every truck job.com

[Libby]

Researching for the Schools section, I've come across a couple places that expect you to submit an application for a credit card FIRST in order to pay for school under the (ridiculous) guise that "if you don't qualify for a credit card you don't meet the credit standards (background check) for CDL school." This is NOT what the rules state or even imply. Don't get taken by a credit card scam!

Your credit history is an open book to the trucking companies once you get your CDL. You do NOT have to have great, good, average or "need a co-signer" credit to get into a school or be hired. It helps. They will look at what you've gone in debt for. A company that requires truck leases may not take you with multiple bankruptcies, period. Those that hire company drivers may.

Any school shold be asking about your background before they even mention the "$$$" words. A paid-for CDL school will let you in with lousy credit before they'll take you with violent felonies, multiple DUIs or drug convictions.

Some schools accept credit cards for payment; this is quite different from requiring you to fill out a credit card application or REQUIRING you to use a credit card. Some questionable practices offer you a huge discount to use a credit card; if they offer you a larger discount to pay with a credit card than to pay cash it should be a real question of "shady."

If you have to apply for or give a credit card BEFORE they talk to you about school itself: Run like hell was at your back- it is.

And do not fill out an application until you know who/what you're applying to! If one reputable school will take you, any of them would. Choose the school, or 2 or 3 schools, tops, then submit your application. Each time they check your credit, it does count and can lower your credit score.

[The Wizard]

Set them straight Libby.

So now it's qualify for credit before we put you into a lease truck we have over here in the back lot. Don't mind the fact the truck has 750,000 miles, it's been fleet maintained, it just needs the dust blown off her.

I'm sure they will sucker some guys into a deal like that. Get a truck and a credit card to pay for your own on highway repairs. Sounds like a deal to me.....

[TGP]

Actually the reason this is happening is that most of the people that go to CDL school have to finance their "education".
In the past the school would make you sign a loan agreement (for high rates), with the story that the first company that hired you would pay it back for you.
What would then happen is the student would graduate, sign on with a company, find out that it will take 3 years for the company to pay back their loan for school, and then find out what it is REALLY like to be a truck driver and quit.
Now some will try working for another company (that won't pay back the loan), and most will just fade back into the nowhere that they came from, but in both cases, most of the time they can't afford to pay back the loan for school, and the schools have to fight to get their money.
Now thanks to King George, his puppet republican congress, and their big business handlers, it is extremely hard to go bankrupt (personally - the law for businesses hasn't changed), and even if you do go bankrupt, credit card debt is rarely allowed to be added to your bankruptcy!!!
So now if the school gives you a credit card with the debt for your "schooling" on it, they have a much better chance of getting their money back than ever before (at the expense of the working people of course)!
There is a method to the madness.

[The Wizard]

Your right TGP that's the other side of this ugly deal.

[ckwilson]

Great Information on all parts. Thanks

[TGP]

I know this is an old subject, but I haven't forgotten about it!

In my earlier answer I explained how drivers usually end up paying back the cost of their CDL training because most don't stay with the first company that hires them out of school for the length of time it takes to have them pay off the debt.

The credit card scam is actually great for the schools (they get their money as soon as you are "approved"), and whoever issues the credit (usually a bank), but in all ways but one, a horror for the "student".

Remember that when you financed your tuition before it was done as a loan agreement. You borrowed X amount of dollars to attend school, your interest rate was set around 18.9%, and your monthly payment (or what the company had to pay back) was a set amount of money for a set amount of time (usually 3 to 5 years) period.

Now if you get a credit card with the same amount on it, you get nailed with a variable interest rate (depends on the prime rate, your credit rating, and late or missed paymets to OTHER companies) and can be as high as 29.9%!
Now remember, this is a credit card not a closed end loan, so the rules are different. With the loan you HAD to pay the same amount every month until the balance was paid off. With a credit card, you can pay a small percentage (usually like 2.5%) of the balance which will take you appoximately 15 years to pay off the same balance that would have taken 3 years under a regular loan contract! It makes the monthly payments a lot smaller, but that's 15 years of monthly interest that the bank collects when before they could only get 3 to 5 years of lower interest! In the long run you are paying about 300% more than the actual cost of the school! In other words, if it cost $3000 tuition to go to the school, when you have finally paid it off (at minimum monthly payments), you have paid about $12,000 for your tuition with interest!

The trucking industry is not the only ones that have figured this out either. Go to any motorcycle dealer in the Country, and you will find that your purchase ends up on a credit card rather than as an actual loan! Can car dealers be far behind? How about mortgages?
Sure you'll pay less monthly, but in the long run it's like a lease purchase plan -- you keep paying, but you never end up out from under!

[troyjrjackson]

This is how it is. When schools train a student the school gets a kickback from the government about $7,000.00 per student trained. The school then charges the student about $3,000.00 to $7,000.00 per student. After, the company hires that individual the government pays that company another $7,000.00 to $10,000.00 for putting that person to work, while paying that student only $300.00 to $500.00 per week which will last close to 30 to 90 days of training. So it makes perfect sense to hire the student but, they do not make money to keep that student, in fact, companies make more money hiring the student and training him than to keep him employed. That is why the companies that hire students will often mis-treat the student to get the student upset and quit. The company already made their money off that student and the company does not have to pay the loan off and the company does not have to pay unemployment for firing or having the student quit. All in all it is a scam for the new driver student because the student will always get the short end of the stick and be forced to pay off the loan himself. I suggest noone get into trucking. In time the trucking industry will be hurting for drivers that they will have to change their way but, everytime someone thinks about driving they will hurt themselves and others too. Just think no drivers to hire and noone being duped into driving, the trucking industry will have to submit to drivers opinion and be forced to pay higher wages, better equipment, better time off, hourly pay, vacation pay, better health packages, and the people who are at the receiving and shipping docks will have to treat drivers better and provide drivers a lounge, restrooms, and not force a driver to load and unload his trailer on his own. Often times drivers will be paid $40.00 to unload his trailer but, the company will pay a lumper $200.00 or more to unload that same trailer. Who is getting shafted? The driver is. So anyone who drives or wants to drive is burying himself. There is no fair employment for drivers and it is not going to get better without each and every person driving or thinking of driving to stand their ground and not drive and not go to school. Unless everyone does this your livelihood will be greatly effected and you as drivers or students is just feeding an industry that really does not care about you, your family, and your livelihood. Your not respected out there by companies as well as shippers, receivers and the schools. Remember what you do today can greatly affect you and others today and in the future. If you stop driving or stop from going to school the trucking industry will be forced to change their ways and it can prove beneficial to you later. But, if you do not care about your fellow truckdrivers, then go ahead and drive because without your help drivers will continue to make less and be mistreated.

[TGP]

If I was a conspiracy minded individual, I might think that's exactly what the trucking companies want, Troy.

Think about it. The companies have been lobbying their corrupt politicians for years to be able to use the Mexican trucks and drivers.
If they make trucking so lousy that drivers keep quitting or shutting down on them, then they can go to the politicos that they have in their pockets and put more pressure on them to change the laws.
The politicians will then sell it to the American people by telling them that trucking is another job that Americans don't want to do, or that the prices they pay for all the crap they don't need will have to go up if they don't allow the trucking companies to make use of the "vast untapped resource of Mexican workers willing to do the job" (sound familiar?).

It will take about as long as a heartbeat for the American people to throw the American trucker to the wolves.

It would go something like this:
"Pay $25 more for my brand-new made in Korea $8,000 65in. widescreen HDTV, so Americans can have decent paying jobs???" "Never!!!" "Get Jose and the boys to deliver it, I can't afford to pay extra!"

Good thing I'm not a conspiracy minded individual, huh?

[The Wizard]

Stop the madness!

Stop the wheels!

There is no other way!

[troyjrjackson]

Isn't it funny that Bush has allowed Mexican trucks to enter the USA and be able to take freight all over the USA and change things to allow the Mexican trucks and drivers the ability to take away American jobs. Conspiracy? many have lots of unanswered questions. Like how come our gas prices is so high and the oil industry making record profits when the process of gasoline is still the same and the refineries are only running mediocre and not running full tilt for the shortage. They and the politicians are in on the crazy fuel prices. Same with the trucking industry, so many politicians have their hand in the trucking industry because of money, trade, and what else you can think of. The American driver is the one who pays the price.

[alex431964]

You need to also look at the student. I went through Premier, which is CR England. I noticed that a lot of the students were signing loan agreements and then the student couldn't even afford to pay for meals or bare necessities that they needed. If you let yourself get to that point, then you are already buzzard bait. Be informed, check out the school, check with better business beaureaus. You wouldn't send your kid to a school that they wouldn't get a good education. Right?

[The Wizard]

Great advise Libby

[graceison]

Just saying hello to you all .. Still a bit confused about the goings on here, but I guess I'll keep poking around.