No experience, male looking for male to team with out of TX

I'm looking at big companies that have offers to make it easier to get into trucking when I have little to no money to spend on things like training. I hope to get my CDL A through one of those offers, work there for a year, and then move on to a better work environment with better pay. I'm open to OTR or fixed route, anywhere in the lower 48 states. I live in central Texas. I want to spend a lot of the time out on the road, and not much at home.

Although I have no experience in trucking, my driving record with regular cars is perfect. I'd be interested in finding a more experienced trucker to show me the ropes, or I'd be fine with an inexperienced driver and then we could compare notes as we learn from various sources here and there.

To start with I'm thinking of hauling fairly simple trailers like dry vans or refrigerated trailers, not things like tanker, hazmat, oversize, doubles, etc.

I am not interested in a romantic relationship, just looking for a coworker to make the work/sleep schedule a little easier.

I'm 34 years old, I'm a non-smoker, and I'd prefer a non-smoker. I'm reasonably clean, but not a neat freak. I'm pretty easy to get along with, and kind of quiet usually. I am a Christian, looking to get his life on the right track and build a future. Ideally I'd enjoy teaming with another Christian brother, although I'm not sure how many Christian truckers are out there looking for co-drivers.

If there's another driver who'd like to team with me at a big company for a period of time, message me.

Have a good day. God bless you.

 

I want to team. For me, teaming is part of being a safe, dependable driver, because it sounds like it should help regulate the sleep/work schedule. I hear the schedule can be pretty chaotic doing OTR solo work at all hours of the day and night. That's a safety issue; if I'm falling asleep at the wheel due to the work/sleep schedule, I'm not a safe driver. I'll drive days if someone wants to drive nights, or I'll drive nights if they want to drive days, or whatever. I just don't want to constantly change my sleep hours.

I'm fine with not seeing my partner for large portions of each day due to sleeping at different times. That's exactly what I want.

Thank you for the ideas for training. I'm not sure whether all of them are really options for me though. I really messed up my life by getting a criminal record. It's nothing related to traffic laws or driving, and it's not related to substance abuse, and I didn't kill anyone, but still... Any kind of felony really stacks the deck against you at a lot of companies, plus it messes up your work history when you've spent most of the last 7 years working as a prisoner cleaning floors and such. Not even Goodwill will allow me to do their CDL program; I checked. I'm definitely going to contact company after company until I find something though. I'm determined to follow a better path in life, and not go back to anything illegal.

I've been thinking of companies like Schneider or Maverick Transportation. I like what I hear about them mainly because it sounds like they provide things like paid training, lodging during training, meals during training, signing bonuses, etc. When I have $2,000 that needs to last me from now until I start earning paychecks at a trucking company, I'm looking at options that provide all the initial financial help I can get, even if that means I get smaller paychecks for a year after the training. If I can't make my money last until my first paycheck, then I'll be looking at working in a warehouse or fast food restaurant or landscaping work or something, when really I want to drive an 18 wheeler.

I did note that Schneider has plenty of options to help new drivers get into trucking with little up front cost to them, and they have a program to help match people who want to team. They have plenty of job postings for team trucking in 48 states with paid CDL training as part of the deal. It sounds like teaming among newbies does exist, and I want to pursue it.