Starting out. Need lots of HELP

[GADawg]

Ok, I'm still kicking around this trucking thing. I'm not as young as most on here and have been reading alot and still have questions. Here are the basics.

Would I be better off going to a school that I pay for out of pocket or be sent by a comany?
I read someplace about people getting thier cdl's with per hour instructors. What are they and is there any advantage to going that route?

Also, thanks very much for any and all help.

[BigGee20]

You dont have to go either route, you are in Georgia. You have all types of grant you can use to go to school. You have pell grant, hope grant and other different grants in georgia. I suggest you go to your nearest Technical college near your area. And enroll there and you dont have to spend anything out your pocket or go to a company school. When you go to a technical college in georgia hope grant take care the tuition and books, so its nothing out of your pocket. so with that said, all you have to go do is enroll and get some federal aid and you are good to go.

[Mr. Down]

Bee Gee has some good advice. Be very careful if you do choose the crash course. You need to find out everything up front.

If you are financially responsible and can manage your money the CRST program isn't bad.

Finding a company to hire you with no experience will be the hardest part.

CRST is also a team operation for the new drivers, that in itself can be hard, if you end up with a crappy trainer or codriver you will hate it.

You need to ask yourself some questions,

How much money per week do you NEED?

How many hours per day do you want to drive?

How often do you want to be home?

How much physical unloading do you want to do?

How sleepy do you get after driving 8 hours?

How comfortable are you driving in bad weather?

[Mr. Down]

I think you'd be better off paying out of pocket if you can. Don't get suckered into "Truck Driving School Finance Program"

You will end up paying about 50 grand for your license over the course of a long long long time.

Watch out for some companies that do "Tuition Reimbursement" it is often very limited and rarely full reimbursement.

Originally Posted by GADawg

Would I be better off going to a school that I pay for out of pocket or be sent by a comany?

[GADawg]

Thanks for all the great advise. I think I'll first look into the Tech school idea. I just need to find one near by that offers the corse.
I guess my second choice will be to pay out of pocket.
I have a good friend that just went thru school with Driver Solutions. He went to Memphis for 3 weeks and is now in 3 week oriantation with Avertt.
He said he will be home for Christmas. I want to talk with him and see how it all went.
Thanks again for everyone's help

[BigGee20]

What area are you located at in Georgia?