If you are considering a career as a truck driver, you will need to undergo the CDL truck driver training. This is why you might be looking for everything you should know for free training for CDL. If nothing else, finding this type of training will mean that you don’t invest thousands in something you end up not liking, or you end up not finding work in.
Everything You Should Know for Free Training for CDL:
If you want to become a truck driver, you have to have a certain amount of driving experience. When you graduate from a certified trucking school, you will meet that requirement. Hence, you will be able to look for work as well. Free CDL training is almost always company sponsored, rather than being free for everyone. What it means is that your employer will pay for the tuition, rather than you, which is not the same as it being free.
Having Your Employer Pay for Your CDL Training:
Everything comes at a price these days, and if your employer agrees to pay for your CDL, you will usually also have to sign a contract that states that you will remain with the same employer for a number of years, or you will have to pay back the cost of the training. Additionally, everything you should know for free training for CDL includes that, once you have had your training, you won’t be driving independently yet. Rather, you will have to work as a driver’s aid to someone else, which effectively means that you give an employer cheap labor.
Effect on Your Pay:
For those weeks that you are under training, you will be working as an aide, and your pay will be but a fraction of that of a qualified CMV driver. Of course, nobody ever starts at the top, but if you are expected to work in the same professional manner, at the same schedule, and with the same load as a CMV driver, you should get paid for that as well. Sometimes, you will get paid as little as 23 cents per mile, which may just put you below the poverty level.
Disadvantages of Free CDL Training:
There are many other massive drawbacks to so-called “free” CDL training. One of them is that, should you leave your employment within less than a year, you will have to pay back the cost of the course. The cost is often far higher than what you would have paid if you had simply purchased the training yourself. Some have to pay around $9,000 to their employer, when they could have had the training for around $3,500. Plus, the employer will usually report this to the credit agencies as well!
So is it worth it? The problem is that CDL training is expensive and if you don’t have the money to pay for it, then opting for “free” training is often the only way forward. If nothing else, you will be guaranteed a job for at least another year, albeit one that is paid significantly below what you should get paid. On the other hand, it will be only for one year, which means you have the time to find something else as well.
