need some honest advice

Personal experience so far...
A CDL is a CDL, Doesnt really matter how much you pay for it as far as the oilfield work is concerned. If he is dead set on getting a "driving only" position then he should be prepared to beat his head repeatedly against the wall known as the "experience barrier" as 90%+ it seems have a hard line 2-5 years experience with no exceptions thing going.

If he really doesnt care how hard the work is and has a CDL there are a few companies that will hire new CDL holders with no experience as "driver/operators" where the job has you drive about 10-20% of the time, and the rest is up/down rigging sites, and actually working the rig.

I personally obtained my CDL with the sole intent of going to the Dakotas. When i first started looking into it word was "they will hire anything with a pulse... possibly a high functioning zombie" when I finally got into training that dropped back to the 2-5 years thing... haha got on that ship a couple months too late.

That being said, I am having limited luck calling every oilfield trucking outfit i can find and trying to sell myself... limited in the sense that I have called around 30-40 companies and sent countless e-mails. so far I have only gotten two that want to give me the time of day. of those two one is seeming VERY flakey and the other sounds interested in my situation, and at last report HR guy was taking my ap to the owner. I MAY get my foot in the door here as a yard mechanic/ future driver based on my prior service in the military, and off road/ mechanical experience. still, its only a maybe and I wont have a better picture untill saturday when I call back.

persistence so far has netted me that little "victory".

that said It seems that Texas is a little easier to get into if you show up in person and start beating doors, Im pretty set on the continental divide region myself... I love the cold.

 

Have you considered Sanjel ?? People say that company will hire you on and then send you to their school for CDL. If you quit early you only owe $3000. Do a google search and go to their website and look under 'jobfairs' and go see them. Ask "denton" on here, I think he works for them. A much better deal, maybe. Unless he's too old to 'hang iron'.

 

If can afford to pay upfront when u finish school u are open to any job u can get. If you go for a company sponsered school you will be stuck untill the schooling is payed off. no matter how much you pay, its going to be a cdl, paying more dosent get you a better licence. as far as what job you get is entierly up to you, you may need to get some experience before you can get hired for any particular job, but you can make decent money while getting that experience. If your from an area that is near oilfields use your local connections to find a position( friends, family, church, bars, ect.) the old boy system is still alive and sometimes it's not how much you know, but who. And try knocking on doors in person if your in that area, and keep going back, month after month if need be. But, like I said, its the same cdl no matter how much you pay. But if you have to go otr before getting the job you want make sure to check the company you look at here first before you hire on. a lot of recruiters ARE SCUM, not all, but once your hooked in its kinda late. hope this helps.
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If you can avoid financing, do so. These schools are similar to, "buy here, pay here" car dealerships. They charge you such a huge interest rate that you should feel as if you're being... you get the point.

 

Halliburton and sanjel will hire you with no cdl and send you to school. Key used to I'm not sure if they still do. I think your best bet will be with the major fracing companies.

 

The trucking schools get paid to steer you toward the mega-carriers. There is nothing in it for them if your hubby decides to find a job on his own. If that's what he wants to do then tell him to humor the fine folks at the school and when he graduates make tracks for the oil fields.

 

I'm from Minnesota too, and I actually met with the guy from Transportation Center for Excellence. I would discourage you from using them. They are more expensive and don't really offer you anything the other schools won't also give you.

After doing all the research, I ended up going to school through Roehl Transport. This carried the disadvantage of having to make a commitment to them of about a year or a little longer. Also, they don't do business in the oilfields.

The advantages I fould with them were that I didn't need to get a student loan since they "finance" the training and if you drive with them for 100,000 miles, they will forgive the debt completely. Driving 100,000 miles will probably take about 13-14 months. In addition, I received very good training with Roehl, and I got to learn on trucks very similar to what I would be driving after I finished the school and started working for them.

As of now, I have been working for them for about 6 months and feel that I have been treated well overall. I'm not saying Roehl is the only way to go, but I will say that, in my experience, it has worked out well so far. If your husband wants a good place to start, Roehl definitely fits in that category. They would allow him to get training for a CDL, and give him a solid job for a year and a half or more if he decides to stay. If, after that, he still wants to work in the oilfields, he can then talk to those companies with a CDL and some experience.

Good luck in your search!

 

I am going to a Technical College that I just graduated from last year. The CDL course is about 1500 dollars. The Georgia HOPE grant (funded by the lottery) will pay about 500 of that. My out of pocket about 900 plus books (100). What a lot of folks dont know is that a lot of technical or VoTech schools will work out a payment plan with you. My class is 8 weeks long and their classes are small with a 100% placement rate. Call your local Votech or Technical Colleges and talk to them.