Student Over-the-Road Truck Driver

Yes it is a longer school. I dont believe they pay you for it. You should contact a recruiter at CWTL and ask them. It is at Crowder College in Neosho, MO.

 

Naw... Honestly if going for a one and done...

Go to Schneider and pull tanks.

Better deal.

Free schooling and better pay for year 1.

Crowder runs you about 1800 thru Conway I think but don't quote me.

 

.they do that but they also have a training school if you sign to work there a year.

Swift does to.

Swift actually will get you more miles.

I talked to a driver here that said he was averaging 3200 at swift and 2500 here. Was headed back to swift for a dedicated this time he said.


You are going to pay out of pocket at truckload no reimbursement unless you live in Detroit and go thru Taylors training program.

 

Schneider does not have a training program. They take people in that have their CDL that have no experience and put them with trainers, but have no CDL program themselves. You can get a pre hire if you go through a CDL mill with them that would get them to "pay back" your CDL school at a low monthly payment "IF" that school would agree to finance it internally. Besides that SNI does not do it. Looked in to all of this myself. Found that Knight was the best one for me (as it could not be for you) and am heading out there on Saturday to start on Monday.

There is also some out there like Millis Transfer, that train if you are in there hiring area, but you pay 500 up front. For instance Knight charges 100 up front but you finance the rest through deductions. (3400 if you use hotel and transport) I can deal with that for a year at 50/wk. they also pay you 400/wk while in training.

As for others, Can't say. I talked to some recruiters and as soon as I was told anything under 30 CPM for my first year, I was not interested. The only ones that stayed a top the board for dry van for me were Knight and Millis.

 

For me it was the whole package. The fact that they help you get your CDL (more than a 3 week CDL mill school where you have to split your drive time) with 1 on 1 training. You run a month with a trainer at the minimum (also liked this to get experience) than you do 90 days solo probation (30k miles which shows me they just don't throw keys at you like Swift or other companies out of school and expect you to be an expert with barely any training) and than your a full employee. So they really do put a lot into making sure their drivers are trained and ready to be drivers BEFORE giving them free reign... and seeing a lot of these newer trainers on YouTube, shows me they really are taking their careers to heart.

Another thing is the starting pay. Yes Knight has a sliding scale, but quite frankly starting out as a full driver making a minimum of 35CPM, really is NOT that bad at all! I can handle that for my first year for sure! The benefits look to be like all the other companies out there.

The trucks, yeah they don't have APU's but you are allowed converters that they instal and unlike SNI, they are allowed to be bigger than 300W (which i believe is the biggest SNI lets you have). I will get a fan/portable A/C and go from there.... wooptie I have to get up some time to start the truck... LOL.

besides that its just the overall happiness I see from the drivers. Yeah there are some things that are "bad" but from what I see it is like that at a LOT of other places that others post on here as well. I rarely see that much true "crap talking" about Knight on here than most other starter companies!

it took me weeks of digging on here, phone calls, searches, more phone calls and .... yup more phone calls to finally decide I liked Knight the best.

As for the DL, I don't know why they would not like it as they have a division just for the western 11 states that includes CA and they have a lot of drivers from there. Now if your talking about your driving history, that is a different story. I for one, had 3 violations in the past 3 years. I was truthful and honest. Well I guess 2 of them were not on my record so I qualified. I rather tell them everything up front and get an honest answer than them find it out later and can my butt for lying on the application. 1 suggestion I will say is KNOW all of your history that you need for that job. (ie. driving record and employment) They do check and things do pop up, and don't try to BS your way in. The more truthful you are the easier they will be to work with you from what i have seen!

 

I drove for Knight for 17 months. Did well there. They treated me like an adult, no micromanagement. I left there for the local job I have now. Dont know anything about the school they have. They were still building it down there in Olive Branch, MS. Looked nice from the outside though.