Don’t Let Bad Credit Derail Your CDL Training

If you’ve thought about CDL training but think you have no shot because of bad financial history, you need to rethink. A poor financial history should never stop you from getting into CDL training.

That’s because there are a lot of CDL schools that will give you training for free as long as you agree to work for them for a set amount of time, in most cases one year. This is a win-win scenario for both you and the school. You get a guaranteed job in the near future and the company gets a guaranteed employee who was trained the company way.

You can get accepted into these paid CDL training schools with no money down and with bad or no credit.

The way it works is that you go to the school for about a month. You are trained and eventually earn your Class A CDL. You then go with an instructor on the road, where you will learning how to do your job the right way. After some time, usually 30-45 days, you are assigned your own truck and take to the road as a full-time employee. After you finish your one-year assignment, you can continue to work for the company or you can leave to find a different job.

Why would a company offer free training and a job? What’s the catch? Well, your job will be as an over-the-road (OTR) driver during that first year. You will be on the road for two to three weeks at a time before you will earn home time. You usually get one home day for each week on the road.

This kind of lifestyle is not appealing to most truck drivers. They like to be home every night, or at least every weekend. So companies are always in need of OTR drivers. That’s where you as a student-driver come into play. You get paid CDL training in return for doing something that most people in the trucking industry shy away from.

But not everyone is like this Some people enjoy OTR driving. You can see the country and you don’t have a boss constantly on your back. Also, if you aren’t married or don’t have children can bank some good money without a mortgage or child-support payments. You can stay with friends, family or get a room somewhere during the few days that you’re home every month.

You will not be making big money during this time. The company needs to recoup some of the money it spent on your training, so the pay is low. But this is the price you have to pay for getting valuable truck driving experience.

And that experience is absolutely valuable. Most companies won’t hire anyone without at least a year of driving experience. So your OTR experience will be premium when you’re job-hunting down the road.

So don’t think a bad financial situation is a roadblock to getting CDL training.. No money or no credit doesn’t matter. You can start a new career in truck driving if that’s what you truly want to do.