This article is step 11 in our multi-step Beginner’s Guide to Becoming a CDL Driver. To read the entire guide follow the link above to be taken to our step by step slideshow.
Congratulations, by now you should have your CDL so it’s time to start putting it to good use. One of the biggest complaints that we hear from new drivers is that they have limited employer options available to them when they are first starting out. The truck driving school you went to should be able to help you find a job with an partnering trucking company, but that doesn’t mean you are going to want to work with that employer. If you don’t like the options available to you right out of school you may have a hard time finding a trucking company that is willing to hire you due to your little to no experience.
Starting out in the trucking business can be a vicious cycle: to get a job you need experience, but to get experience you need a job. Initially, it can be difficult for new drivers who just got their CDL to land their first job. After acquiring your CDL you might have tried applying to several different trucking companies, but the application rejections keep rolling in. They probably sounds something like this. “Sorry, we can’t hire you because you do not have any recent experience.” or another might be “Call us back when you get 12 months recent experience.” You might not have realized that it could be this difficult to find a job after getting your CDL. After all, the reason you got your CDL was because you thought it would be easier to find a good paying job. So what the deal?
Even though the transportation industry needs drivers, most good paying companies expect applicants to have a minimum amount of experience behind the wheel of a tractor before they are willing to give the driver a chance. The simple reason for this is that, statistically, new drivers carry with them an increased risk of being involved in an accident. Many companies don’t want this increased risk so they simply don’t hire recent graduates until they have a threshold level of experience in. As a result, trucking companies that do hire drivers with little experience are higher risk and have an increased exposure to potential insurance losses. The increased cost that is associated with hiring entry level drivers is one of the main reasons why entry level driver pay is so low. Trucking companies subsidize the increased insurance risk, by offsetting it with lower wages for entry level drivers.
For a entry level truck driver this can be frustrating to hear. How does a new driver get a job within the trucking industry with little to no experience when no one is willing to give them a chance?
The good news is that as the driver shortage continues to grow trucking companies are starting to reduce their minimum hiring standards. Even better, many trucking companies now hire entry level students and if you don’t yet have your CDL some even have their own CDL Training Programs in place.
Trucking companies that hire with no experience.
- Pam Transport
- Roehl Transport
- CR England
- Swift Transportation
- CRST
- KLLM
- Knight
- TransAm
- US Xpress
- Stevens Transport
- Maverick
- Covenant
- Schneider
If you are having a hard time finding a company that will hire you spend some time researching one of the companies above. All of the companies above run over the road, but they are also big enough that they have separate divisions which should give you increased advancement opportunities for when you get a little more experience in.