New here, have a preliminary question

vchien211 · Aug 10, 2016

Hello all! I'm new here and I stumbled upon this site and was doing some researching on expediting. It does sound like something I want to do and something that I can do, moving time-sensitive freight. However, one thing is that I do not have a CDL and that I have no experience in expediting. I'd love to drive for a fleet owner that would give a newbie a chance in a non-CDL vehicle all across the country or even just regionally.

My question, though - is there a market for non-CDL, inexperienced expediters? I was looking through the ads and I saw that there are a handful of non-CDL opps out there. Wasn't quite sure if they needed experience or not. Thanks a mil in advance!

P.S.: I know I'll have far more questions soon. Just this one I had off the top of my head.

LDB · Aug 11, 2016

Your best first step is to consider expediting a career just like air conditioning, plumbing, dental technician or anything else. You wouldn't get into any of those careers expecting to excel without a good education. So, you should read back at least 3 years in the General, Newbies and Recruiter forums. Read every single thread title. If the thread sounds even remotely applicable to your situation or to learning this career then read every single word in that thread. Once you've gone back at least 3 years you will have learned a lot, enough to recognize many more questions. So. You start all over and read back at least 3 years in the General, Newbies and Recruiter forums again. Read every thread title again. The ones you skipped over before because you didn't know enough yet to know they were important will stand out so this time you read those. When that's done you should have probably spent 100 hours reading forums. Then you'll know enough to know if this is the career for you or not. You'll also know enough to make it in this career if you do give it a try.

TeamPaul · Aug 11, 2016

Good advice, and I'll add that if you decide to make expediting a career, then a minimum Class B CDL could really do well to open up your options.

vchien211 · Aug 11, 2016

DRAGON64 said:
Good advice, and I'll add that if you decide to make expediting a career, then a minimum Class B CDL could really do well to open up your options.

Thanks. Believe me, I have done lots of research on this career already (with still much more to do). But that brings me to my next question - are there any schools across the country (especially in Alabama, where I'm from) that will let me test in a straight truck or anything needing a Class B? I know there are plenty that do Class A, but Class B seems to be few and far between.

And yes, I know it'd be safe if I just go Class A, but I'm thinking I can go Class B and grab a job with that and eventually upgrade to Class A.

TeamPaul · Aug 11, 2016

My wife studied for her CDL learners permit from books she picked up off of Amazon. She took the exams and got her CDL learners permit, which is good for 1-year. I'm not real sure, but you might be able to get a straight truck from Ryder or Penske and do your pre trip and road trip on for the actual class B license. Don't believe me though, more research is prudent. A call to your local Alabama DOT would be best to confirm size and type of vehicle.

We too live in Alabama, and we both earned our Class A. She paid for her own schooling and license out of an inheritance, and the local Coca Cola company paid for my license and OJT.

Best of luck!

ucfd608 · Aug 11, 2016

You can rent a penske truck make sure it is a class b truck an you should be able to get the study guide for your permit free from the dds in Alabama I know in ga they have them for free an there is all kinds of free test online