student tranning companys (STC's)

You KNOW they are getting paid? But you don't know how much? I seen all this before. These companies make money off of students because they sign contracts to work for slave wages for a year and callect big money from the student for the training, not because they are getting money from the government. That's why you only last a year too, because they don't want to give you raises.

 

Yeah I totally agree.. It is a shame that these trucking compines, and they know who they are ( Swift,Werner,C.R. England) Just to name the top three scum bag companys of all time to work for, get away with- Sure everyone has to put in their time when starting a new profession, but, I mean come on- what other profession do you know of basically makes you pay to work for them pretty much? Trucking is the only one that comes to my mind..

Example- You have some poor guy/gal wanting to get into trucking, but has no experience. They get brain washed by thses big compines into thinking trucking is a cake walk, and that you will be paid well as a "professinal tourist".. OK if you call tourism doing 3-4 stop loads in the Northeast sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, and getting ripped off at grocery wearhouses by lumpers fun, then you must be on crack- Dont get me wrong, we all get those dreaded loads, especially driving reefer, but its all in how you look at it...And no nebie should be driving in that area of the country untill they have a little time under their belt- I have talke to many Swift drivers who claim on their first run out after their trainer turned them loose they where sent right into NYC--That is just wrong, give them some time to get used to thier truck, maybe a month or two, before you send them right into the city-

Now you take these compines I named above, they take total advantage of the new driver- Look at the treads on this boared- You can read stuff all day about them, but yet for some reason that God himself may only know, new drivers keep flocking to them, and the goverment helps them do that. Tey want you to quit, they get the Tax payers money for each new student they get in, and so when you quit, they get another couple of grand of tax payers money-

The best thing to do if you want to get inot this buisness is go to your local community college, get your CDL, and by the way their training is a whole lot better than any CDL mill could ever offer, and then call around to smaller reginal trucking compines that will take you on to get your experience... Look at it this way, do you think those trucking compines would have to make you sign a contract and force you to stay there a year if they where so wonderful to work at? I dont think so-

They will give you every crap load they have to offer, keep you out 2-3 months at a time and pay you 26-30 cents a mile- You could make that unloading trucks and be home every nite, if you compare home much and many hrs your working to drive that truck, compared to working a 40 hr week, you are making less...

So if you want to sign your life away at one of these scum bag companies and tour the northeast makeing 500.00 a week if your lucky, being away from your family, go ahead.. But everyone on here has warned people over,and over and over again til they are blue in the face!

Also one last thing- If they are trying to throw the so called" lease" at you, again run for the hills and dont look back! Any company that will put a driver in a truck running a lease, with little or no experience, does not give a d## about the driver and is just setting them up for faliure-- This is just my opinion, and is by no means intended to make any of you guys upset-- Be safe out there!

 

So let me get this straight, ,cuz I'm due to graduate soon from a community college. I should skip the big trucking Co. until I get experience under my belt. I should work for a little local Co. to tighten my skills so to speak, then if I want to go woth the bigger Co.
I need to know this because like I said I'm graduating soon & have several local Co. I can work for, for a year or more.

 

If those small local companies are actually over the road I'd jump on it. The bigger companies are usually where drivers put in their 1-2 years to get the necessary experience to get a good trucking job at a smaller place. If the local jobs are not over the road the experience probably won't count.

 

See this is why I wish I never learned to read cause I just signed up to start class on Monday with a driving school.....but I didn`t have to agree to sign a year long contract. In fact after my 10 weeks with the school are up I`m sent to a trucking company that has hired me while I was still in class for a 5 week externship with a trainer then I`m on my own....with no contract. I researched the company first and the have an A+ score by the BBB and are accredited. Did I maybe get lucky and find a good school. The reason I`m asking this on here is because out of the companies I was told about TMC seemed the best to me due to my location and the fact that they run flatbeds.

 

It seems as if your thinking that the school and the trucking company are the same thing, which is not the case. Their BBB Standing has nothing to do with their workers, but rather the customers that they are hauling freight for. And if you're referring to TMC, You *will* have a contract, you just haven't seen it because you aren't "hired" yet.. Nor will you be unless you can make it through their 2 week orientation (which comes BEFORE the externship..) They will tell you on day one that you do not have a job, it's a 2 week long interview.

 

Well I`m taking the 600hr master program and the admissions guy said they get you hired with a company before they get too far into training cause then what would be the point if you don`t have a job when training is over. And I`m paying for the school myself, not going through a trucking company first if that matters. Pretty much I know it`s a recruiting pitch cause I`ve already been in the military but I just wanna know how much is true and how much isn`t.

 

Eckz is exactly right. You will go to a 12 consecutive day orientation at Des Moines which is basically another school, if your grades slip or they take a disliking to you forget about being hired. If you pass the "12 day interview" then you get assigned a trainer where you do the 5 weeks out on the road. If you pass the 5 week externship then you have to return to Des Moines to take your final road test and a couple short written tests. If you pass these finals THEN you will be hired. It's a lot of hoop jumping, what you have is called a "pre-hire". Most trucking companies give out these pre-hires to applicants who make their initial qualifications. Then you ship out to said carrier and "earn" your job. Really unless you mess up or catch yourself in a bad spot you are going to get through the hiring process just fine. In reality TMC drops in the ballpark of 30% of their orientation class, not sure how many the lose on the training end. It's not that it's hard necessarily, just a world class hassle.

 

Is it worth it to work for them then going through all that? I`ll be driving out of Cleveland, Oh and I`m only 10 minutes from the Lake Erie and the shipping ports so I would think I would at least get a lot of loads out of town.