Want to get off to the best start possible

I have been following this forum for awhile now, started before I had my CDL and learned allot from this forum and am now helping a friend of mine get started on the CDL path. I have put together a checklist to get off to the best start as possible. NOW please keep in mind this is what I think is the best path forward and am putting it out here to ask for improvements and anything you feel I have wrong:

1. Determine what your primary goals are as far as the type of driving position you are seeking and the general area geographically you are most interested in. Identify a list of possible companies that fit your requirements and that hire new CDL grads. Reach out to the companies and see what schools they hire from, find out what the requirements are to get hired, cross out the ones that don't work and continue. Do this until you have at least 5 companies.

2. Get your physical done, get your CDL (clp) permit, pay out of pocket for a urine test, get all CDL endorsements, get your passport & TWICC. I fully understand that many companies will not accept your urine test results and or physical. The reason for doing this all ahead of time is to show the prospective companies you want to work for that you are serious and am ready to go. You are essentially proving to them that you have already passed many of the hurdles. I realize this is going to cost more but in a competitive market you want your application to stand out.

3. Once you have the list of 5 companies reach out to the schools that they hire from and select the school that works for your time frame. Pay for school out of pocket, while going thru training ask stupid questions, pay attention & take notes as needed. Spend as much time as possible learning during the few weeks you are attending the CDL training. Forget drinking and partying. While going thru the school keep in touch with the companies you are most interested it. Update them on the training and make sure they have everything they need from you to complete your application process.

4. If all 5 companies reject you, reach out to them and calmly find out as much as possible as to why, take this additional info and seek out another 5 companies that fit your goals along with the additional info you have from the previous 5 and continue until a company hires you.

5. Once hired, focus on learning to drive, avoid stupid, and put the focus on doing what works for the company and forget about what fits with your home time as much as possible. Keep the goal in mind that you need experience more than just about anything else at this point in your CDL driving career.

6. During your downtime continue to research trucking companies that are in the area you want to work out of and do the kind of runs you are most interested in. Develop a list of minimum acceptable items and over time you will have a short list of ideal companies you want to work for. Reach out to each of them and find out what the requirements are.

7. Continue driving for your starter company for at least 6 months and ideally 1+ year. Also during this time talk with drivers at the companies you are interested in and find out whatever you can about the hiring process. Once you have this learning time under your belt, you can now start actually applying to the companies you are interested in driving for long term.

*** This list is a work in progress ***

 

Skip the piss test and if one of the companies you want to work for has its own CDL school use it and save yourself $4000. If you decide you hate them and quit you won't be any worse off than if you just used their school in the first place.

You can polish yourself up all nice and shiny but if a company requires a year experience to get hired there they aren't going to #### with their insurance for you.

Any retard can do dry van. Do something else from day one. If I could do it again I'd have done 6 months of flatbed and 6 months of tanker instead of all flat/step deck.

When you're studying at whatever school you end up at they will push just for whatever they want you to have. For Prime all they wanted was for you to have tanker with your CDL. Do like you said and study for all the endorsements and get them right off the bat.

 

I broke into the game doing flatbed. I liked it a lot. You'll get some good movement day to day. I pull reefers/dry van now, my company has both. Your list is well put together, but you're approaching it like it's a normal job. Trucking is different. When you get out of school, it's pretty much a matter of taking whoever will bring you on. Your first year is focused on gaining experience and honing your skills. If a company turns you down, it's because of either your driving record, criminal record, or lack of experience most of the time. Once you get started, don't talk to many drivers. Many of them are miserable and will always try to influence negatively. Trucking is about what you put into it. Also, whichever company you get with, resist the temptation to leave before 1 year. Yes there are companies that will bring you in at 3 to 6 months, but if you want premium choices, 1 year is the magic number. The industry opens up to you then. Good luck to you!

 

The above post is solid advice.

-- Lual

 

Refreshing!

You will notice that there are many that approach trucking like they’re either a tourist or heisman trophy winner. Tourists will go to the other side of the planet and expect everyone to get with their program and heisman winners have unreasonable demands and want a shoe deal. Haven’t even turned pro and demanding shoes…

What is the minimum that the company expects? Where is the majority of their freight lane? If they hire in the northeast or northwest, why would you tell them that you don’t go there? Go where they need you to go. Run the miles they run.

First order of business is to add value to your name. Second is to develop the rep to never drop the ball. Avoid negative drivers (fearmongers, fair weather drivers, indecisive effeminate sidewalk sissies) and negative conversations. ‘Birds of a feather’…you know the rest.

Luck in battle.

 

1) You can have a general idea of what you want to do, but until you actually DO it you wont really know if you like it or not. There are a lot of different avenues you can take in this industry. Dont get too hung up on this one.

2) No reason to take a urine test unless you have doubts about being able to pass. EVERY company you apply to will have you take one (if they are serious about hiring you). Only need a passport if you intend yo go to Canada/Mexico. Ive been in this business a few months shy of 40 years and I dont have a passport or TWICC. What matters most to companies is your driving record.

3) Personally I highly recommend paying for the school yourself, but all too often people can afford this route. If you do end up at a place like Swift, you DO have the option to pay off your contract early. Do so as soon as you can.

You should apply to companies before you even go to school.

 

The purpose of taking the Urine test ahead of time was to show the prospective employer you are serious and qualified. Just one way to make your application stand out a bit. If you have a hundred applications all the same and you have one showing extra effort taken by doing things to show how serious you are I see no downside to it and lots of potential upside. Minus the cost and time of course to do the extra work.

 

You dont need to "stand out". If they need bodies they will hire anyone that can fog a mirror and pass a piss test. You seem to think that they run ads looking for "THE perfect driver". Get that out of your head. You will be a number. Any company that hires rookies is going to be impressed by 1 thing and 1 thing only:

YOUR DRIVING RECORD

And truthfully, it isnt that it will impress them, it wont. It will determine if you are worth their trust to put you into a $150,000 machine and turn you loose on the world.

Again, you are nothing more than a number, and that includes the hiring people... Thats 40 years of experience talking to you. Listen or dont. Your choice.

 

You Don't need to stand out ?, that may technically be true but why not stand out. In a competitive market standing out is a great idea. If you have two applicants with the same criminal, driving, & experience record then how do you choose. If everything is equal, is it just luck of the draw or does the person hiring choose because of some aspect of the application?. Now I agree to the mega carriers you are just a number but not everyone drives for a mega either. There are a huge number of small trucking companies and my guess is the owner(s) of those companies would take issue with you by saying everyone is just a number.

 

Because it isnt a competitive market.

How many trucks do you see on the road that DONT say "hiring drivers"?

And with no experience most likely you are going to end up at a mega anyway. And frankly, it doesnt MATTER what company you work for, you will STILL be just a number. Im an owner operator, and the first question I get when calling the "Mother Ship" (Im leased to Landstar) is "truck number?".

Get used to it, you arent a driver, you are (or in your case WILL be) just a truck number...

I have probably worked for 25 (or more) companies over the past 40 years. Some for days some for years (Ive been at Landstar 5 years now - thats the longest Ive been anywhere). Ive seen big companies and Ive seen small companies. Like I said, listen or dont. Its your life.