Wondering about Truck School and Trucking Job

by Emily
(Nashville, TN)

Due to the horrors of the economy, my husband has found himself with no choice but to go to a trucking school to become a truck driver.

Although, I am not sure how I feel about it, I do support his decision 100% given that he is terribly excited about his career change and hope for providing for his family.

He has decided to go to TDI in Murfreesboro TN. They seem to have decent trucks and big space to teach driving, and have a record of good training.

As most good truck driving places they state that it it will be 3 to 4 days in class, then two weeks with hands on training, 2 - 3 drivers per truck to practice. Although they do not guarantee jobs (of course no one does) they do guarantee offers.

Twice we went and twice we saw recruiters there offering positions to soon to be graduates. Just in case, and because this is such a big investment I called one of their main hiring companies, Werner (I may have spelled it wrong) number gotten from internet (not from school) and they verified that they do hire graduates a lot from that school, so it leads me to hope that they are not deceiving my husband in order to just get money out of him.

They claim that pay will be based on miles, and he will make 35 to 40k per year. Also that truck companies provide a company card to pay for expenses related to truck only such as gas, truck wash, and neccesary repairs.
Does this sound normal?

I was just wondering given that some people state that money comes from out of pocket from the driver then reimburse later on, and right now we are giving all we have to invest in my husband's training, so we will be very short on cash.

I was just wondering has anyone trained with this company. As I stated there most of the students we talked too claimed to have already a job offer and were starting after they attended the orientation.

I am just afraid that maybe this is too good to be true persay. But if anyone has trained with them and states that this info is accurate, then that would really bring me some piece of mind. My husband is so excited I just do not want to cause him his dream unneccesarily.

Also, what companies are good. As I stated, there students usually get hired the most by Werner, Swift, Stevens, etc. I cannot remember the other names.

And how much of a difference in pay is a over road with and without partner?
I want him to do reginal one week work 2 days off, which Werner usually does, but he is considering the 3 weeks work with 6 days off.