Not choosing a company paid CDL training


P

Padre

Active Member
Been doing hours of reading reviews on and outside of company websites. Many of the negative reviews seem to be written by snowflakes, "they're making me live up to the contract" (in a whiny voice). Roehl responds to a lot of the negative reviews but is strangely silent on some that make me question the company. So, whether it's Roehl, Swift, Stevens, or whoever there is a thread that makes me step back a bit. That is the idea of being locked into a position for up to 2 years to satisfy a contract with a company that may or may not have questionable practices. I read the positive reviews as well but it seems the majority, not all, are from former employees.

So, I'm looking at paying a CDL training company to get my CDL. I started taking practice tests just to see what would happen and found myself passing just about all of them until I got to the Hazmat tests. Then I got the handbook. Seems to be a lot of common sense. I think going this route will give me better opportunities.

Now to find a good, inexpensive (yeah, right), school here in the DFW area. Any suggestions?
 

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And they have placement programs.

I do the same when I read reviews about anything. You have to read the review and decide if it's just a whiner that you couldn't make happy no matter what you did, or if it's a legitimate complaint. I think many complain just to see their name in print.
 
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If you have time to go through the local community college or tech school to get your CDL it is a smart move. You will still be very limited on who will hire you in the beginning. Experience still matters. The CDL mill schools or a company with their own school is about the same. The cost is basically the same. If you go through company training and decide to leave before you finish your contracted length of time to pay them back then you just owe the balance. That would be less than if you went to a CDL mill. Tuition reimbursement is is a very slow way for them to pay you for school. The megas with a school will usually have your school debt taken care of in a shorter time than going to a mill and then getting reimbursement. I believe SWIFT has the entire debt taken care of in just over 2 years. Covenant, USX, and a few others are about 4 years to receive the full tuition reimbursement. I don't remember what Prime is. Honestly any decent company to get you started is the way to go. Suck it up for about a year. Once you start making decent money that $6K reimbursement for school over 4 years is nothing.
 
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No time to waste going to a community college. Just so I'm clear, you are saying go through one of the companies that wants about 120000 miles in return for training, take another job after I get some experience (I've seen job listings from companies that want a minimum of experience from 3 mos to 1 yr) and pay the prorated amount. That may be a possibility assuming they aren't looking for $8000+ for their training. So if I last long enough to pay off 1/2 then pay the rest and move on. I'm seeing charges around $4k for schools. I'm wondering how it's an advantage to pay double over an independant school. I'm willing to be educated if I'm missing something.

Any other thoughts out there?
 
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Nomad1 said:
If you have time to go through the local community college or tech school to get your CDL it is a smart move. You will still be very limited on who will hire you in the beginning. Experience still matters. The CDL mill schools or a company with their own school is about the same. The cost is basically the same. If you go through company training and decide to leave before you finish your contracted length of time to pay them back then you just owe the balance. That would be less than if you went to a CDL mill. Tuition reimbursement is is a very slow way for them to pay you for school. The megas with a school will usually have your school debt taken care of in a shorter time than going to a mill and then getting reimbursement. I believe SWIFT has the entire debt taken care of in just over 2 years. Covenant, USX, and a few others are about 4 years to receive the full tuition reimbursement. I don't remember what Prime is. Honestly any decent company to get you started is the way to go. Suck it up for about a year. Once you start making decent money that $6K reimbursement for school over 4 years is nothing.
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True for OTR but with my own license I was able to start out with a local gig that paid far more than most companies pay their school drivers for the first two years. Plus tuition reimbursement on top of that yet.

YMMV but your options are more limited when you don't have a license already, even if it's hot off the press.
 
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Padre said:
No time to waste going to a community college. Just so I'm clear, you are saying go through one of the companies that wants about 120000 miles in return for training, take another job after I get some experience (I've seen job listings from companies that want a minimum of experience from 3 mos to 1 yr) and pay the prorated amount. That may be a possibility assuming they aren't looking for $8000+ for their training. So if I last long enough to pay off 1/2 then pay the rest and move on. I'm seeing charges around $4k for schools. I'm wondering how it's an advantage to pay double over an independant school. I'm willing to be educated if I'm missing something.

Any other thoughts out there?
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Just so you understand, that 120,000 miles is about a years worth of driving experience. The only companies that can afford to hire a zero-experience CDL holder are the big OTR companies. The same ones that will train you in return for that years worth of experience. Its because they're self insured.

A smaller company of any repute will only hire you with a couple of years of experience because of commercial insurance requirements. Where exactly are you going to get that?
 
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ironpony said:
Just so you understand, that 120,000 miles is about a years worth of driving experience.
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I've read hundreds of reviews from the company schools where the driver is not getting miles. Are you saying this doesn't happen? Why would it happen? Just asking here. I know very little about the trucking industry other than I like trucks and driving.
 
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Padre said:
I've read hundreds of reviews from the company schools where the driver is not getting miles. Are you saying this doesn't happen? Why would it happen? Just asking here. I know very little about the trucking industry other than I like trucks and driving.
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They feed you "miles" at the rate you're able to deal with them. We do not live a life that is anything like the 8-to-5 workaday world. So excuse the little whiny biotches if they're not fed a driving life with a firehose. It takes most people a year to begin to adjust to this life at a pace that they can deal with the fatigue, stress and isolation of driving a 70' or so, 80,000 lb vehicle 500 miles every day, with a 10-hour break, let alone with some skill. A lot of people never adjust to it, and leave the industry in the first year.

If some rookie driver can't adjust to getting enough sleep to deal with the pace, has to get up in the middle of the night to deliver, drive the next day - then gets drowsy, and doesn't recognize the symptoms of fatigue in himself, he can very well fall asleep at the wheel and kill someone. So you'll excuse these evil companies for not feeding beginners the miles an experienced hand is at the beginning. That also equates to less pay because they're paid by the mile. There's something about unrealistic expectations in this too.

We're also at the mercy of the economy, the business cycle, etc. If the freight's not there, you're not getting miles. That's the way it is, and the whiners don't necessarily understand this. There's been a number of large carriers that had to shut down this year. Are they supposed to pay drivers to run up and down the road in empty trucks?
 
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"It takes most people a year to begin to adjust to this life at a pace that they can deal with the fatigue, stress and isolation of driving a 70' or so, 80,000 lb vehicle 500 miles every day, with a 10-hour break, let alone with some skill. "



I get the economic realities, I'm not wet behind the ears. Been self employed for a number of years meeting payroll, paying taxes, trying to get paid, etc. From what I understand, drivers can drive 11 hours a day in a 7 day week. Correct? I'm not going to look it up right now but, I think it's close to that. Drivers have to get the shipment to the destination by a certain day and time. Obviously. What I copied from your post is what I had not considered. It explains the number of reviews complaining about not getting miles. Again, the sensitive little Snowflakes who can't get a participation trophy in real life. Thank you for enlightening me. This is why I ask the questions.
 
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A company will also protect it's contract freight and st ing a company rig out and make them available for freight WHEN it's needed and not in the drivers best interest.
 
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ironpony said:
They feed you "miles" at the rate you're able to deal with them. We do not live a life that is anything like the 8-to-5 workaday world. So excuse the little whiny biotches if they're not fed a driving life with a firehose. It takes most people a year to begin to adjust to this life at a pace that they can deal with the fatigue, stress and isolation of driving a 70' or so, 80,000 lb vehicle 500 miles every day, with a 10-hour break, let alone with some skill. A lot of people never adjust to it, and leave the industry in the first year.

If some rookie driver can't adjust to getting enough sleep to deal with the pace, has to get up in the middle of the night to deliver, drive the next day - then gets drowsy, and doesn't recognize the symptoms of fatigue in himself, he can very well fall asleep at the wheel and kill someone. So you'll excuse these evil companies for not feeding beginners the miles an experienced hand is at the beginning. That also equates to less pay because they're paid by the mile. There's something about unrealistic expectations in this too.

We're also at the mercy of the economy, the business cycle, etc. If the freight's not there, you're not getting miles. That's the way it is, and the whiners don't necessarily understand this. There's been a number of large carriers that had to shut down this year. Are they supposed to pay drivers to run up and down the road in empty trucks?
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A lot of truth in this.

What he's leaving out is the forced teaming, the discounted mileage rates, the sitting because you're low man on the totem pole who "isn't ready for the mileage yet" (even if you are) etc etc.

I talked to probably one of the worst examples...CR England...and they were paying less than 30 cents a mile (I think it was 24 actually) to drivers in the payback period. And you had to team...with someone who only has slightly more experience than you and probably bad hygiene if...every driver on the planet...is any indication.

I called US Xpress (a mega, but not one who has schools) and they had a home daily local gig that required a month of training in a day cab, paid more per mile, plus load pay, plus automatic detention, etc etc. The only question was "what day will you get your CDL? We'll set you up for orientation the following Monday."

It kinda depends where you're located. Companies are flexible with local jobs and experience if they can afford to be. And you can bet your dedicated gigs with megas aren't anywhere near as horrendous as your OTR gigs under the same flag.

I could probably go to CR England tomorrow for the Hershey account and it be fine. That's local home daily day cab work as well.
 
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Producing the miles should net you a newer truck too. If you can do the miles to pay for a newer truck, they will give you a newer truck, over a driver that cannot.
That has been my experience anyway.
 
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Electric Chicken said:
A lot of truth in this.

What he's leaving out is the forced teaming, the discounted mileage rates, the sitting because you're low man on the totem pole who "isn't ready for the mileage yet" (even if you are) etc etc.

I talked to probably one of the worst examples...CR England...and they were paying less than 30 cents a mile (I think it was 24 actually) to drivers in the payback period. And you had to team...with someone who only has slightly more experience than you and probably bad hygiene if...every driver on the planet...is any indication.

I called US Xpress (a mega, but not one who has schools) and they had a home daily local gig that required a month of training in a day cab, paid more per mile, plus load pay, plus automatic detention, etc etc. The only question was "what day will you get your CDL? We'll set you up for orientation the following Monday."

It kinda depends where you're located. Companies are flexible with local jobs and experience if they can afford to be. And you can bet your dedicated gigs with megas aren't anywhere near as horrendous as your OTR gigs under the same flag.

I could probably go to CR England tomorrow for the Hershey account and it be fine. That's local home daily day cab work as well.
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Still butthurt after all these years, eh? The entire industry isn't defined by CRE, CRST, US Xpress and SNI. You just chose wrong.
 
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