which is best company to train with?

Thanks Chompi, I appreciated it. I was going to go through an actual school and not through a company because I feel like I would get better education. Yeah im a truck driver here in the Army but I know when I get out I'll need better training for things I never got to learn in the Army.

 

Check with R.E.West in Lebanon, TN. They use van & flatbed & have their own school.

 

Try Old Diminion they train drivers and have a cdl program. Not a rip off like these mega carriers and will pay you what a driver should be worth. Mega carriers start you at .26 cpm while old D starts you at .48 cpm. You can do Otr with these guys too or be home all the time. Search on this forum there are people on here doing it. If I did it over again I would have started there.

 

You are confusing the trucking world with college I think. Better education is college, getting your license is trucking school. You are going to receive an education at any of these CDL mills. Their purpose is to solely get you your license and prepare you just enough to go out with a trainer of your chosen company. By no means are you a professional driver once you graduate. You will most likely learn more on day one with your trainer than the entire three weeks of your trucking school!

Think about when you first got your license, were you a race car driver or professional driver? No, it took years of practice and probably many months before you were even comfortable out there. Now think about sitting on the roof of your house and driving it through snow and ice up and down huge mountains, in gale force winds, NYC traffic, etc... You will have some idea how to go about it but its going to take some time before you are any good at it or used to it.

I'm not knocking the schools, there's just only so much they can cover in three weeks. If you were to attend a CDL mill for a year then yes you will have possible came out knowing what you were doing. Even at that though there is so much in the real world that can't be learned through a school. This is probably why school is only three weeks long and set up that way.

Also not trying to make you nervous or doubt your skills, you will be fine, it will just take some time to get used to it all. Eventually though that big truck will feel like another appendage and you will have mad savvy truckin knowledge!

Its always sweet to see a true professional out there! Was at FlyinJ in Dallas (grand prarie) and the place was mobbed. There was a real tight spot left at a funny angle in between trucks and a driver with a stretched Pete backed it in the hole like it was nothing! It was dark and there were was a line of drivers waiting to get by him to get out of the parking lot and of course the had their head lights beaming on the poor guy! It was a tight spot and would have been hard to get into in the day time. I give this guy props! Most drivers would have surely passed this spot by and I'm sure that's why it was open in the first place.