While there are many paths one can take to get into the industry, and no single path is “right” or “wrong”, we recommend a path that offers the most consistent path to success. Its been proven to work time and time again.
In general, most of us recommend as a baseline, getting your CDL, training and experience at a company that offers provided training, then staying with that company for at least a year.
During that first year, its generally recommend to go OTR or Regional. Those companies that provide training excell at getting persons entering the industry from no experience to being a safe productive driver.
Many of us launched our careers this way, and many chose to stay on with those companies. Once you have some time in the industry, and experience, you begin to develop a measure of what you want to get out of trucking and if your company is meeting your needs and wants.
By all means this is not to say that this is the only method, its simply one that we have found to work for the largest percent of people entering the industry.
Thanks for the advice. I recently passed and got my CDL A license then got my T & N endorsements. Currently, working on Hazmat. But after some headache with my med card, DMV and FMCSA system changes, I’ve finally been offered a entry-level position at Schneider, Rohel, and Prime. I’m kind of torn between them on which to choose, I do prefer Schneider’s training hoping I’ll be trained properly. There’s so many negative reviews out there. It’s hard to tell who’s bent out of shape or actually went through some bs to make a decent paycheck. I’m open to opinions/words of wisdom. Thanks in advance
The only thing I know about Schneider is they probably offer the lowest starting pay of all the companies I’ve heard from so far.
And in my research from Prime, which is where I initially planned to start.. they seem to favor their lease operators more than the company Drivers and I have also heard that they are starting to charge company drivers a $1000 deposit on their trucks. They don’t seem to treat company drivers quite as fairly as they do lease operators, and they really push you to lease a truck.
At any rate, I would definitely suggest you do some research on your own on all of the companies you mentioned and try and form the best opinion you can.
Thanks JayP I appreciate your feedback. Yeah the start off for Schneider is low at .40 cpm. And it was said if I had endorsements I could get a bit more but that didn’t happen. LOL. Didn’t come across the $1000 down for Prime thing. I definetly will look a bit deeper into them.
If I had to chose between those 3 I would go Rohel, Schneider, Prime. 9 Years ago Rohel sent me home from their CDL program because my heart rate was 1 bpm over their limit. Even after that I would rank them number 1. They really seemed to want to set you up for success in training.
Schneider is a good place to start, they have everything from dry van, tanker, local, containers, and flat bed.
Prime really, really pushes Leasing even to new drivers, that is a major turn off for me.
I am a bit biased but I would also go with bobcat, Roehl, Schiender, Prime.
I started with Roehl many years ago. They had great training and we always honest in their dealings with me. They are still a family owned and run company.
Schiender has the liwest pay and the absolute strictist rules. They have several divisions, however they tend to go up and down alot in every division but dry van. Several years ago they came very close to shutting down the tanker division.
Prime has gone through some major shakeups with several top key people retiring and now the rumor is out there the owner and founder may be on the way out. They are pushing leasing hard because that is where they reduce their expense and risk and put it on the drivers. I would avoid that.
