The Process?

Study the "CDL Practice Tests" on here. Click on them at the top of this page.
Also, Google : Free CDL Practice Tests Georgia
Memorize everything.
Look at Youtube videos on "Pre-trip Inspections" . The hardest part of cdl school is the pre-trip inspection. Driving is the easiest part.

 

You can try and see what I went through long ago.

I went to school and talked to the nice people who saw dollar signs in me. I wanna be a trucker. Sure thing, sign here. Sign there. Ty very much. 2500 loaned, ty uncle sam.

A week later meet up with 21 of the finest in Baltimore for the first of the weekend classes for 4 months. I find half are exconvict, 4 are female (Probably the first in the area to venture into trucking) and two were experienced ones with no worries. What a crew. I slammed a pothole under the B&O Bridge and lost my wheel on the old ford so they rigged up a new patch and get me around to where I find a 10 dollar wheel out of a junk yard down the street, threw that on. Nice helpful people.

Classes.

Sit there after a fast food breakfasts, listen to scary stories then sit and study the law.

Lunch. Play with the trucks. Such as backing into a dock straight. Baby steps. Big stuff later. Not yet hot because it's spring time. Students sort themselves out into a pecking order. The bottom ones like me got more time in the truck until we learned the skill.

Go home, repeat on sunday, now we deal with logs, dispatch, loading etc. All theory in the classroom. Maybe a few more stories.

After a few weeks people are heading out on the first road trip with a truck, 4 pack a sleeper like sardines and take turns with a instructor. Head a hundred miles west into the mountains and stayed there. Some weeks later we head into the Beth Steel Plant Mill property which is bigger than Baltimore and ran around there learning our limits on curves, ramps and speeds without fear of police interference.

Towards the end we start to have a rodeo. Who can catty corner parrallel park the best, who can race backwards in a 4 diamond barrel who can so forth and so on. Sometimes a 18 wheeler will slide sideways into the dock with the 20 of us standing on it. And no they aint hit (**&^.

Test day, two trucks filled with students, rest in cars follow to DMV. Mr Clipboard gets a ride. A few hours later we had our Class A.

A side note. Prior to test that morning, certain students who learned ALOT in school were quietly taken aside, myself included by the excons and threatened with physical violence if they failed the test today. That usually strips out the ######## and focuses the people to do well. Some of them anyway.

That's it, we went out seperate ways. Looking for work wherever. Being a total pup newbie has it's benefits to companies eager to really use em. But not so much for the newbie.

Be careful out there. Your schooling should be much much much better than mine. Just remember the future you make out there with us on the big road is what you make of it. It's all yourn to win it all or lose it all.

Don't stress about the schooling.

 

Well, once you complete the "school" portion, get your CDL handed to you, you bend over and take the shaft, without lube of course, for the next year or two....

You are going to be so durn broke, questioning "why did I do this?" And such.... Not sure which company you are going to, but they ALL lie to the "newbies" and tell them they are going to get rich quick....

I've never been to a school, and was blessed with a good job from the start... Never drove for any of the mega carriers... The company I am with now is the largest I've dealt with (250 trucks)....

As for the "process" I really am not a good spokesperson, but I've had numerous friends and family members try to start out their driving career, and thus far, no one has lasted more than a year due to lack of income...

If you can manage to "pay your dues" and get a year or two experience without any accidents or tickets, you can really start picking the better paying jobs

Good luck

 

My school was 8 weeks 11 hours a day. After 2 days of classroom work my instructor drove 3 of us to a gas station. We all got snacks. Then he says "so who wants to go first?" It was me. I did a pretrip (kinda) set my mirrors and seat and slapped it into gear for the first time ever. Pulled out onto the road and drove, trying to remember theres a 53' trailer back there. The instructor wont let you hit anything as he can pop the parking break if he needs to. Steering the truck is pretty easy. Shifting takes work and backing takes practice. Listen to the instructors, It might get repetitive but if you listen to them you can do it.

 

You went to school in the 70's?

Is this the video that got you?

 

Those making poverty wages are doing that by choice. They chose that option by being lazy and not researching companies.
A new cdl grad from a private or community college cdl school should have no problem making $50K the first 12 months after receiving an assigned truck; this means all training is complete and your now a full fledged driver.
Get all the endorsements; especially hazmat. Even refrigerated companies haul hazmat from time to time.

 

My process was in 1978
Borrowed a pick up and horse trailer
That 5 min road test got me my class A
CDL didn't exist
The moving company I was driving straight truck for flew me to south Dakota to pick up a tractor trailer they had just bought
A 1972 transtar with no power steering or heat(it was Jan)
They gave me a key, I went back in and said it wouldn't start
They said, well you have to push the start button.
I went back in and said it wouldn't move
They said, well you have to push in the big red and yellow buttons
When I got into Minn, a weigh station kindly informed me I need a log book.
Then I jelled up.
School was over.

 

Hahahaha driver that's awesome! I love the 'you gotta push the big red n yellow buttons in' part. Sounds like my early truckin days

 

First job was with a mega carrier, 3000+ trucks. I drove the 6 hours there (regretted it after I got my truck) 3 days of orientation 2 days waiting on a trainer. We were all doubled up in a motel until I discovered $16 bucks gets you your own room. Met my trainer, he came running up and wouldn't let me carry my own bags. Real good guy. Circled the parking lot a few times out the gate and on to I 20. We ran hard, I logged 10+ hours a day. Trainer lived in Chicago and I got put up in a motel every weekend. He had 5 years experience and it showed. Took 6 weeks including 8 days in the motel in Chicago when the truck broke down. Great food in Chicago and still think about one of the sweetest girls Ive ever met. Compared to my classmate who was at orientation it was paradise. His trainer was 400+ pounds and had BO 5 minutes after a shower. Stayed in the truck when his trainer took hometime. His trainer wore flip flops and got a 10+ speeding ticket after they argued about stopping for a shower.