Looking for advice.

I don't think that Averitt hires right out of school. I used to run into their drivers from time to time and I don't recall any of them saying anything negative about them. You may need to go with one of the big training carriers to gain a year or two of experience before going to Averitt or another company. As long as you have a clean background there is no reason you should not have job offers upon completion of your school. There are also a few carriers that will train you and help you get your CDL, but they all have a minimum work commitment after your training. It is usually a year. If you leave prior to fulfilling your agreement with them, then you will be on the hook for your training, which will be several thousand dollars. If you think you can make that sort of commitment then that would be one way to make your objective without laying out a lot of cash for training. Personally, I would prefer paying for my training, but that is an option some have pursued.

 

Averitt isn't a bad choice coming out of school… They're one of the last respecting company so I guess you could say for students

 

the biggest problems to me are things they probably wont tell u in school, such as the lack of parking for big trucks at night. i know it seems like there are alot of truckstops
and rest areas but they fill up fast and u will find yourself looking for a spot while having to worry about your logbook hrs running out.
this is why i suggest to anyone new to find a company that does longer runs(800 miles or more, 2 or 3'day runs or better). i would even take a cheaper cpm to do longs runs, trust me longer runs will make your trip planning and thus everything else easier. problem is most companies are going to shorter runs. the reason that companies that do shorter runs pay more and the ones that do long runs pay less is because short runs are more work(loading and unloading everyday, finding your way into these places everyday,using more log hrs etc).
think about it would u rather do 3/500 mile runs or one 3 day 1500 mile run? the goal would be to make more for short runs, but the best way to do that is to be an owner op and chase rates not cpm.
also when looking for a company to drive for keep this in mind, whats good money to u may not be good money to a guy who has to pay for a 250k house, a 40k pickup, a 20k harley and a 30k bass boat. i dont have a problem with buying these things just a problem with drivers who do and blame their company for them going broke. there are many other factors but its different for everyone. good luck and please pass this on to anyone at your school if it helps at all.

 

Looking forward to the "Reality Sets In" chapter of this saga. All I will say is consider other options besides Averitt unless you enjoy sitting days waiting on an LTL relay to run nights, and if you miss the 04:30 cross-dock time, 550 miles down the road, a lot of people are not going to be happy.

 

if your looking for a local or regional job out of school then my post above may not apply.

 

"the reality sets in factor"is sure easier to deal with when your not broke and in
debt and can leave at anytime and take a month or more off to regroup

 

There really isn't much of a driver shortage. There is a high turnover, but that has declined during the last several years. Turnover is down from 136% to around 76%. According to published statistics, there is a shortage of 20,000 drivers. When you consider that there are between 3-5 million drivers in this country, that is less than 1%. That is NOT a shortage. Still, most anyone with a clean background can find a driving position. When there is a 200,000 driver short falll, then I would agree that there is a true driver shortage. The ATA and some of the mega carriers have been pushing the driver shortage for decades.