How to start with no experience?

[jelliott]

I have from time to time been approached by people with no experience looking to get their cdl and start into expediting. Most recently this happened a number of times at the EO workshop in Knoxville last week and most recently a pm today. Load One requires one year experience with a cdl and expediting and I am guessing most of the larger players do as well. What companies will take a complete newbie and would anyone here recommend them? Just want to be prepared with better answers the next time I am approached.

 

[ChrisGa23]

Panther is the only one I know of. This is off their site.


* At least 21 years of age for cargo vans and straight trucks (no experience necessary)
* At least 22 years of age for tractor-trailers with a minimum of 6 months recent, verifiable
tractor-trailer driving experience

 

[Wolfeman68]

I have from time to time been approached by people with no experience looking to get their cdl and start into expediting. Most recently this happened a number of times at the EO workshop in Knoxville last week and most recently a pm today. Load One requires one year experience with a cdl and expediting and I am guessing most of the larger players do as well. What companies will take a complete newbie and would anyone here recommend them? Just want to be prepared with better answers the next time I am approached.

I've been asked the same question John. I don't know of any carriers that will accept cdl drivers without experience. A couple of carriers require a cdl to drive a Sprinter or cargo van. I imagine that it is due to the way their liability insurance is set up. I personally don't require a Sprinter driver to have a cdl, but my insurance rates are cheaper if they do.

As for straights and tractors, if they have no experience no one will sign them on. The only way I know of to get that experience is to team with an experienced driver for a period of time. Carriers may accept that, but they don't advertise it. Panther mentions spouse training, but that's it.

That said, I would also be concerned that the person has no experience in this lifestyle. Most of us here advise those looking into expedite to drive with or for a fleet owner to see if this is the life for them.

You not only need driving experience, you need to know if you can handle the lifestyle as well.

 

[greg334]

"What companies will take a complete newbie and would anyone here recommend them?"

Despite what people will say - FedEx will take newbies without any experience at all but that is through an established owner and I would never ever recommend it.

 

[jaminjim]

Panther requires no experience for a straight truck.

 

[jimby82]

Sort of sounds like a "catch-22". To be able to get hired to drive, you have to have experience, but there is no way to get experience other then driving, but you have to have experience before anyone while hire you to drive to get the experience.

So how did we get all the current truck drivers?

I really did not remember it earlier, but now that I think about it, we spoke to a FedEx recruiter at the Expo a couple of years back. If I remember correctly, she mentioned if we did not have driving experience, we would have to take a road test (through a company they contracted with) to prove we knew how to handle a truck. (We were talking class B CDL, "D" unit straight as a team)

As to know whether or not you can handle the lifestyle, well, you won't unless you have the ..... wait ... for ... it .... experience.

My wife and I are looking at driving, but neither of us have experience (I have driven, but many, many, many years ago in the pre-CDL days - she never has) I guess this really narrows our options down as to choice of carriers and potential owners.

Sounds like there are at least two carriers to look at, FedEx and Panther. Seems sort of odd in a way that it's the two largest in the business. Almost seems like it would be the other way around?!?

Anyone been through this recently? Where did you get your experience?

Thanks again, and thank you John for bringing this up.

 

[nightcreacher]

"What companies will take a complete newbie and would anyone here recommend them?"

Despite what people will say - FedEx will take newbies without any experience at all but that is through an established owner and I would never ever recommend it.

In a tractor they become co-driver only,and have to have school and 6 months.

 

[sparkle8859]

My first company after I got out of school was Covenant. My suggestion is go 18 wheeler with a large company first. England,Covenant, Schneider. Don't go with Us Express they only have automatics, and in my opinion you would just limit yourself in what type of equipment you could drive. all these have training programs and have husband and wife programs. After 6 months you can go anywhere you want. Think of it like boot camp if you can handle that you can handle anything! But beware,this industry has the highest divorce rate in any industry.Your together 24 hrs a day! And you cant slam curtains!

 

[bcordell70]

My wife and I started at the end of June 2010, I already had my Class A CDL from a truck driving school, my wife went to Mid Florida Tech to obtain her class B. We paid $1200 for her classes which included the cost of her license. The classes lasted 6 weeks.

We then signed on with Expediter Services, It had been so long since I had drove that I payed the $125 for the re-certification which according to Fedex counts for 6 months experience.

This is the only experience the wife and I had and have been here since, of course we have our own truck now and have loved it from day 1.

But I will note that when I spoke to ES they asked me which company we wanted to sign on with and they have trucks with Fedex, Panther, and Express 1.

Oh must also add that I researched and read here on EO for a good year before we did anything

 

[paullud]

The thing to remember is that expedite companies rarely hire people without driving experience but that is why most start out with regular freight companies such as Werner, Swift, etc.

 

[layoutshooter]

We had no experience when we started. I had to take a FedEx road test, my wife did not. Some body has to hire newbies or there would never be any new drivers. I road with owners for several months before I went out on my own.

 

[jelliott]

Actually the very large companies sometimes have a harder time recruiting the numbers they need. This gives them an "edge". They also tend to have much larger deductibles and are considered somewhat self insured. This gives them much more flexibility to set their own hiring and experience standards.

 

[greg334]

But John part of the problem with larger companies seems to be that they don't keep all their trucks moving but rather treat them as on demand capacity.

 

[buckwheat]

"How to start with no experience" is an excellent question, especially for a "wanna be" newbie like myself. I've been wanting to get into expediting for a while now and after finding the EO forums have learned a lot. I've PM'd some forum contributors and found that opinions vary on everything from which truck is best to income to lifestyle,etc. That was what I expected. As a newbie I know there will be a learning curve. Having been a boss and business owner for over 30 years, I also know that taking on new people can be challenging.I look at work history and experience and make a decision. Suffice to say that I'm dissapointed way more than I'm satisfied. I expect a lot from myself and I guess that tends to spill over. The one fact that I know I can count on is my own abilities. Ideally, I wanted to get on with a carrier who would know my name. I figured the big carriers would look at me more as an expendable entity than a team member and that's a little depressing. Not that I think I'm special in any particular way, I just like to know who I'm dealing with.

I guess before this turns into too much of a long winded story, I'm open to suggestions from anyone and everyone. I can take a smackdown. PM's, forum posts, anything. Thanks.

 

[jjoerger]

We went to Sage Truck Driving School and got our Class A CDL's.
Started with FedEx and Expediter Services with no experience.

 

[wombat52]

Well this is a good post
but now i am going to ask this and a few other maybe suggestions how does someone get experince or know if this is what they want to do for maybe the next 40 yrs
1 first there is the insurance companys that said experince yes i cannot blame them because of the higher possible rate maybe of a in experince driver becoming involded in a accident
2 then there is the company almost the same as #1
3 then there is the lifestyle of being away from your love ones or fido for several weeks or longer like 7 weeks or longer
4 could it be maybe possible for a pilot program to be set where someone travels with a driver to see if this is what they want to do like travelling at all hours of the night across lonely interstates that when you are normanly sleeping your out on the road

just like we all been there i know 42yrs ago i just got out of the army walked into my first company g,day mate want to drive truck got experince nope sorry well how in the bloody hell and i suppose to get it two days later i was out there with big joe heading to coober pedy then onto halls creek nt but i do know that was 42yrs ago just like when i moved here to this great country a long time ago same issue but with a full resume and letters of recomemdation i was able to safitfied this outfit in warren pa .
then i broke into expediting several yrs later with a good mate of mind & still a good mate of mind .

so like i said i am not sure if what i mention would be possible but i guess it at least could be looked at i for one would be willing if my owner did agree to it just like on another issue that i heard once that our load programmers dispatchers should come out for a week or two to see what it is like out here but in return we should sit in there for a full day to see what they do all day long but yes i know it comes down insurance issues .

 

[wombat52]

one last item in the suggestion of someone travelling with the driver i mean travelling with very limit driving or even passenger status only !!|
wombat

 

[jelliott]

Well at least now I have some information to help advise newbies.

 

[Vinnie T]

Some carriers i called before require two yrs exp with a CDL

The way it was explained to me was depends on the carrier's insurance company. The larger firms like Panther, Swift, Schnieder, JB Hunt can take rookies because they are self insured meaning "they have a lot of money in the bank to cover anything"!

I know some of the smaller firms can take a class B co-driver in a str8 trk running team depending on the company.

 

[TheRebel]

That said, I would also be concerned that the person has no experience in this lifestyle. Most of us here advise those looking into expedite to drive with or for a fleet owner to see if this is the life for them.

You not only need driving experience, you need to know if you can handle the lifestyle as well.

Nobody was born an experienced expediter, so, from my p.o.v., everybody deserves a chance.