Question:
How many drivers actually finish out there 1-year contracts?
How do you pay back the carrier fir the CDL if you leave before your contract is up? Payment book, weekly or monthly bill, etc.
Do the more respectable carriers have a more lenient attitude as far as a newbie leaving a carrier with a crappy reputation to pursue the more respectable carrier? (Huh? I don't think I understand the question and I wrote it!)
Anyway thanks in advance for the input.Why do drive-up ATMs have Braille on the keypads?

Answer:
How many drivers actually finish out their 1-year contracts? 5 - 10%.
How do you pay back the carrier for the CDL if you leave before your contract is up? Payment book, weekly or monthly bill, etc. They'll bill you periodically and if you don't pay, your contract will be sold to a collection agency with the hit against your credit report.
Do the more respectable carriers have a more lenient attitude as far as a newbie leaving a carrier with a crappy reputation to pursue the more respectable carrier? If you satisfy your obligation to them, no problem. Matter of fact, they'll keep contacting you to come back to work for them. BOL

Answer:

Probably -- if the newbie stayed long enough (six months) to qualify as an "experienced" driver. But be forwarned. Despite the recruiter's bravado about how their company is better...yadayadayada.... they'll match your complaint against what they know you'll face at their company. Most of the issues drivers have with their first job are universal from company to company. The "more reputable carriers" realize they have difficult conditions too, and may want to avoid someone who trashes their first employer for conditions not that different than from their own.
This is why these "free training" programs are such a problem. Most who get into it do not stay. And although the total cost after paying-off the debt comes out about the same as paying for a regular "truck school" up front, collecting after the fact hits the disillusioned driver at the worst possible time -- when they're probably in financial crisis trying to pick-up the pieces of a failed attempt at trucking.

Answer:
With this and the rest of the post it looks as if your giving thought to training with a company you have no intentions of staying with fo the year? If it's Swift no one would blame you. Some of the others also.
But you should stay at your first company atleast a year to get a good start. It isn't exactly needed in trucking right now as it is a drivers market but it would look better to other companies that do actually offer some thing you might actually want and like later on. I always tell new people to hang in a year at your first company and to go the company training route because it is alot mor foolproof. If they accept your into their school then you will have a driving job with them when finished. Also since your first year will be ahrd and probably suck anyway one training company is about the same as another.
Just keep in mind not all training companies have their own school. Some use private schools and some own their own. If it is a true company owned school then your cost will be minimal but a private school will be much higher. If you do not stick it out a s a driver like hundreds a year then your financial loss would be alot less with a Company school. But with private you could be in debt for thousands if you quite your first job early or just gt out of driving.
Let them train you and stick out at the least one year and save a bundle of cash while checking out driving as a career.

Answer:
If you have the cash up front, you'll be reimbursed by your first large training company for the entire amount you spent on truck school, usually added to your paycheck at $100 - $200 per month. It's called "Tuition Reimbursement" and is offered by ALL the major entry-level carriers. It is, in effect, a sign-on bonus for newbies. Take your truck school contract to orientation so that the amount can be properly documented for reimbursement.
The catch is -- if you leave that company before you're fully re-imbursed, your next employer will (probably) not reimburse you for the remaining amount. Full tuition reimbursement is an incentive by your first employer to stay with them a couple years to receive the full benefit. If you switch jobs after 6 months or more, the next company will consider you "experienced", which usually eliminates the tuition reimbursement benefit.

Answer:
At 200. a month as is the usual it will take 17.5 months to reimburse a 3500 dollar school and much longer for the average 5 grand school. If you quit early you as what the company is planning on you will not get any more reimbursement. Company schools are free or very low cost and often require just one year. What is funny is alot of drivers to be who attend a private school and pay the big money end up going to work for a company who has their own school. It doesn't make sense. All they have done is waste alot of money because most will not stay in it with the first company for very long.
If you do go private then go to a Community College school. The compromise there is time. It wil be from 8 weeks to 3 months. But they are alot less exspensive.

Answer:
......and the Community College truck school programs are usually a much better education, and go into more detail than a comercial truck driving school.
Just make sure the program is PDTI certified. Ask them, "is this PDTI". They will say yes or no. If they say no, shop that community college around to a couple entry level carriers and see if they hire from them. Most carriers want PDTI certification (or equivalent) since it determines a common understanding of exactly what's taught and how much time you'll spend behind the wheel before you show up for your first training job, etc.

Answer:
It is funny how PTDI is tossed around as the all important factor in driving schools. In actuality a year later no company could care less what kind of school you attended. Even 3 months later at many companies it isn't important. It's just another way for schools and companies to make a buck but it is a must for some.
I didn't attend a certified school and had no problems. But some companies do prefere it for what ever reason.

Answer:

You started with a small mom and pop doing flatbed as I remember, and like many smaller operators doing customized training, they didn't require a certified truck school diploma. By the time your moved on to another job, your accumulated experience on the job, instead of your school diploma, had become your qualification -- as it would with any driver who'd completed their first six months or year of professional experience. (Forgive me if I didn't get the mom and pop right, but that's the best of my memory...)
The PDTI truck school certification is only important if you're considering a first job with an entry-level carrier that requires it -- the big ones. After six months or so driving truck -- almost any Class-A truck -- you cross the threshold from trainee to experienced driver, and your diploma (or even lack of it) becomes irrelevant since you've been doing the work a while.
I have no doubt many uncertified truck school programs are far better than others that rush through PDTI. But the large carriers require PDTI, and for better or worse in price or quality, PDTI opens more brand-new driver doors than an uncertified truck school diploma. Like creating potential escape paths when driving, it may be best to navigate your schooling to create the most options. That's my opinion -- others feel very strongly about avoiding the conventional qualification racket of PDTI schools and mega-carriers, in favor of a smaller scale trucking operator with more personal training and supervision -- and in some situations I agree completely.

Answer:
Nope, reefer with SRT.
The first company I could have gone with was Werner. Had they offered money I might have went with them, bonus money that is. There was many after that. The first but only for a short time was SRT. Swift, Dick Simon and a few others couldn't have cared less about PTDI schools, they just wanted warm bodies. There are a few like Millis and Roehl who want certified. Most the giants don't. I will add the school I attended was 8 weeks long and state certified which may or may not of been an added point to companies. Most of the 8 weeks is a waste of time because there is only so much you will actually learn without doing it on the road. But it was fun. Real driving and school do not compare.
But thats not the point actually. The point is to get the training as cheap as possible and to get the best possible for the money. CC programs give that as do company schools.
The problem with most schools is they are 3 week CDL mills. They teach almost nothing and dump the trainee on the companies to actually be trained. The newbies know just enough to kill themselves and others. Out of all the choices out there the 3 week or similar type schools are not only the most exspensive they are also the absolute worse when it comes to training. Stay away from fast get it now schools or any that are extremely costly. Company or CC is the best choice going and the smartest move a newbie can make.

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Unless something unforeseen comes up I will be doing my training with Swift in Millington, TN on Mar 22nd. Going to Millington issort of cool because the Navy Base there is where my dad did his Avionics A-school for the Marine Corps back in '70 or '71. (He retired in 1993) (Yes I am proud)Why do drive-up ATMs have Braille on the keypads?

Answer:
Good luck phlegmaticjay. Just act like Swift is an unorganized military training center, and you'll soar. This isn't brain surgery, and there are many worse places to get started than Swift. This sounds right for you.
Try to stay long enough to work off your "loan" from Swift of course, and above all else, be safe by following all their safety procedures to the letter. The stuff they keep telling you over and over (like getting out to look if there's any doubt) is what they've found matters the most in reducing newbie accidents. And with all the training Swift does, they should know.........
And for the rcord, Swift does require PDTI certification or equivalent from those just completing a commercial truck school. There are many schools they won't hire from. PTDI certification doesn't mean it's agreat school or a good vaule, but meets a minimum curriculum standard adopted by the majors. As posted above -- school and the actual job are very different. You won't really start learning in leaps and bounds until you get to a company and start doing the job. And in a few short days, everything you learned in truck school will seem like the pimple on the elephant you're now riding.
Stuffs -- I guess all I really remember is our very first argument......I hope I don't get too sentimental........ .....about you giving up an ungoverned (or faster) truck when you decided to leave that job. Somehow I got the impression it was a mom and pop, but my senior memory must have failed me....again....

Answer:
There are a few like Millis and Roehl who want certified.
Millis will ONLY accept trainees from THEIR schools They operate 3 training schools with the avg class size being 6 students and a new class every week. Hmmmmmm 6x3 = 18 trainees per WEEK ...... Now that times the approx 20-26 classes 360 to 468 new trainees per year. This is for a company that has apprx 700 trucks
I know in MY case there is MAYBE 1 person from the class left in the company 1 dropped at day 2 (and he HAD driven before). 5 graduated training ........ 1 wiped out with the trainer (NO surprise there) 1 got a DUI during his hometime (he was going through a rough divorce) Brian left after 6-7 months to take a job running the East Coast in a large car for some BIG $$$$$ I made it for 19 months but am STILL TRYING to catch up on the bills caused by the LOW pay. 1 MAY still be there as a trainer in Hamilton,Oh.
Of course they REALLY push the per diem pay pkg on the newbies.
Which as anyone who has researched it knows, ONLY the company benefits from the per diem pkg