Questions I should be asking the recruiters?

Rarely is college free. So, you need a job, got your permit.

You ain't worth much. Suck it up wherever. If you want it, earn it.

Soon enough you'll be worth something you can negotiate for.

 

Ask them if they’re willing to take a Lie Detecter test.

 

The very first question you ask any recruiter is: You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?

 

This industry runs on at least 2 things. "Hurry up" and dishonesty.
The drivers lie to the DOT and the customers because the customers and the companies lie to the drivers. Drivers are regulated tightly by the hour, but everyone else is on salary, hourly pay, pay per load etc.

Trucking companies have a variety of ways to pay for anything. Rookie pay, or pay while riding with a trainer has the most variety among companies. That's why you must talk to current drivers at any company you are considering.

The CDL school is not going to assign you a place to work. The school teaches you and it's your job, literally, to decide where to work. You're in charge of getting answers to the questions you ask. Don't decide until you have answers from people doing the job you are getting hired to do. The current working drivers are not likely going to know the details of how their company pays newbies during the training period. The company knows for sure, the recruiter can find the answer if they want to, they usually just expect you to give up during the "let me check on that" phase of talking to you. You could get paid virtually nothing during training or you could be guaranteed at least $750 per week. It can be any amount between those numbers.

The trucking company is not doing you a favor by hiring you. You should insist on an answer from someone that knows or you will just look at other companies. About the only mistake you could make is to work for CRST or CR England.

Some trucking companies provide or contract with certain CDL schools to provide "free training" That ALWAYS means sign the contract, go to school, work for that company at least 1 year, no matter what. Many of those contracts prohibit you from working for any other trucking company until you have either worked for the full contract period, like 1 year. Or they require you to pay the full or partial value of the CDL school if you fail to complete the contract period as a driver. CRST will sometimes even sue the next trucking company you try to work for unless you pay CRST for the CDL school. In some states these contracts cannot be enforced and other states they can be.

Some trucking companies only hire brand new CDL holders if they attended a particular CDL school. Most trucking companies won't accept CDL schools with less than 160 hours of instruction. If you are smart enough to pick your employer before you pick your CDL school you won't decide to attend one CDL school that may be close by or less expensive and then find your employer won't accept students from that school. This is why I recommend you FIRST find the company to work for, THEN find the school to get your CDL. Some of the bad trucking companies provide their own school simply because by doing so they can get a signature from a student before they know ANYTHING about the industry or learn how terrible the bad company is. Some good trucking companies offer their own school so they can better control the quality of the students in school that become new drivers at the company. "Free training" doesn't necessarily mean good/bad trucking company or good/bad CDL school. Whatever trucking company and whichever CDL schools fits you is the right company/school.

 

Does dispatch use lubricant when they bend you over on a load?

 

Hit the truck stops and offer to buy coffee and ask your questions

 

Based on this and a couple of previous posts, it sounds like you drive for the same robins egg blue company that I run p/t weekends for. . . Small world, we've probably met.

 

“$3,000 driver referral”

That alone is red flag enough to make me run away.