Training length of time,Prime style

Skip the Prime style, you already have some experience. Go to a community college and get your cdl. Then four weeks or less with a trainer and be done with it.

 

The "training period" or riding with a trainer is often the hardest part of doing OTR. If your training period runs like a team you can get those miles faster than above, but your recruiter may have the best answer. A solo driver, with good dispatcher, can get 10k miles a month. If trainer sees you are ready you can get miles like a team and cut that time in the truck down, maybe in half. My OTR training took 8 weeks and it was hard because I could seldom sleep while the truck was rolling. It gets much better once you have an assigned truck.

 

3 to 4 months of teaming? No wonder they pay top rate, you are getting cheated out of your team labor on the front end. This would be a good company to work for long term but you would have to get paid back from your teaming days. But then again, it is a starter company and you could do better once you get experience.

 

I think I know which company you are talking about. Is it in Missoula or Springfield? I am impressed by them. It's my backup plan if I leave my current employer. I don't think long-term it makes any difference if you pay a school for your CDL or let a trucking company CDL school train you. It only matters which one based on where you want to work for your first company. If you have done your research and you really want to work for ABC Trucking and they have a CDL school, and the cost of that school if you decide to leave ABC after school is reasonable, let ABC Trucking provide the school and license and do everything to stay with them for the 1 year. If you leave before your 1 year contract period for CDL school is completed they charge either $1500 or $3500, I forget which. Either one is a bargain. I paid $3500 20 years ago for a 3 week CDL school. IMO, you really should not work for any company you don't expect to stay for 1 year. The jobs in the industry get really crappy once you start hopping around. The more you hop, the fewer companies that will hire you, and those aren't the good companies trying to hire you. Learning the ropes at a company will make life better faster than changing companies. Stay through the hard time and they will know & trust you and that makes your work better. Most trucking companies have Tuition Reimbursement for CDL school. Just make sure you take out a legitimate loan for school. Most Tuition Reimbursements will not pay anything if you paid cash for CDL school.

Concentrate on finding a company that suits you and don't consider leaving until you have your 1 year in. Most drivers leave their first company. Until you start working OTR you don't know enough details to know where you want to work for the long-term. If you enter a company with the idea you can leave after a few months you won't research it properly and the idea of leaving will tempt you to move on after a coupe of bad days. OTR is often a few bad days in a row, not necessarily the fault of your company.

Sharing a truck is hard/ It's either hard because you have never driven before and it's overwhelming all the things you have to learn while you are in city traffic, trying to find a customer, and your HOS are burning up. Or, it's hard because it's like living in a closet with another person and every day you see you already know what to do and you still have to try and sleep as the truck bounces along. You are living in someone's place, on someone's schedule with no space for your stuff. Concentrate on the work AFTER the sharing a truck. If it's good company for you, it's worth it. Don't keep judging if it's worth it once you get in the truck.

 

Get your own CDL then start without ever going with a trainer.

 

Millis has a 3 week school then 5 to 8 weeks with a trainer at full pay. Then your own truck at full pay.