Tips For New Class A CDL Truck Drivers

Welcome to the trucking industry! I would like to offer a few tips for your first year as a new Class A CDL truck driver. In the very beginning, you will have limited opportunities, so I would approach it with your primary goal of getting some experience. More than likely (not impossible, but more than likely), you will not be landing your dream job out of the gate, especially in a tough market. You will hear time and time again, "Sorry, we require x amount of experience", and they do. It doesn't matter if you were raised around trucks, if you come from a long line of truck drivers, if you're a fast learner, etc. It is what it is, and that is the experience they require. Typically, it's not negotiable.

Mistakes that can be made with some new drivers thinking they can hold out for that local dream job is that many of the starter companies that bring in recent graduates will want you to have graduated within the last 60–90 days (approximate). If you let more time than that go by, you have limited your opportunities even more. If you haven't landed that local dream job within 45 days of graduating, I would start strongly considering hopping on board with that OTR starter company. Your dream job will be there when you gain the experience they require.

This part I can't stress enough. It is important that you select a starter company that is going to be verifiable when you leave. When applying for new jobs, you are not just going to be asked how much experience you have; you will be asked how much "verifiable" experience you have. I can't count how many times a new driver has jumped on with some sketchy, fly by night outfit for a few cents more per mile that went out of business. When trying to land that dream job with their new experience, none of that experience could be verified, so put them back to square one. Actually, it can be an even worse position than square one because they are no longer even a recent graduate so oftentimes starter companies are no longer even an option. If a prospective trucking company is calling to verify your experience and it's somebody's cell phone that never answers, it's quite probable your application is going in file 13. It is incredibly important in your first year to gain verifiable experience. That part is actually really important to maintain throughout your career, and especially in the last 3 years. Sometimes a new driver might think paystubs, a 1099 or a W-2 may work here. If it is the only experience you have more than likely it won't. A W-2 can't tell me what kind of equipment you drove, if you had any accidents, if you had any positive drug screens, if you were local or OTR, etc. That information is obtained from the company you drove for. A W-2 or paystubs may work for documentation purposes if you have some other verifiable experience to fall back on.

Go ahead and put together a 10-year resume. Even if you haven't worked a full 10 years, in the gap, you can just specify being in high school, unemployed in college, unemployed living with parents, etc. Put in Uber Eats, Lyft, landscaping jobs, construction, warehouses, wherever you have worked. Any unemployment gaps, just put the dates and explain those gaps. Trucking companies will be asking for 10 years of employment history once you start driving a truck, so go ahead and put your thinking cap on and go back 10 years. The Tenstreet Intelliapp, also known as the Driver Pulse App, will be your friend here. Download the app on your phone and put all of your information in it, including that 10-year work history. Moving forward, it will autofill for you when doing an Intelliapp, and at this point, Intelliapp is pretty much the industry standard application for most trucking companies. Take your time and do a thorough application. The most important focus on accuracy is the last 3 years. Even though trucking companies ask for 10 years, it is the last 3 years that have to be verified and documented, and typically what many of them focus on. They want to know how many tickets last 3 years, how much experience last 3 years, etc. Trucking companies have to call those jobs that fall within the last 3 years and verify and document that information. This is where verifiable experience is important as well, you don't want to have 3 years of experience but only get credit for 1 year. What if the company you really want to work for needs 2 years of verifiable experience in the last 3 years and they won't accept paystubs or a W-2? That happens. Don't ever flat out lie or stretch the truth (too much) on driver applications; it can follow you. Get as close as you can on dates; it's okay to be off a couple of months here and there. Don't take the easy way out by putting the last 3 years work history in the Intelliapp and then putting 7 years unemployed so you can blaze through that part of the application, unless you were actually unemployed those 7 years. That is usually someone pretty young. If I see an application come across and the candidate is in their 30s to 40s, then I am going to wonder what happened in that 7-year stretch.

Be honest on your application; you really can't get away with not being honest. Every one of these companies runs the exact same reports and are linked by way of those reports. I have seen companies reject an applicant for being dishonest even though they still fell within the hiring guidelines. Here is an example of how things can follow you. Let's say you worked for XYZ Trucking Company for 6 months and got let go for insubordination. On your new application, you say that you worked for XYZ for a year and resigned. Sometimes a new company is going to make you an offer based on what you send them on your application, even before XYZ information is verified. They are pre-approving your application based on what YOU sent them. Once in orientation, XYZ has since sent in their verification of employment on you. XYZ Trucking is reporting that you worked there for 6 months and were terminated. Guess who's getting sent home from orientation on the big grey dog (Greyhound bus)? You can't really be mad at the prospective employer though, they pre-approved you based on the information you gave them. Even worse, the prospective employer uses HireRight, and they are going to input that information on your HireRight employment history, also known as your DAC Report, as discharged or terminated from orientation for falsification of application. That information will stay on your HireRight employment history report for 7 years. Now, any new prospective employers using HireRight (and many, if not most, do) will see that when running your reports. In a nutshell here, just don't lie. Nobody likes a liar.

Just be honest, and if it's negative, make it look as good as you can. If terminated for insubordination, it will provide a box to explain. Instead of putting, I called my dispatcher an ***hole, you can spin it a different way. If you felt you were being disrespected, put it down. E.g., I was being disrespected constantly by the dispatcher, they were talking to me like I was a child and cussing me, etc. They are saying I was terminated, but it was mutual; I no longer wanted to work for a company that treats their drivers that way, and I quit.

When I see something like that on an application, I'm team driver.

The internet is the best thing to happen for drivers. It's pretty easy to find some good starter companies. I recommend joining https://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/ Once joined, just do a search for, "Good starter companies"; you will find a wealth of information, plus some of the drivers in there are pretty entertaining. You are not going to get rich out of the gate, and you may not even love the job with your starter company. Your primary goal is to get the experience you need to get the job you love. If you're not deliriously happy, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye, try to stay with them for 6–12 months. If you have your eye on a company that requires 6 months of experience, then 6 months in with the starter company apply for it. One more tip: many trucking companies won't count the training towards your experience. Typically, training with a starter company lasts at or around 30 days, so if your dream job requires 6 months of experience, you may need to put in 7 months with the starter company. I hope you found some of this useful and helpful. Be safe, and I wish you the best of luck in all of your endeavors! You can find the Driver Pulse app by visiting the app store, found both on iOS and Android.

Download from the Google Play Store

Download from the iOS App Store