Top Benefits of Obtaining Your CDL: What You Need to Know
Getting your CDL opens up a lot of high-paying career paths without the need for hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments, and it's not a long process.
As you can imagine, it's hotter than ever, and it's the desired education decision of millions of Americans, right now.
If you're a little hesitant, or you're not entirely sure what you're signing up for, take a moment to check out the top benefits of getting a CDL license and starting your career on the road.
1: No-Debt Education
First and foremost, you can do it without accruing debt. Numerous programs help you get into CDL classes from start to finish, and the only trade-off is that you agree to a job for a certain contracted period before your debt is written off.
Considering the high cost of many other certifications can leave you in debt for years with no guarantee that you'll find a job, this is a great way to both get licensed and know that you have work lined up when you're done. It's the best of both worlds.
2: High Starting Pay
How many jobs do you know of that you can get into making up to $50,000 immediately?
CDL jobs do start between $30,000 and $50,000, and the reason for the large pay range is that the type of career path you choose dictates the pay just like anything else.
Local jobs with normal schedules and smaller loads will pay on the lower end initially, and longer hauls tend to be where you start on the high end. Either way, this is the starting pay. The potential to skyrocket your earnings is massive.
3: A Long List of Career Options
When people think of driving trucks with a CDL, they think of cross-country freight that keeps them away from their families for weeks at a time.
That's an option, and it has benefits that we'll talk about later, but if you're not looking to do that with your life, there are tons of other options.
Your CDL will open up possibilities in local freight transport, tour bus driving, delivering in smaller box trucks for delivery services, or even working for public transport services.
All of those opportunities have a high potential to earn you a great living, and as you can see, they're dramatically different experiences in several distinct fields. It's not all about carrying freight across states.
4: Explore the Country
On the flip side of that last benefit of a CDL license, you can travel all over the country, and into other countries, with your CDL.
Part of your job can be seeing all 50 states, crossing into Canada or Mexico, and just generally exploring much more than the average person. Of course, you're working, but you do stop, and you do experience the locations you're in.
Not many jobs let you experience your dream of traveling like long-distance driving. Whether that's hauling freight, taking a band on tour, or working for a long-distance bus company.
5: Job Security
Without CDL drivers, primarily truckers, this country doesn't exist anymore. The vast majority of retailers operate on a “just in time” schedule and constantly need deliveries or their communities suffer.
Our country's infrastructure relies on CDL drivers to transport parts to important sites, natural resources are transported by freight haulers, etc.
Not only does that give your job a purpose that will push you through those hard times we all have at our jobs, but it also means your job is secure.
Few jobs have the security that a CDL driver has. There aren't enough people who want to drive, but it's so crucial to the basic operation of this country that you're pretty much guaranteed to keep your job.
That's not a green light to slack off or otherwise mess up. The industry demands drivers to have excellent job performance. However, while other industries are laying people off and making cutbacks, you know your job is safe.
6: Change Career Paths Easily
Another great benefit of a CDL license is that you're not locked into your job. If you get your CDL and start your career driving a truck across the country, but you later decide to start a family, and you want to be closer to home with your job, you can do that fairly easily.
You can also go from being a truck driver to driving the bus in your municipality or taking tour buses around for high-profile celebrities.
Most CDL holders have experience in multiple career fields. Some will start small and work their way up to higher-paying options before slowing down later in life with a cozier position.
There aren't many career paths you can take that allow you to switch things up on a dime with minimal additional education and licensing.
Typically, if you want to change career paths, you have to chase an entirely new degree or certification, start all over from the bottom, and hope you have the time to reach the heights you want.
7: Drive for a Living
All of the various CDL jobs you can get have challenges just like any other job, but the benefit of a CDL license is that you get to drive for a living. You're out on the open road driving some of the coolest vehicles around, and that's your entire job.
Other jobs with similar pay rates typically require you to do a multitude of tasks with a manager breathing down your neck, and even if it's a field that you love, there are probably a lot of things you don't.
The road doesn't have any of that. Point A to Point B, you're free and independent.
8: Entrepreneurship
You'll likely start your career driving for someone else, but it doesn't always have to be that way. Many CDL holders buy their trucks or open their own CDL schools, starting their independent businesses. The sky is the limit if you take advantage of it.
Get Your CDL with AAA CDL School
There are numerous benefits of a CDL license and If you're ready to take the plunge and start your dream job, AAA CDL School is here to help.
We offer free online CDL training courses to get you started and our team of professionals will even help you get a job after you get your license.
We've helped countless people just like you earn their CDLs, and we're taking new students.
Get in touch with us, today.
