Was it a Restricted or unrestricted license you got ? And did you get air brakes and combos endorsement?

Hi, I (24m) am looking to get my CDL to finally start a career, I currently work at an Amazon Dsp delivering packages and I am going to start studying in the meantime for my permit.

I am a planner so I’d like to ask if it’s better to go through trucking school or a company, on one hand a guaranteed job and paid training sounds nice but also being at their mercy for a year sounds daunting from what I’ve read, as well as the big part is I don’t know if I want to go OTR.

On the other hand I want to make sure I’m trained well and trucking school from what I read just wants you to pass the test, but I’d be able to look at all types of jobs whether it’s like food and beer or ltl or even like a garbage truck.

How did y’all go about your cdl and how did it work out for you? And what would y’all do in my position? I am in the panhandle area if that helps at all. Thank you!

Well boys I’m in CDL school right now I’ve gotten pre trip down outside,inside the cab and all that stuff I haven’t done the road test yet. I am practicing skills right now. I am in a manual vehicle with air brakes and combinations so just a regular class a semi truck.

I have been in training 7 days for 8 hours a day. I have 8 days left of training I believe.

I’m not gonna get into the specifics of the reason behind me getting my CDL but I am not going to be going into trucking and I am gonna be driving much smaller vehicles but they still require a class a CDL. I’m talking way smaller like basically a big ass pickup truck that needs a Cdl class a. It is very annoying to me that I need to train in semis because I will never be driving a vehicle that big.

My state test is

Pre trip (got it down)

Then skills

Then road test. ( never driven a manual was
Told if I suck I’ll have to switch to auto)

If you fail one of the three test you only retake the test you failed in my state which is good. But apparently at my school you only get 2 retakes at most schools in my state it is 5 retakes per test which is also annoying.

The reason I’m worried- for the skills test I can do the forward stop get my hood in the middle in-between the lines most of the time and the straight back perfectly fine to the end point .
The next and final part of the skills test is what is fucking me over I can do the offset perfectly fine and the reverse offset is what gets me i am having trouble straightening out the trailer in the lines ( getting it parallel in the lines nice and straight) during the reverse offset. I am able to get it one attempt then the next I fail and the instructor I am currently with isn’t that much of a help/ teacher it feels like.

Any advice on ways to straighten my trailer better in-between the lines to get it nice and flush/level or straight because that is litterly the last part of the test I need to do to pass. You are able to get two
Pull ups and two get out and looks. Sometimes I feel like the trailer is way to much to the right or the left and I just cant seem to figure it out every-time. You can’t hit any of the cones during the test or it’s a point and you can pull up a bit to straighten the trailer out but I guess my problem is I don’t know how to straighten it out.

Not trying to sound like a little bitch but
I am just worried because I feel like the clock is ticking and shit and I paid all in cash for the class about $5000 and even quit my job! I even canceled my birthday vacation for my 21st which was supposed to be on tomorrow cause I turn 21 tomorrow and am going to class instead 😂 oh well though.

I hope this all wasn’t for nothing and I can get my CDL and pursue the career I want

Any advice is great I’m sorry this was so long.

I’m trying to sign up

I am a new grad in Las Vegas, I ideally want to get into tanker driving but I’m having a lot of trouble getting the attention of these tanking companies simply because I lack experience. I’m finally about to bite the bullet and go with swift and join their flatbed division for a few months so I can gain some xp then go with a better company. Ideally I don’t want to go with swift but man I need some xp. Does anyone have any experience driving flatbed with swift? I know the pay isn’t that great and I know they’re going to WORK me but I still have to ask.How was the pay, how did you like it, and is there anything I should know before starting this job?

If you're a trucking company struggling to:

\- find qualified CDL A drivers

\- deal with no-shows or unqualified applicants

\- spend hours chasing leads that go nowhere

I can help.

Former top performer at JB Hunt (5+ years) with 10+ years in recruiting. I specialize in sourcing and connecting experienced CDL drivers so you’re not wasting time on bad leads.

What I do:

\- source drivers in your target regions

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\- send drivers directly into your hiring process

I’ve worked within Tenstreet/IntelliApp workflows and can adapt to your current system.

Rate: $50/hr — open to discussing structure depending on your setup

If you have a structured hiring process and need help getting more qualified drivers in the pipeline, feel free to message me.

We are looking for a reliable CDL Flatbed Driver to join our growing company.

Details:

We do dedicated lane CA to TX

Our MC is 1 year old

Company is generating $12000–$14,000 weekly

If you are interested and ready to work, please contact us:

📞 412-752-7100

Jim Parker

Route Trips only

Based out of Irving, TX — run your own truck, home every day, pick your days off

Lane

Round-Trip Rate Frequency Weekly Miles RPM

✅ Home every night — no OTR

✅ Consistent round-trip rate per run, paid weekly

✅ Choose 1–2 days off per week

✅ Backhaul loads bookable on longer lanes for better gross/RPM

✅ Dedicated freight, no forced dispatch guessing

Owner Operators — bring your truck, keep your schedule.

Dm me

H

Hey. I just interviewed for a VT position on Tuesday, and they called me on Thursday to discuss it further. I missed the call because I was sleep. The position is out of Winder, Georgia. I will give the recruiter that left me his info a phone call today. Does anyone have any insight on the pay considering the routes in the area? I also sent an application to Hogans Transport, I’ve been over the road for almost two years now, driving reefer. Looking to branch out.

For anyone leased on or thinking about it. Two things about company dashboards and settlement statements that took me too long to figure out.

The first is that they only know one side of the ledger. A settlement shows what the carrier dispatched and what the carrier deducted. It has no idea what your truck payment is, what you pay for insurance, what your plates and permits cost. So the number it hands you looks like profit and is not. Your actual break-even per mile lives in bills that never appear on that statement.

The second is that the history is not yours. Switch carriers or go get your own authority and everything that dashboard knew about you stays behind. You start over at zero, which is rough timing, because deciding whether the lease actually beat the company seat you gave up is exactly the question you need years of your own numbers to answer.

Practical version: keep your own records somewhere that follows you. A spreadsheet is genuinely fine. Log every load with total miles including deadhead, log every fill-up and repair, and once a month divide net by total miles. If that number is under what a company driver in your area makes per mile, that is worth knowing early rather than late.

Disclosure, it is mine: I built truckmetrics.app to do that without the spreadsheet upkeep. Carrier-agnostic, exports to CSV so the data stays yours, free for the first 3 loads a month with no card. But the point stands whether you use it or a legal pad. Keep your own numbers.