Please Help!!!

I appreciate your care and candor actually aftershock. You know I think i've actually made some new online friends here. And despite what you guys think I am taking you alls advice. And scarecrow you didn't need to take that long journey down the yellow brick road. You've got more brains then all of em...LOL!!!

Here is what I plan on doing:

1. Attorney to get suspension off my record.
2. Attend training at the accredited community college in my spare time. They have a program that is mon-Fri 6pm to 10. I can go there when I get off work.
3. Shop around. I've been calling lots of companies and asking them specific questions, and comparing their answers to what their website says.

The questions I ask and that are important to me are the following:

1. What are your hiring qualifications?
2. What is the average length of haul for an OTR driver in your company?
3. What is the requirement for requesting time off?
4. What do you allow inside the truck? (TV, fridge, etc..)
5. What is your speed limit?
6. What are your idling rules?
7. Do you have auxiliary heat and air conditiong in your trucks? If not, do you allow drivers to get one installed?
8. What is your driver turnover rate?
9. What is your payscale for new/inexperienced drivers?
10. Do you have a training program? If so, how long is it?
11. What amount of training does your driver trainers/mentors go through?

These are just some of the questions that I ask off the top of my head. So far I feel the following companies have been honest with me. Becuase everything they told me mirrored their website and what has been said on this forum.

Swift, Roehl, JB Hunt, PAM, Mr. P Express,

The ones that I feel were not totally honest with me are listed below:

Schneider, US Express, Averitt, USA Truck.

I'm leaning toward Schneider because I do not want to do regional I want to be able to run all 48. Swift doesn't seem safe at this time because they appear to be going through some changes. There is a buyout bid, and with the federal investigation of their school in Memphis I've taken them off my list. I'm not even considering CR England or Werner, waay too many horror stories. Plus I talked to a school in Indiana and the guy there really pushed werner. When I asked him to send me info on all of the companies he works with he only sent me the info on werner. So I'm looking at companies in this order now:

1. Schneider (even though they haven't been very honest with me they still have an okay reputation)
2. PAM or USA Truck

Then after my 1st 3 to 6 months I will be looking into:

1. Marten
2. Roehl

I'm also opent to suggestions: I want a company whose average lenth of haul for a solo otr driver is 800 or more. If anyone knows of a company please let me know.

 

Oh!!! And please keep the feedback and advice coming. I'm really trying to plan everything down to the last detail and I don't want to miss anything. I really want to be a good driver, and get with at the least a decent company. So any more knowledge or advice is most welcome.

I appreciate everyone who has posted and attempted to provide me with advice. Thanks!!!

 

Well, I've applied for my NDR. I should be getting that back soon. And nothing new really. I've gotten the Kentucky CDL manual and started studying. I've talked to a few truckers. I saw a CFI driver mentor or whaterver they call them. And I spoke to both he and the trainee. Seems that they put their trainees through a pretty rigorous course before letting them have their own trucks. Other than that nothing new. Still excited but now I'm just studying, observing, and waiting for my day.

 

Thanks Scarecrow. I talked to the CFI guy at the truck stop and that's what he told me. Schneider told me that they'd take me even with the Suspension because i was in the military. But I'm going to call and get a second opinion before committing to them.