DO NOT GOT TO CDL SCHOOL UNTIL YOU KNOW WHERE YOU WANT TO WORK.
Every trucking company doesn’t hire newbies from every CDL school. Some CDL schools don’t offer certain things which means their students can’t get hired at a particular company. Usually a school that gives 160 hours of instruction is fairly safe, but a few companies want students with 200 hours of instruction/practice. Some trucking companies offer their own schools, you call them academies, and they get a nice long look at the student during that school period so they feel more comfortable hiring their own students than some random stranger from a random school. If you got to a trucking company’s CDL school you are signing a contract to work for them an equivalent for 12-24 months or pay the cost of school. If you quit or get fired before meeting that obligation you will owe them money. If the companies with their own schools are the right company for you, then go to their school. If they are not the right company for you to work 12-24 months do not go to their school. It’s not a free school. Its a school you pay for. Almost half of the trucking companies that hire newbies offer Tuition Reimbursement TR. Once you start working you get paid wages, based on your miles driven and get get a fixed amount of TR that you can apply to any outstanding school loan. Another way to pay for CDL school is the WIOA grant through your state’s unemployment office. WIOA grants can pay for almost ANY TRADE SCHOOL, not just trucking. It’s a grant, you owe nothing.
You need to figure out how often you need to be home, and for how long, how far are you willing to commute to work each trip, or you are not willing to commute. You need to know what trucking companies are in your area if you want to get home every weekend or daily. You need to know how much income is your minimum to justify not being home for days or weeks, what type of freight you prefer to haul (dry van, reefer, flatbed, tanker), and what parts of the country you want or will tolerate driving in over and over and over.
Your question, is like walking into a room of strangers and asking what food should I eat? It depends. We don’t know if you are days away from starving to death, or looking for a 5-star steak dinner for the ages?
Do not decide about where to work based ONLY on web sites, recruiters, and recommendations from online strangers. Make any company put you in contact with current working drivers on the account that you will be hired to do. If you ask the Army recruiter can I sleep until 9am every day if you join the Army, he will say “of course” our drill sergeants are nice and gentle and they rub your back while you try to go to sleep.
If you have long periods of unemployment, criminal convictions, speeding tickets, license suspensions, or violations on your Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) those may have a huge impact on even getting hired so mention them if you want accurate info.
DO NOT GOT TO CDL SCHOOL UNTIL YOU KNOW WHERE YOU WANT TO WORK.
Leave a Reply