Second thoughts…

Just choose a decent company as your first company.

 

Melton Truck Lines is good for flatbed.
Leonard's Express is good for refrigerated.
USA Truck is good for dry van.

 

Haven't read any complaints on Melton not being truthful.

 

Check with Keim TS.
Ask if any options like you prefer.
Truck Driver | Keim TS

 

most newbies do zero research before picking an employer and it creates the results you see. I always advised you do as much research as necessary t find the employer you want to work for BEFORE you go to CDL school. The employer may have their own "free" CDL school, or only accept students from SOME CDL schools, or have some strange requirement t hire students from certain CDL schools. Most newbies think throwing a dart at a list of trucking companies will produce a good outcome. It's my impression lots of newbies entering trucking have never worked anywhere where they were not monitored every moment at work and make no decisions at work, or just ask the manager to make all decisions. Trucking is not that kind of job. You have to make lots of decisions. It's more common for people with a bad experience to post reviews than people with a good experience. Few reviews indicate what type of person the person writing the review is. NEVER WORK FOR CR ENGLAND. Many newbies post their first message here along the lines of "I just signed a non-revokable contract with DGAF Trucking and I leave on a Greyhound bus in 30 minutes. Are they a good company to work for?"

You can start locally, regionally, or OTR. most newbies think 30 minutes of looking through Google is how you pick a trucking company and they are disappointed with the results. If you do enough research and ask enough questions, ignore what recruiters tell you, you can find a good first trucking company, they may even be good enough to work for years until you know exactly what you want to do in trucking. About 90% of new CDL holders leave the industry within the first 12 months. I submit most of that reason is lack of research and expecting to be taken care off by the company when the company doesn't have time to babysit all of their new drivers. Good results are possible if you do enough good research. It's in nobody's interest but yours that you work at the right company for you.

 

The angry people scream the loudest and those doing well rarely say anything and obviously have no reason to complain

You will either love or hate this. Not much of a middle ground
If you hate it then no company or amount of money will change that

If you love it the. You will keep moving up and be in demand for better and better opportunities

 

I just graduated and got my CDL. I know how you feel. I realized that most of my classmates were absolutely clueless when the recruiters came. I was the only one that ever had questions, and I can tell that my questions shocked the recruiters because they always looked stunned and would say “good question”.

Remember that your school gets kickbacks from the recruiters. So there’s a conflict of interest. Always ask the recruiters these questions:

If it’s mileage pay, is it hub pay, practical miles, or zip code to zip code? Research the differences for yourself.

If it’s OTR, ask what’s the average weekly mileage for a driver?

Ask about other forms of compensation like tarp pay, breakdown pay, tuition reimbursement, etc. Ask how long is training and how much is training pay.

You’ll find that most of the recruiters will just say “it varies” and to “check the website”. I’ve been planing my journey for over a year so I have done my research. I’ve concluded that local makes more sense, being hourly or salary. Only reason to go OTR to *ME* would be to get experience and go to some of the better local no touch jobs that require 3-12 months experience.

 

Pay 0 attention to those stories. Trucking is all about what you put into it. Every company has ambassadors and complainers. When you read those horror stories you'll come across a bunch of tales about the bull #### of trucking. What you scared of? Surely not the bull ####....don't be scared or going through it, or else you'll fail before you have a chance to succeed. To have longevity in trucking, you'll have to learn to like the taste of #### because you'll have to eat it from time to time. Every driver has. Now you've got 4 good companies suggested in this thread. If it were me, I'd write them out on paper, drop the names in a hat, close my eyes and pull out a name. Then I'd go to orientation to that company ready to work.