driving doubles from center to center and working the dock at the break bulks (overnight) is what you would do after getting the license. Starting hourly as driver looks like $21.30/hr from another driver job posting for that location.

 

Well hopefully you've come to the right place to get good advice, plenty of experienced drivers in here willing to "steer " you in the right direction the key with driving a long vehicle i mean the trailer itself is 53' long unless your doing tanker or flat bed which are a little shorter plus the length of the tractor so one must always be vigilant when going around tight corners and bends as you could take out a post a set of traffic lights or even a pedestrian. Gear changing that''ll take some getting used to if you've driven a synco, a road ranger is completely different unlike a syncro gear box where you simply push the clutch to the floor and the gear just goes straight in, with a road ranger you must only slightly push the clutch in and also match the gears with the right revs otherwise it won't go in, and its no use forcing it as this will do tremendous damage to the gear box and hence the reason why so many carriers are changing to auto shifts. With the right teacher and training i'm sure you'll eventually pick it up.

 

Can someone (possibly @Twin Screws) elaborate more on this comment? Honestly, this is the first negative thing I have seen about them and I am highly considering them as my first trucking employer.

What are the concerns so that I can take them into consideration?