Trucking 101

After reading this message board at length, I asked an old aquaintence of mine for his input and this is what he told me. I think its a great summary of much of the same that I have read here. Hope someone finds this useful:

Trucking 101

- 1st, before all else, go to the Department of Labor and see if the state will pay for your training (trucking school). If you've been laid off you could be considered a displaced worker and the state might pick up the cost of tuition to get you re-trained for another position. If not obtain your own financing thru a local bank and pay the school cash or the school can obtain financing for you at a very high interest rate. Most trucking companies offer tuition reimbursement but I promise you, you will not stay with them through the entire length of the loan

-2nd, attend and finish the CDL program at a school in Georgia!!! DO NOT attend a CDL training school in another state. If you do this could turn out to be a major headache as their is always some paperwork or something you may need and guess what, you're in another state. Their is a school just south of us in Forsyth (Truck Drivers Institute) and one just north of us in Ellenwood/Forest Park (America's Driving Force)

-3rd, get your CDL and get on with a major company such as Werner, Swift, TMC, Roehl, etc... It's really not gonna matter who you go with as they are all #### companies who hire inexperienced drivers at a low rate. Why pay someone .36 cent a mile when you can pay someone .26 cent a mile to do the same job. Whoever you sign on with you'll have to go thru their training program which can last 3-8 weeks and consist of you team driving with a trainer. After that you'll finally be given a truck. Whoever you sign on with stay with them for at least 6 months, otherwise if you choose to quit and go with a different company you'll have to go through some sort of company training program again and you don't want to do that.

-4th, In trucking, experience is what your after. Once you reach the 2 year mark with no accidents and no crazy criminal record you're pretty much GOLDEN and the doors will really begin to open up for you.

-5th, YOU WILL BE GONE FROM HOME A LOT, just sit back and grin and bear it until you reach the 2 year mark. Look at it like going off to school and you get a 36 hour pass to go home every weekend. Not much you can do until you gain the experience, 2 YEARS.

-6th, There are 2 types of trucking companies TL (truck load) carriers
and LTL (less than truck load) carriers.

TL (truck load) carriers, operate OTR (over the road) and have you home 1-2 days a week, pay by the mile start around .26 cent a mile (not actual miles driven but as the crow flies or a straight line from point A to B), have you driving a sleeper cab truck, and pretty much treat you like dirt.

LTL (less than truck load) carriers, operate locally and have you home daily/ nightly, pay by the hour usually starting at around $16.00 an hour, have you driving a day cab truck, and treat you like a human being. Most all LTL carriers require 2 years experience and haz-mat, doubles/triple trailer endorsements and have really decent benefits packages.

TL carriers: Werner, Swift, JB Hunt, Schneider, etc, etc... if its a sleeper cab truck its probably a TL carrier.

LTL carriers: Yellow, R&L, UPS, Fed Ex, Estes, USF Holland, Saia, Old Dominion, Con-Way, some of these are Union.

-7th, You could also land a gig hauling fuel to gas stations driving a tanker and be home daily/nightly, requires 2 years minimum exp. and haz-mat, tanker endorsements.

Get your CDL, obtain every endorsement: haz-mat, double/triple trailers, tanker, tough it out for 2 years and get on with an LTL carrier.

Hope this is helpful.