The Truckers Radio podcast Q&A: CDL School & Training Issues

In this special Q&A episode of The Trucker’s Radio Podcast, we’re diving straight into the inbox — answering real questions from real drivers across the country.

From rookie CDL concerns to mountain driving, trucking etiquette, lease-operator confusion, and staying safe at truck stops — host Stacey Yearout gives no-nonsense advice from 30+ years of experience on the road.

These are the kinds of questions you won’t hear answered by recruiters or dispatchers — but you need to know.

👉 Got a question you want answered on air? Send it to: thetruckersradiopd@gmail.com

Or visit www.TheTruckersRadioPodcast.com
to submit yours.

🎧 Subscribe, share, and tune in every week for real talk from the road — where the brotherhood still matters, and no topic is off limits.

trucking podcast, trucker Q&A, CDL tips, new truck driver questions, life on the road, trucking advice, how to become a truck driver, trucking lifestyle, female truckers, lease operator advice, truck driver training, trucking industry 2025, trucker safety, Sabren Group LLC, The Truckers Radio Podcast, trucker stories, trucker etiquette, beginner CDL help, trucking podcast Q&A, truck stop safety tips

Transcript

Dolores 0:00

You’re tuned in to The Trucker’s Radio Podcast real talk from the open road. Powered by Sabren Group LLC, today’s episode is all about your questions and real answers. These come straight from the inbox folks just like you writing in with concerns, curiosities, and real-life trucking challenges. If you’ve ever had a question but didn’t know who to ask, this is your place. Let’s open up that inbox and dive in. Welcome to the Truckers Radio Podcast. We're gonna do a little q and a today. We'll be answering a few questions the first one's gonna be Rob from Kentucky. How you doing? Rob? Appreciate you dropping this a line. It says I'm about to sign up for CDL school, but I've heard a lot of bad things about these so-called CDL meals. How do I know if I'm signing up for a legitimate program and not getting hustled? Rob, that's a great question. A legit school should be registered with the F-M-C-S-A training provider registry. You ask a lot of questions behind the wheel. How much time? How many people are they into a pod? If you've got four to five people deep in a pod, chances are you're not going to get a whole lot of seat time. And if that's under 40 hours of time, that's a huge red flag. You're not going to get a lot of time behind the wheel of the truck and you're gonna be unprepared. And you don't want to get out there on the road not really knowing what you're doing. there's a lot of things that it's not your trainer's job to teach you that you should learned at school. And there's a lot of things that it's your trainer's job to teach you once, you know everybody's gotta play their part. So it is definitely up to you to do your homework and not just sign on or jump on to just any company. I know there's a lot of risk and a lot of scams, so definitely do your homework. Get your roots strong. Thanks. Do appreciate you dropping this line, Rob. All right. We're gonna move on to the next email. I said I'm a few weeks into my training with a company, but my trainer barely talks to me and sleeps. Most of the time I'm not learning anything. What should I do? Jasmine from Dallas. Jasmine, you may need to speak with your training director. Training is the foundation of your entire career, and my advice to you if that guy don't want to teach. Talk to your safety manager, request a different trainer. You're not being difficult. You're protecting your life and everyone else's also. thanks for the email. Good question. All right, we're gonna move on to the next one. This is Trey from New Mexico. Says, I got my first load running out west and I'm nervous about hitting all the mountains in any of the states that I need to be worried about. Any advice for the first time driving through the graves in Colorado? Well, Trey, I'm not sure where you're at in training or how you've been trained, but if you do not feel comfortable in these mountains, I suggest you need to learn and know how to do the proper breaking before you start into these mountains. Depending on your load, depending on the weight. how good a Jake, there's a lot of variables when you're running the mountains. If you've got a really good Jake break, you're not super heavy, you're pretty good. But if you start getting super heavy, hauling a load of beer into the Rockies, something like that, you probably may want to ask for some advice. once you start getting into there, you may wanna start asking, For a different load. I'm not saying not do it, but if you're just not comfortable and you don't feel like you have the knowledge, that's not the place to learn. On top of the mountain coming down the other side. These are things that your trainer probably should have trained you on before you got started. This is something that kind of goes back to my saying. you gotta have good roots. And if you ain't got good roots, you know your life is going to be extremely hard out here. When I used to train students I really miss it. I used to train them from the school on out. I always made a point, first couple of weeks we'd probably stay in the Midwest or the East Coast and I'd always tell. The company, Hey, we're getting near the end of the training. It's time to go west because we need to do air mountain driving. I did that with every single student I've ever trained, and there's sometimes students that I had, they got trained in some of the worst possible terrain. I used to run a lot in the northwest, so I've trained women up there. Chaining trucks up going across, the passes in the snow and everything else. But I'm gonna tell you what them girls could drive. I can guarantee you that when I got done,'cause, they knew how to chain a truck up. They knew how to come down the mountains. They knew what gears, they knew exactly what they were doing. It, it's all about your training, the roots you set down, from the get go. Just like you said, you're really nervous. That kind of tells me maybe you, you are to. All right, we're going to thank you, Trey. If you need, any other advice, maybe gimme a, drop me a line. I'll, I can probably walk you through it, okay. We're gonna move on to the next one here. Old school versus new school. Davey from South Carolina. Why do so many old school truckers hate on new drivers like me? I'm trying to learn, but I keep getting talked down to like, I don't belong. Well, Dave, I hate to say it, but there's a lot of cranky. Truck drivers out there. I'm not saying that I don't get a little cranky, but that's me. Not everyone's like me. Not everyone has the patience to try to teach. I think people that teach has a very special place in the trucking industry now. instead of complaining. And griping, pulling out your smartphone, trying to record somebody. Give that man a hand, talk to him. You know you're not going to live forever. You're not going to drive forever. And we do have to, you gotta think about it like this. We're training our replacements. He's not gonna take your job, but eventually you're going to have to retire and he's gonna be able to take your place. He's gotta fill your shoes. And it's up to you in a certain sense of way. To help that man fill your shoes. Dave, that was a great question, and I do feel your pain. I understand. I've seen it happen many, many times and I don't agree with it. drop me a line if you've got questions you need to know, man, I'll help you any way I can. What to pack as a new driver? You can pack everything but the kitchen sink, but it ain't going to do you any good. I just got my CDL headed out for my first month on the road. what are the must have what to pack as a new driver? Well, that depends. If you're getting on a trainer's truck, don't pack everything but the kitchen sink if you're getting on someone else's truck. Trust me. I've had many students that'd go to pick up, they had the whole kitchen dishes, deep fryers, the whole nine yards. They ended up having to leave half of it.'cause when you're getting on somebody's truck to learn, you ain't got room for all that. Chances are the trainer, he's got everything you need. except for you bring your toilet tree, shower bag, things like that. Good change of clothes. Don't overpack. you can do laundry in the facilities, in the truck stops. It's not as expensive as you may think, but it ain't cheap. you'd want to maybe pack some laundry detergent. Liquid preferred with a good lid. good shoes, couple of pair, maybe a more comfortable pair, and then pair of work boots. make sure you at least have one pair of long pants even in the summer. There's certain places you go into that you gotta have long sleeves and long pants to get into past the gate. Depending on what you do. if you're running flatbed, that's almost a must. You're going to run across somewhere that's going to have to have that. most generally, your company's gonna provide your reflective vest and hard hat safety glasses. Other than that, it's just a common sense. Toothbrush, deodorant, change clothes, clean clothes. probably bring yourself, some forks and spoons and maybe a little short supply of paper plates, a couple of coffee mugs or thermos that helps, things like that. Other than that, it's just kinda, you gotta pick it up on your own, everybody's different. That's a good question there. That was Natalie in Naples, Florida. Truck stop safety. That's the next one. This is Renee from Utah. I'm a female driver. Just four months in. I love this job, but the truck stops at night can get sketchy. Any safety tips for a solo female driver on the road? Most definitely, Renee. I've seen many, many cases where. You definitely can get into a bad situation. Never trust a situation that looked sketchy. I used to train a lot of girls and during the training I would point things out, things. Don't let yourself get into certain situations. Don't walk between trucks, don't walk in the dark areas by yourself., Don't let people get you to come back to their truck. Oh, let me show you something, this, that,'cause they'll lure you back and they get you in a bad situation and now you're in trouble. Don't trust anyone. there, there's a lot of, these guys, for the most part, truck drivers are some of the best people in the world, but they do harbor some people. there's not always truck drivers in that truck stop parking lot either., There's pedophiles, there's predators. You really have no idea what's out there. You're in a strange town, a strange city, really. You want to try your best to park as close to the truck, stop as you can. Wear bright clothes that you can be seen. Don't walk between trucks. That's a very vulnerable place to be. I don't care if it's the quickest way to get to your truck, walk down to the end of the aisle and around and to the front of your truck where people can see you. Most generally, out of a row of trucks, if someone sees someone else trying to drag you off into their truck, there's at least one or two drivers is probably going to do something about it. for the most part, truck drivers are good, decent human beings and it's probably going to come to your rescue. if you've got any more questions on that, drop me a line. I'll try to help you out the best I can. Company versus owner operator confusion, man. This is an age old story. What the real difference between running company. A going lease operator or owner operator. I hear different things from every driver I talk to. Big Loop from Ohio. Well, big Loop company driver has less risk. Steady pay lease options often gets stuck with truck notes. No freight. True owner operators have control, but. Carry every cost, fuel, insurance breakdowns. If you don't understand cost per mile State company until you do, there's a lot of things you need to know. you don't wanna just jump into the deep end of the pool. I have seen people make a really good living with a lease truck. But you gotta be careful. not every lease is a good lease. Not every lease is a bad lease. There's certain leases that are fair and when managed in the right manner, those leases can be quite profitable. I've done lease before when I was training students a lot. I preferred to lease the trucks because I could trade that truck back in and get another one. Now if I bought that truck, I was married to that truck, and if I had to prematurely trade that truck in, I may have been upside down financially on that truck and got myself in a bad situation. There's not if you get into a good lease, the price differential and breakdown really isn't that much different than buying a truck. I've bought trucks, I've owned trucks. Back in the day when you could afford a truck, I've even paid cash for a truck. I saved up my money. But Elise is a good way to see if your owner operator material. If you're not good with money and you like to live like a rock star on payday, being a lease owner operator is probably not for you Because you gotta be a businessman before you're gonna be an owner operator or lease driver, either one. So that being said, the biggest difference in company and owner operator versus lease is probably the driver. So we do offer lease and owner operator consulting. We offer that through their company. Here, just drop me a line, I'll get you hooked up. Set you up with a free consultation. We will take a look at everything. Take a look at your lease and make sure that you know it's something that you can make money with. And if you can't, we're just gonna be real with you. You may want to go somewhere else and get a lease.'cause not every company has a good viable lease, but it don't mean you can't go somewhere and find a good lease and make money. But Big Luke, that's a good question though. Appreciate you drop me another line if you got any other questions. Marcus from Georgia can't get miles. I've been driving solo for three months, but my company barely gives me any miles. Is this normal for rookies or am I getting screwed, Marcus? Time is normal, but. If they're shorting you consistently. it may be time to switch, keep your logs clean, be available, ask for freight. If it doesn't change, make a move. But you also gotta take a look at a few other things here, Marcus. Sometimes you gotta look at are you the problem? Are you being late on loads? If you're consistently being late and you're not showing up on time, you're not running out your clock, you're not performing. These companies not always is going to say something to you. They're gonna pull back your miles. They're gonna stop giving you freight because let's face it, nowadays, any freight to these companies is important. They can't afford service failures internally within the company and lose a client. So they're only going to give you what they have to give you when they can give it to you because they wanna make sure their freight's on time. So in some ways, and I'm not saying by no means you're the problem, sometimes it's not always the company and you may not understand being a new driver Three months in, you may think you're doing great, but they may not think you're doing great. There may be some things you're doing that they don't like and that you're not taken serious and they take serious, you may want to talk to your dispatcher and say, Hey, are they something I'm doing here? The reason I'm not getting miles? And just tell'em, look man, it's nothing personal. I would just, I want to know. I'm not gonna get mad if I'm not doing something. I'm not running a certain way or I'm not being on time. Please tell me. That way I can make adjustments to where we can get onto the same page. It is this business. So that would be how I would approach that. Marcus, that was a good question. CB radios worth it or not? Is it still worth having a CCB radio these days, or is it just an old school thing nobody uses anymore? Kenny, Nebraska. Man, this is kinda one of my hot spots. You're damn right that CCB Radio is worth every penny because you see these astronomical pile ups out in Wyoming and Nebraska and a hundred trucks and cars. When we ran CB radios, you didn't see that because everybody knew what was going on 10, 15 miles ahead of'em. You may have had a couple of accidents, but not like that, is most definitely worth it. Cell towers don't work everywhere either. That's where a cb, warning you wrecks, speed traps, stalled traffic. Sometimes you just hear another voice, helps you understand that the next 500 miles away from home, you ain't gotta be so lonely. CB's good to keep you awake at night. Grab somebody's key it up. A lot of times you'll find somebody to talk to. There's still a lot of people that do still use the cb, you hear it, a lot of local trucks, they'll talk to you, you got some base station people that still operate. It's, it is a rule of thumb and trucking and I know it's an old school thing, but it's a tried and true thing that worked for many, many years and I think it's definitely something worth jumping into. So, yeah, I believe I would definitely do. The cb. Alright, we're gonna go with Carl from Michigan, the truckers Equality 1 0 1. What are some of the unspoken rules of the road that rookie drivers like me should know? I don't want to be that guy out here. Carl, I wish so many more people like you would ask that question because that is the rookie driver. You can't tell'em nothing. They don't want to hear it. The best people that succeed is the people that asked a lot of questions. Carl a solid question. Flash your lights, let someone merge. Thank'em with your lights. Wave. Don't block up your free islands. In fact, we just did an episode about this. I just uploaded it today. the common courtesies of the road help out Sometimes you're lost, We all share it, just common courtesy, good dose of common sense. Don't park in the fuel onto a 30 minute break. If you see that guy behind you, pretty much, you know he's gonna want to get out pretty soon. So when you're blocking him up, he gonna get aggravated. And if you gotta move 28 minutes into your 30 minute break, now you gotta start again. But you're better off to pull off to the side if you can. I try to pull to the farthest aisle in the fuel aisle. If I've got to go in and I'm gonna be a minute, the closest fuel islands to the door, people migrate to the quickest. And you know that's just basically what, what's going to happen. But there, there's a whole episode out. I just uploaded it to truckers. Radio, podcast, listen to it. We go over, road and truck stop etiquette. there's a whole lot of things on there that probably help you out. If you need any other, any other stuff there, Carl, just drop me a line. He gives them an email and we'll, we'll set you up there and we'll give you, we'll give you a holler, Evelyn from Alabama Missing home. I've been out for six weeks straight and man, I'm missing home bad. I love trucking, but the road gets lonely. How do I deal with it? Well, everyone handles this different, Evelyn, whether you've got a husband at home or you've got family, you've got kids. Some people take to it and they love the road. They don't want to be home. They don't like. Being confined to just one place. They love, just traveling the country, if you're new to this, it's going to take a little bit of a, of an adjustment point to where you understand this is more of a lifestyle. You've gotta, get acquired to. Even the road will test you use video calls, use photos in the cab to bring some things from home. Music, podcast, even journaling helps. I use journaling a lot in my mental health practice. And, when I'm working with people, I use journaling a lot. that's a huge symbolic release and mental thoughts and. I use that a lot out here. especially in my mental health practice and trauma. I work a lot with trauma and PTSD clients. it is a very powerful tool. Also, take a few days sometimes out there on the road and rest, you're no good on the road if you're mentally gone. So don't let'em just run you into the road. Just tell'em, Hey, I signed up for trucking. But I didn't sign up to be homeless. I don't wanna live in a truck. That's a good question. Evelyn, drop me alive. If you got any other questions. We'll get back with you. Monica, go Phoenix, Arizona. Stacy, what is one thing you wish someone told you before you started driving a truck? Something no recruiter will ever say, but every driver needs to know. Well, Monica, that's a great question. This is an ever-changing world. This job will change you as, as a human being. That's for sure. It'll change you as a person. I even I feel like it'll almost change your DNA'cause you could addicted to this road out here. Once you get this asphalt in your blood, it's hard to give this up. Once you become a true truck driver and you and the blacktop become one, it's hard to give this road up. I don't know what it is, but it is like a crack habit. The road will humble you, shape you teach you more about yourself than any office ever could. If you don't ever have a reason why you're out here, maybe you should look at the mirror and ask yourself why you got into trucking. But I'm sure there was a reason that drove you into this industry. I don't know if you grew up as a kid admiring the big rigs and doing the big. fist pump to get the horns blowed, all that. I'm not sure what that may have been, but hold onto it. And you never let go of the road. And don't ever let the road take more of you than you're willing to give, or the will or the road's willing to give back for that matter. So, that's a pretty good. Questions. Monica, I do appreciate you writing in if you got any more input on that there. That's just a hard question to ask'cause there was a lot of things in this industry that I probably could have said I'd liked to have known, but would I have never gotten into this industry even though me in this industry's had a hell of a love hate relationship. But I, I have to say. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't had the life's experience on this road. From being in Los Angeles, in the middle of Compton, to Seattle, to Chicago, to Boston, to New York City. This road will teach you more about life than any history book. It's a good teacher and a lot of knowledge, and I think sometimes you learn things you don't even realize. You learn until somebody asks you about it, and then you just whip out that Rolodex and start talking, and then you're sitting there thinking, damn, I have done a lot of things. It starts sinking in after a while. It's definitely a good teacher. it's not the worst job in the world, and don't make people make you feel that way either. Hold your head high. You're a person just like everyone else. Don't let people put you down just'cause you drive a truck. Well, that's it for the questions today. I definitely like the q and a. We're gonna try to do at least once a week, a lot of q and a. you can drop your questions at the Truckers podcast, truckers radio pd@gmail.com. Or you can fill out the contact information on the truckers radio podcast.com website. preferably send me the email, truckers radio pd@gmail.com. we definitely try to get around to your questions. We definitely have a lot coming in, so sometimes it may take me a couple of weeks to get to yours. If in the meantime you've got something pressing, don't be afraid to drop me a line on the contacts off the website there. I'll get back with you as soon as I can. I tend to watch that just a little bit more than I do others. But we're gonna wrap this up. This is gonna be a short little episode. most definitely. I enjoyed the q and A here. we're gonna try to start doing some more things spanned out a little more. we're just getting this podcast up and going and we've got a lot of stuff planned. A lot of big things, a lot of big moves that we're trying to get done here. Just takes time. I still drive also, I still run a 70 hour week and do this, and I founded savoring group. I've got a lot of things to do. I have a lot of people that I mentor, financial advisors, I got a lot on my plate to wear a lot of hats. So, we're trying to get everything together. Keep everybody happy, keep our, everybody informed the best that we can. just trying to get out there to help everybody in trucking. So, do us a favor, follow us on Facebook. The more followers we get, the better. get our word out there. Spread the podcast. If you've got a friend and he needs to hear this podcast, send it to him. Tell everybody, we need all the help we can get. We're brand new up and going, but we got a lot to give. A lot of good old school trade and knowledge. So let's put this out there. Spread the word and let's blow it up till the next time. I appreciate you tuning in to the Truckers Radio podcast. That’s a wrap for this Q&A episode of The Trucker’s Radio Podcast. Got a question about trucking life, getting your CDL, or just need some real advice from someone who’s been there? Send it in anytime to: thetruckersradiopd@gmail.com Or visit us at: www.TheTruckersRadioPodcast.com I’ll keep checkin’ the inbox and giving you the truth no fluff, just facts. Until next time stay safe, stay sharp, and keep it between the lines.