What are the odds?

You can get a job with a harvest crew which you can use as experience on your resume. They are always hiring. Pay isn't the best, but whatever.

I got my CDL for a total cost of 250 bucks plus maybe a weeks worth of hauling grain. A farmer let me use their truck to learn on and to take the test. I paid for fuel to and from the testing facility and worked for them for about a week.


I now have my class A but am doing mainly Class B driving right now. Home every night, lots of overtime, hourly pay, only worry is contractors. (I'm driving ready mix.)

As usual YMMV.

 

If you really want to get into the industry, go about it the right way the first time. You will be just wasting your time and money renting a truck and all that jazz. Go through school, get hired on with a company, do your time with a trainer (which you will thank god you did) and then proceed with your career.

Nowadays, especially with the new CSA-2010 laws, companies have gotten really strict. Also the insurance companies dictate a lot of these rules. No one is going to touch you unless you go through a school. Actually if you want a good example of how tough they are now, I have 16 years experience and about ten of those years I owned my own trucks. I have been off the road for just about three years now and if I were to go back out most every company would make me take a refresher course and go with a trainer! I have enough knowledge and skills to be a school instructor, yet would have to go through all that again if I want to drive.

If you do not have the money to pay for school upfront then I suggest you choose a company that has a school and will get you your license for no money upfront. Most of them require you sign a contract and drive for them for a year but I think that's a pretty fair deal. This will get your foot in the door and get you some experience. A year or so down the road if you want to switch companies, then go for it. Maybe you will want to be an owner operator also.

Whatever you do, please do it the right way. It will save you lots of time and money and not only that but this is your career, don't you want to be the best you can be and succeed? In order to do that you need proper training.

Good luck man!

 

Try rosedale in dalton ga. They came to my school today!

 

If you want to know a good school to go to, i would look into CDL of GA. That way you can at least get a quality job after you obtain your license. The course is 3 and a half weeks long. Total of 180 hours and cheaper than most courses. Get training and smaller classes! I love it there.

 

You are doing yourself a favor not wasting money on a CDL mill. And you don't want to work for any company that gets it's hires from a CDL mill either. The way you are talking about is what America is all about; pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and not being a sheep in the herd.
I commend you for being a resourceful individual. You don't need to start driving tractor trailers right away if you can't get a semi job. There's lots of work driving straight trucks to build experience and establish a safe record. Other jobs will come along. Patience pays off.
Those mega corp carriers will beat you down and you'll be belly up peeing all over yourself if you go there. I see these drivers constantly and they don't realise how beat down they are.

 

Yes you can build experience driving a straight truck or class b type deal but no over the road company is going to count that as experience if that is your goal. Typically even local, Class A experience is only counted as half a point as far as over the road experience. That is how the companies look at it. If you want a local gig driving a straight truck then driving a straight truck will give you experience toward that.

 

If that were true, don't you think everyone would be doing it?!

 

don't know about Atlanta, but in Vegas, renting a truck suitable for a Class A costs about the same as going to a 40 hr one on one refresher at the school I went to, with third party testing. About $2500. The 160 hour course is only $3500, if you can get a grant, it's free.

Also, don't you need a licensed driver to bring the vehicle to the DMV?