Starting company for a rookie

Find out if the state will pay for it..most of the company's that will train suck. A lot of ltl companies have programs where they will train you while you get your cdl. Ltl usually pays more especially linehaul. Home time is more predictable too. Nothing like being in Detroit on friday when you were supposed to be home because "we don't have loads going that way"

 

We preach to people on here to ignore "experience required" on websites, otherwise they may miss out on a good job.
UPS Truckload and UPS Linehaul hire new cdl grads on a case by case basis and you must apply online only.
XPO hires new cdl grads. Apply online the first day of cdl school.
Old Dominion Freight Lines hires new cdl grads and in fact hired 14 students from the same class last year in PA. One woman in that class couldn't believe she landed such a fantastic linehaul job as her first trucking job.
@TommyTrucker88 lives in your area; maybe he has some leads.

 

Many times those long waits for unloading/loading aren't as bad as it looks. I've done 100's of them. Unless you're working for some flunky outfit, you get paid for that. I was always paid "stop pay" just for going there and "detention hourly pay" for the wait time. Trucking company websites usually show these pays and the amounts. They're listed under "driver benefits."
Check Contract Freighters (www.cfidrive.com) for company paid cdl training and decent pays & benefits. This is a coast to coast dry van company.

 

Stevens Transport - runs west coast & has tankers in the oil fields.
Stevens Driving Academy’s Pittsburgh location.
Pittsburgh CDL Training Location
1200 Lebanon Rd., Suite 101 | West Mifflin, PA 15122


FFE (Frozen Food Express) - runs west coast & has tankers in the oil fields. Not sure where they send you to school.

 

Scratch Stevens off the list, anybody who suggests starting out with them needs to be disregarded. It is a shame anybody would bring them up. Drivers today should not start out less than 42cpm bare minimum.

 

Unless UPS changed their policy, I was told I'd have to work part time in the sweat shop loading freight before I could even bid on a driver position. I'm talking Buster Brown UPS, not the old overnight company/division or freight or whatever they call it.

 

Not everyone is a failure at Stevens. Not everyone is a success anywhere else either.
42 cpm doesn't mean anything if the miles aren't there and the accessorial pays aren't there.