Swift?? and go...

Man they are all the same. You have to start some place. Until you get a year in, maybe even 6 months, your dog meat.

There's no easy way, unless you maybe know somebody.

Just hope you get a competent trainer.

Best advice is try and find one that's at least close to home.

Good luck. Have a Happy & Safe New Year.

 

What is your goal as far as trucking goes? Is there any kind of trucking that you specifically want to do? Is there any kind of company or job that you want to have?

Yes to a point it's about making money sure, but there's more to it then that, what are you trying to get out of your life, if you want to be an OTR driver and live in a truck and hotel room that's perfectly fine and there is nothing wrong with that, but that's just one facet of trucking, there's many other jobs and niches and sometimes you can split the difference and get the best of both worlds.

I guess it's good to have some kind of plan or some kind of way you want your career to be mapped out.

Also how much money do you want to make and how much of a hustler are you? This year I worked really hard and made more money this year then I did last year, didn't make leaps and bounds more, but I did make more.

This industry it's not so different then any place else, and heck working at Swift, a nice girl like you, as long as you can make your pick ups and drop offs on time and use some planning and forethought you'll be at the top of the dispatch board, trust me the competition from other drivers isn't always that steep.

 

All these hire new grads with no experience. If website has "experience required" then the website isn't up to date.
Danny Herman Trucking = no northeast or New York City. They run mostly southern lanes and southern California.
Freymiller
Abilene Motor Express
Magnum ltd.
Tyson Foods
FFE (Frozen Food Express)
MCT Transportation
Navajo Express
USA Truck
Butler Transport
The best way to do this is submit online applications to all of them and take the best offer.

 

Ya pretty much all big training companies are the same put in your time keep your record clean, get experience, pay off your tuition, upgrade and move on.

 

I kind of helped some kid down in Georgia leave Swift and go to GFS, he was thrilled to get out of Swift, personally I would take Werner or Schneider over Swift any day.

 

I will add this. ABF has posted adds for newcomers that looks like they are going to start schooling.
ABF is teamsters.
Now that's a whole different animal.
If you or your friend could get in a teamster gig from the get go, that is most definitely the way to go. I don't know if YRC and USF are doing it as well, but ABF is here in Phoenix.

And if you can get on with one of those companies at any time, especially when your young, you will be fat, dumb, and happy forever after.

You have to work your way in, and its much easier when your young.

 

USF Holland here in Cleveland was taking "student drivers", however that does not mean they are training you to get your CDL I have noticed though the LTL jobs that and the better companies that hire new people they will take you on, but they won't train you to get your license, GFS in our area stopped training people to get there CDL's long ago, they hire guys straight out of school, however lately they've tried to hire people with previous experience, but they do hire out of school, but they will not train anyone anymore to get there CDL at least not my division.

I know it's possible to get your CDL through an LTL company, but it's not probable, @Bob Dobalina and I talked about this, and the better LTL's like Dayton and Pitt Ohio and ABF seemingly can attract drivers to where they don't have to train new guys very much.