Re: Newbie seeking information and advice.

My main plan of attack, so to speak, is to exhaust all local options before
I begin looking at large national companies.
I'm covering that base before I get to that point, that way I'm not running
around half cocked and signing a contract with a horrible company at some
point in the future should I decide to do OTR nationally or regionally.
As for the child support/suspended license, I think I may have to call the
main state office and talk to them to see if it will show up since I took
care of it, or if it's just slow. Either way, I do have all applicable
paperwork stating why and when it was suspended and also when it was
reinstated.

As far as employers choosing which schools to hire from....there are only
two schools here. The one I am attending, which is a private company, and
the local community college. How that will affect me in the future remains
to be seen...lol.

Anyway, thanks for all the info, keep it coming.



"tscottme" <blahblah@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:rbqdnQvfvtZ-4pfYnZ2dnUVZ_oadnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Please I beg you, don't concentrate on trucking companies with web sites
and rectuiters trolling the CDL schools. Yes' it's easier to click on web
pages and print details than to pick up the phone and scan the local
yellow pages. Please open the phone book and make phone calls to find out
if companies hire new CDL graduates and how many drivers they employ.

You sound pretty wise for someone about to take the plunge, better off
than 90% of the school newbies that post in here. The typical post in
here by someone in your situation is "I just signed a 2 year agreement
with Crooked Trucking, Inc are they any good?"

Confining your search to big national trucking companies because they
spend the most effort trying to be known everywhere is a bit like looking
for your car keys only under the street light 2 blocks from your car
because that's where the light is.

A majority of trucking companies may not hire brand new CDL graduates, but
you shouldn't so easily resign yourself to working for just the better of
all the bad options. Every trucking company but a few is hiring drivers
all the time. If you just accept you have to work for a cookie cutter
company hiring disposable drivers you greatly increase your odds of
generating a workrecord that will only allow you to work for worse and
worse companies.

Of those on your list, Schneider is the better company. However, they
have specific work rules and you may not fit them, or they may not fit
you. You would probably receive better training from Schneider as a
new-hire than any other trucking company. They did/do hire a lot of
former military types. My impression is that those drivers are happiest
with SNI. There is a lot to be said for working at a company with good
experience hiring new drivers and training them well. However, if SNI is
not located near you, or their home time, or other work conditions aren't
suitable you would likely not do well there. I run into a lot of
experienced drivers that seem to think if they complain enough a company
will change, that's not likey. Much better to contact drivers working for
a local or regional company nearby and find out their working conditions.

Keep an eye open for what non-national trucking company you keep seeing
near your home. Call them and see if they hire newbies and if they hire
newbies from your school. Some companies only accept newbies from certain
schools due to insurance restrictions. It is tough to do much research
once school starts as most schools will fill up your whole day. If you
haven't got the answers you need when school is over, don't take a job you
aren't sure about. Better to work at McDonald's for a few weeks, if
necessary, and choose carefully a trucking company.

Even if you do everything possible and know everything you want to know,
it's pretty common to work at your first company only a year. There are
certain work conditions that you won't know are important until you start
working. You may not know how to weigh one thing versus another thing.
For example, the company may have cheap and good health insurance but pay
a little less per mile or give you a truck model you wouldn't prefer. Or
you may not get home as often but be able to stay home longer when you do
get home. Some of this you can't know in advance, which tends to keep
your duration at the first company shorter than those that may follow.

A bad company can easily work you hard enough to cause an accident or work
you in such a way you feel compelled to quit early, which will make
getting job #2 more difficult.

All companies or recruiters will liely claim their drivers average 2500
miles a week and they are permitted in 48 states and Canada. You want to
get number of miles per week from current drivers and you want the
recruiter to tell you their primary traffic lanes, not where they have
sent a truck once every 9 months. I'd want to know that they reimburse
all tolls, or have toll cards to pay for toll roads. Do they prohibit you
from taking toll roads but expect you to meet a very tight schedule by
driving through people's driveways in the country to avoid the tolls? How
long will you be with a trainer if you are hired, how will you be paid
during training? Are you encouraged not to idle with bonuses or are you
threatened with firing if you don't meet anti-idle targets? I'd easily
forgo any bonus if I had the option to idle for comfort while sleeping.

A good thing to know about a company but the recruiter won't know is how
many long-term drivers do they have. Obviously, it's a good sign to see a
bunch of old drivers at a company if they are long-term employees. The
industry is rotten with high turnover, so a place with low turnover must
be doing something right.

Drivers complain as a hobby, so don't believe every complaint you here.
If you here the same compaints over and over, those are important. Hardly
a week goes by where I don't think I wish I was working somewhere else,
but that lasts for a hour or two and I still like my company.

--

Scott


.