You've finished truck driving school, decided what endorsements you are applying and testing for, and you've even gone to the DMV and taken and passed all required exams, so now what?
Lets discuss the issue of driver pay. Just like statistical information can be shaped to highlight something in a positive light; so can driver pay? For example if one carrier offered to pay you $0.32 per mile and gave you 2200 miles per week, you actually make less than taking a job with a carrier that only pas $0.26 per mile and gives you 2900 miles per week. When it comes to driver pay look at what your NET checks will be, not your pay per mile. Ask any veteran truck driver and they will tell you JD Truck Training Centre is all about the miles.
Well after 5 or 6 more hours you finally get your load unloaded. This is probably 12:00 midnight by now and going on 3 days with no sleep,no eat,no shower, and guess what you still have a half hour of driving left to hopefully get into a truck stop and parked.
When the issue of money is resolved, it's time to decide if the desired school's location will be a good fit for your current situation (i.e. single Truck licence or married with a family). Are you going to commute daily? If so, how far? Gas can get very costly! Or, are you going to move to attend your choice of Truck driving school? If so, where are you going to reside and at what cost? Some truck driving schools do offer dorms similar to a college campus; but it will obviously raise the cost of attending the institution.
After a few seconds the mushroom of the fireball started breaking up and the original, inky black smoke began rising again, with flames licking and crackling around it.
If you don't like your experience and the students coming out of the school aren't satisfactory to the companies they go to work for then the school is going to die a long, slow death. Nobody will HR Truck Licence want to attend. So they will get straight to work filling you with information.... and tons of it.
Remember, ask anything and everything BEFORE you sign the paper work. Also, take the contract home and read every word, very carefully. If something is unclear, ask someone outside of the school. Be certain that you understand everything within the contract before signing. Once signed, you will be held responsible.
When you look at your logs as a tool for trip tracking you will see more profitability. We will look at On-time Service and how it affects other parts of trip planning in part 3 of this series of Trip Planning for Truck Driving School Students. Even though you may still be in truck school, this article and the article to follow will help you develop into a profitable driver.