The Details

Oh, the details.

I've been researching the trucking industry and trucking companies (called carriers, within the ranks of truckers and those like them) heavily in the past month and a half or so. In order to drive a tractor trailer you first have to get your CDL (commercial driver's license). There are a few different ways to go about doing this, but the one that is the most feasible (and also the quickest) is to find a company that will pay for you to receive training, and then hire you once you are learned in the ways of driving a truck. There are a ridiculous amount of trucking companies out there to choose from, but only a handful actually hire 21 yr olds with no experience or CDL, and then provide them with the training to get it. I spent my last three weeks in Auburn waking up early to call and express interest in companies and leaving work early in the evening to talk with the recruiters (all trucking companies have people called recruiters who try to find potential candidates for employees). I thought of every possible important question to ask them, and wrote them down ahead of time so as to make the calling most efficient. When I called each company I asked this set list of questions and wrote down all their responses and then compared all the companies side by side. Once I filled out applications, I had a job offer within a week. A week after that I decided on the company that I most wanted to work for.

The company's name is Swift.

I leave on a bus tomorrow to Swift's south-eastern training facility in Memphis. They are paying for my bus fare, as well as my stay in a hotel during the training, and food while I'm up there. The training period will last from November 28th to December 19th or 20th. During this time I won't be receiving any pay. In this time period I'll be spending a week and a half or so in a classroom learning from videos, books, and an instructor; and then I'll take my CDL-permit test. Once I receive the permit, I'll go out on the road for a week and a half or so with a driver-trainer and learn the basics of operating a semi-truck. After that, I take a road test and receive my CDL. Once those three weeks are up, I catch a ride via bus or a truck heading towards Huntsville for a break for Christmas and New Years. By January 2nd, I'll be back on the road again. I'll be partnering up with a driver-trainer for 4-6 weeks, until the middle of February or so. By that time, I'll have learned enough about the truck and drove a good 15,000 miles and I will be given the keys to my own truck to drive solo. There are a few different types of drivers, such as an Owner-Operator, Short-Haul, etc-- but I'll be a company driver. Which means I'm not leasing or buying my own truck. Instead, I'll be driving a company-owned truck. However, during my duration with Swift nobody but me will drive this particular truck. What that means is that I take it home with me. I'll also be driving as an Over The Road driver, which is basically the most intense of the truck-drivers. What that means is that I'm in it for the long-haul, and I mean that very literally. I'll spend 2-3 weeks out on the road at a time, with 3-4 days off after those stretches. I'll drive to one place, pick up a load, then drive to another place in another part of the country and drop it off, and then drive to another part of the country to pick up another load, to later drop it off. The most I can drive during a 24-hour period is 12 hours. During that 12 hours, I'm required to get some amount of sleep, the number of which escapes me at the moment. An average driver drives 3,000 miles a week. I hope to drive 4,000+. When I do sleep, I'll sleep in the back of the truck, which has a full-sized bed in it, as well as connections for fridges, microwaves, televisions, etc. I get paid by the mile, so the more I'm on the road, the more money I make. I'll have full dental, medical, and vision insurance for something like $60.00 a month, which is great.

These are the details, thus far. Aside from what I left out, everything else is totally unknown to me. So needless to say, this is going to be a huge experience. Tomorrow/today I need to get some errands done and pack in time to be at the bus station downtown at 8:30 AM.

I don't know if I'll have internet access during training. If I don't I'm bringing along a notebook to make sure I document all of my thoughts and observations about the whole thing. I'm also bringing my camera as well, so expect pictures soon.

Stay tuned. It's about to get interesting.