New Student for advice

Lotsa folks will tell you to stay away from Swift and Werner. Nearly everyone will tell you to flip burgers before you drive for England! I got my start with Schnieder, and they seem like a good place to start. If your willing to start with a mega carrier-starting co. I dont know anything about the oilfields so I cant help there.

 

You've already stumbled into a couple of blunders.. First of all... no matter who you would have received training from.. should or should you not have to pay them for it? If you go to the school and pay up front.. whatever carrier you go with will STILL reimburse you for the training that you paid for.. IF you went to a carrier school (and there are hardly any out there anymore) you would sign the same type of contract. If you decided to leave then you would be obligated to pay for your training.... Whats the real difference? This isn't slavery.. its not even indentured servitude.... this is a training contract...

And of course the second blunder is that you should always talk to carriers and employers first and see if you are even employable and whether or not the carrier you want to work for even considers the school that you are attending meets their standards.

 

Look for a company with APU's to keep you warm in winter, cool in summer while your on break. The APU will take care of your truck batteries. There is also a big inverter under bunk for your tv and junk. I also worked for Schneider. They used to be a good outfit. Now they are putting sensors on there trucks. The trucks won't idle between 20 and 70 degrees. I'm hearing they won't idle at all in some cases. You can't take care of a load if you can't rest.

 

Melton Truck Lines has a terminal in Dallas, APU's & your wife can ride along. Their website says 3 mos. experience required, but I've read lately they have hired some students. After you are attending classes, put in an application. The online application has a block to check if you're a student. This is not a so-called, "starter company", it's a quality well established company.

 

Check out Crete Carrier, they have a good training program (kinda small they don't take everyone) Better than average pay and bennies. Second would be there reefer division Schaffer, they get paid a LITTLE more but to me not worth it.
What ever you do don't just settle on a training company that you'll only work for a year, that's just wasting time. Also check with whatever company your thinking of and ask if its' "team training" as in the truck is dispatched like a team truck OR is it dispatched as a solo driver? Big differance! You won't learn a thing if your so called "trainer" is in the sleeping while your haveing problems driveing.

 

I'd do the oil field thing if you move to TX. Contact Hodges Trucking

 

is this a reasonable or senseable response to the question at hand???

 

Kiss your very beautiful wife goodbye! Very rarely does marriage and over the road driving work out. I don't doubt your sincerity in working hard and making money but in order to accomplish this in this field of work it entails not seeing home for months on end. Average time out for an over the road driver is 6-8 weeks. If you want to make "good" money it is going to take every bit of that if not more to accomplish that. On thing to consider is that every time you go home your pay gets messed up for three weeks. The week trying to get home will be a small paycheck then the week at home will be in the negative and finally when you head back out it will be slow going trying to get back into the freight lanes.

If you want my personal advice I would recommend either finding something else to do or ultimately getting your spouse to get her license. If your wife were to drive team with you as a husband/wife team you guys would bank! My wife and I team drove and really made some serious money. When I first started driving my previous wife didn't want to get her license and as supportive and loving as she was, she didn't stick around while I was gone for months at a time! So after many months of perilous begging my second wife agreed to get her license and give it a shot. It took a good three to four months before she was used to the lifestyle but after that things went really well for her. There also was the factor of making over $230,000 a year and not having any other bills that helped! Besides the money though we really had the time of our lives! Actually the memories and adventures we had while doing it far out weighed any money we ever made! ( you can use this propaganda to help convince your wife if you would like!)

Otherwise if she absolutely doesn't want to do it, I would highly recommend you find something else to do for a career. The money you are going to make as a solo over the road driver is not even close to worth it. A full time job along with a part time job is much more sensible and you will be home every night with your beautiful wife.

Recruiters.... pretty much just smile and nod your head while they are talking to you. Most of what they are going to say to you is lies and highly exaggerated statistics! As you have already witnessed the only companies they are going to recommend are the top 5 mega-carriers. Ie; Swift, Werner, England, CRST etc... Reason being is that they are being paid to do so. So take everything they say with a grain of salt. Take the time to do your homework and find a good company on your own. Try to avoid the mega-carriers. Your chances of success are substantially higher at the smaller companies.

As far as schooling goes, most schools are all fairly comparable. They are there for the sole purpose of helping you obtain your license. By no means are you a professional driver when you leave there. The CDL schools prepare you just enough to be able to go with your trainer of your chosen company. You will most likely learn more on day one with your trainer then the entire three weeks of school! Once you finish training and go out on your own it will take a good 3-4 months before you are used to the day to day happenings and are comfortable with the whole deal. Whether you like it or not try to push through those first 3-4 months before making any decisions of giving up or going on. The driving part is the easy part! The lifestyle, stress and navigating are the biggest hurdle.

Good luck in your endeavor...