Question:
I just graduated from A good CDL school in Kentucky. I am going to start work the first of September. I have picked two companies that sound the best to me. It will be Werner or TMC. My biggest need is money.
I just got out of the Marines, the VA will do an apprenticeship program with Werner, and Werner is the only trucking company they will do this with and this means I will receive $9300 from My GI bill from the VA my first year working with Werner.
At TMC it is said that I would make more money then I would at Werner even with the $9300 from the VA. After 30 days with TMC I can get 25% to 35% of what the truck makes. Werner would be 26 to 28 cent per mile $75 to off load the truck and $15 for every stop plus the big $9300 from the VA.
Both recruiters is telling me that I will make about $1000 a week and home every weekend. I do not like to take the ward from just a recruiter but for now that is all I have to go off. I am not scared of hard work or home time. I just want to make the kind of money I use to make.
Any advice I could get from here on this matter will most likely be my deciding factor on who to go with.
Thanks to anyone that answers, and thinks to the webmaster of this website. Your website was a big help on picking my school.

Answer:
No offense, but if you wanted to keep on making the money you used to make, you should have stayed in the Corps...
Do not waste your valuable VA benefits on two-bit trucking companies like Werner...do yourself a favor, find yourself a local gig, (CDL A or B) and move in with family or friends while you build experience...
You ain't gonna get rich pushing freight out here....
Semper Fi
PP
USMC (Ret)
Answer:
Any local jobs worth a damn that I've seen will not hire a new driving school grad.
My advice would be take either one (my choice would be TMC, based on what I've seen of their equipment, and the reputation they have for training on load securment) get your year or two years experience and then start looking for a local job.
If you can do $1000 a week consistent thats not all bad.
Answer:

Didn't say he had to find a local job that was "worth a damn...."
Just something to keep his sanity, family and finances in some sort of order while he learns...
Maybe that way he will be lucky enough to escape the OTR trap altogether....
Answer:
The $9300 from the VA is a given if you go with a certain outfit, other than that nothing else is a given including figures for potential income... unless you get them to put it in writing.

Answer:
I doubt seriously you could get home every weekend or gross $1000.00 with Werner.(possible.......not likely)
At TMC you will get home most weekends and grossing $1000.00 a week is possible after you get some experience under your belt but it will take a several months for that.
TMC delivers lots of lumber to the company I work for..................I talk to their drivers almost daily.
I haul lumber locally in the D/FW area and I gross close to a grand a week based on 50 hours.
Answer:
There was a fellow on here a couple years ago who went out and pounded the pavement looking for a local job. He had just finished driving school. He got on as a trainee with a chemical tank company and never looked back. Good money at a good local company.
Don't let anyone tell you there aren't any local companies that hire newbies. There are alot of them. They just don't advertise in the online recruiting sites or in the trucking rag mags. You actually have to put out a little effort to find them.

Answer:
Truer words never spoken.
I dont work for a "trucking" company.................I work for a lumber company that has its own trucks.
Answer:
My first driving job was with a local company, didn't even have to attend a trucking school. I stared as a helper and was trained by them to drive. Ever job after that has been local(with the exception of 6 months with NFI). You can find a local company that will hire you right out of school. You just got to look. In my area I know of about five that will hire inexperience new drivers with no OTR experience. they my not pay a grand a week to start with but you are home every night and you will get that grand a week evenatlly. SPEECH IS WORDS THAT THEY WILL BEND
FREEDOM WITH THIER EXCEPTION"
Metallica "Eye of the Beholder"


Answer:
Former Marine here too..
Out of the 2 companies you chose TMC would be my choice.. Save your VA / GI bill $$ for somthing else..
I don't know your situation, so I cannot recomend you don't go OTR, some people love the life, others want to be home all the time. There are a LOT of us former, retired, military out here.. (I got 13 yrs invested and had to get out on a medical..)
You are in for a rough start before you'll see decent $$. It does not matter who you start out with.. You'll be put in with a company trainer for weeks, or maybe months.. making peanuts.. When you get your own truck you will be doing better.. A local job won't have this down time and you could almost jump in and make money..
OTR drivers do okay but I don't think anyone in the trucking buisness will be making big bucks...
What was your MOS in the Corps? Have you looked into the Dept. of Energy?
They need CDL drivers to operate their SST's (Safe Secure Transports) A Gov't job would be better than anything you've mentioned so far. Where do you live? Have you looked at working on a Army, USMC, Air Force Base near you?? they have civilian jobs on base that pay darn good and you have benifits! There is a residency requirement to work for the DOE. Plus you have to be under 35 years old if I remember right.
Just a thought.. PM me if you want some more info on DOE jobs.. I'll tell ya what I know. I wanted to do this but wound up being too old.
Answer:
strange choices
Why not Roadway, ABF or Yellow?

Answer:
Just trying to open some peoples eyes to "other" options..
There are more jobs out there than driving for 1 of the big carriers!!! Ya just gotta think a bit, and being a former Marine.. thought he might want somthing a little more exciting / important than being a average joe freight hauler!
Answer:
Good luck in your choice. For TMC, check out www.flatbedfred.com this guy is posting his time there. He is also trying to recruit, so take it as it is. But it sounds good. I started with Werner, they were great coming out of school. I had no complaints with them. Stayed there for about 3 years, got myself a good record and now drive for Wal-Mart, and am quite happy. So, you already have run across na-sayers here, so be aware of the difficulties in trucking, but also there are some good points to.

Answer:
I would just like to say thanks for all the advice. I have read all that has been posted here and other forums as well and I have talked to every TMC and Werner driver that I have seen here in my small town in Kentucky. I am really leaning my decision to go with TMC at this time. I have listed some of the articles that others has said and put my thought with them. If anyone can think of any thing that I should consider that has not been listed, please post it. As of write now, I am set up to start 12 days of class in SC. next Tuesday
TMC
Encouraging-
Equipment (seen it and like it)
Reputation (not one TMC driver has ever said TMC was a mistake for them)
A retired navy person said, has been very satisfied personally and financially (retired navy people don’t lie to there simper fi brothers)
Get home most weekends and grossing $1000.00, a week is possible (that would be $52,000 my first year driving a truck)
Neutral-
Your truck has to be squared away (I am a very clean and squared away as long as this is not like putting on Alfas and working in them everyday then this would not be to bad)
Will work you to death (as long as it is legal, safe, and the money reflects this would be very good) (Iraq did not kill me and I don’t think a truck company will ever work me that hard)
Discouraging-
The load securement class is like "boot camp" for flatbedders (did boot camp before and did not like it)
You will never have the proper time to rest (have to keep it safe)
Flat bedding is BS work tarping a load in the dead of winter with high crosswinds, bone chilling cold, and iced flatbed decking you will slip off. (I am sure there will be hard times that I will have to suck up)
Werner
Encouraging-
Nearly 10,000 dollars of free money (Waste valuable VA benefits when I could use this later but I do not think I ever will)
Neutral-
Two former Werner drivers said, they were with them for aprox three plus years and would refer new drivers to them, had no complaints with them.
Two Werner drivers have said this, only stayed so I would not have more than one employer for my 1st year...
(If three people say the same thing about anything, it must be true)
Discouraging-
Doubt seriously that you could get home every weekend or gross $1000.00 with Werner. (Possible...not likely)
Other Companies and not driving at all-
There was a lot said to me about this. I have did the home work for this to and as far as another company that is better then these two in Kentucky I have not found it and I really like these two a lot. Driving a truck is something that I have wanted to do all my life and now that I am out of the Marines, I have that freedom to go and try it out.

Answer:
Bust the bubble time...

You contacted every present and former Driver?

When you add the Driver wage to a Retirement income you can be satisfied
financially. On a side note, Truckdrivers in general tend to lie.

It may be possible but highly unlikely in your first year.

The above quote is all to familiar around here. Folks looking for confirmation as compared to information on the vocation. Your mind is made
up, give it a shot. TMC would be the better choice as compared to Werner.