Driving Record

You don't say how fast. 5,10,15over speed limit. Ask your school officials, they should know.

 

Two tickets in a yr and recently could affect your chances of getting a job greatly.You should call that Atlanta company and ask them.The bad companies will probably overlook your tickets like crengland and Carolina cargo.If it wasn't done recently then your chances would be better.

 

You can get your CDL no problem. Your jobs will be limited, but you can find something. If but OD you mean Old Dominion, then not likely with that record unless you have a really strong connection

 

Yes it will affect your CDL. I can't imagine OD hiring anyone with this kind of driving record. Sorry to burst your bubble but that's how I see it. As far as other companies, yes, someone will probably hire you but you will probably be restricted to the crappy companies. I would seriously rethink going to CDL school and ask yourself "what am I expecting out of this" because; there are drivers with years of experience and clean driving records that can't get hired by good companies like OD. But then again, sometimes it's based upon location. With that driving record you will be lucky to get to the industry average for pay and benefits.

 

I'm a month or so ahead of you, but I'd gladly share my limited experience (10+ phone interviews and a couple in person interviews). I graduated from a CDL school and now I'm just chilling/waiting for something I want (an LTL gig) to firm up. The LTL companies seem to be a LOT less forgiving on driving record issues. The only blemish on my 10 year driving history is a not at fault accident in early 2005 where the other driver was cited. I had to explain what happened on that...almost 10 full years ago...to both ABF and SEFL. It wasn't just those two either. I applied for every other LTL company in the area (including OD). All of those go back significantly farther than the ~3 year look-back that OTR and regional companies do.

So yeah...as the others said...with multiple moving violations...you're going to have some trouble lining up a decent LTL gig. Work the leads you've got, but don't be surprised if you have to settle for something that you don't want to do...at least until your 3-5 year MVR look-back clears up.

 

Look at it realistically. LTL outfits, particularly if they are for local work, are a bit more discriminating, for a very good reason. Every day, you work day consists of fighting city traffic, backing in to tight spots while dodging idiots in cars, on bicycles and on foot, that will cut right behind you while you are backing up. This work is much more demanding and precise than OTR driving is. (OTR, of course, has it's own share of joys, but not nearly the amount of tight backing, numerous times a shift.)

The majority of accidents, are backing accidents. So they are looking for somebody with a proven track record of safety. And unless your buddy at OD, is pretty high up in the company, I don't think he will be able to help you too much.

But you do have options. If you really don't want road work, go for some of the other local jobs. There are a lot of them out there, from trash to aggregate/construction, to beer/soda routes to food outfits like Sysco. (FWIW, I'm using Sysco as an example. Back in the dark ages, I applied for them right out of driving school, with just a couple of weeks experience. They were not interested.) But there are jobs out there, and there are people that will hire you with a CDL and a decent work history.

Honestly, I've been out of it so long, that I have forgotten whatever I knew about the point system. (If in fact I knew anything at all.) But it seems to me that 8 points is teetering very near the edge of you having major problems. I think you need to take a look at the driving rules of your home state, to see where you stand there.

 

I'm going to side with everyone else here. Your driving record is going to give you a very hard time finding a job.

LTL companies are very discriminative at who they want to hire as a driver. The better LTL companies, especially union shops are in high demand. Everyone wants to drive for $25 an hour. At my DC in particular (I drive for the post office), our seniority list is made up of drivers who left or retired from good paying jobs, such as Wallmart and the likes.

Youre going to be competing against drivers that have 5-15 years experience, and records as sinless as God himself.

You have 2 options with that kind of record:

1) Forget about LTL. You'll be very lucky if you land a LTL Union job within 10 years of getting your CDL.

2) Forget about getting your CDL for now, and apply at a LTL as a dockworker.

 

That would be the smart way to go, in my opinion. i.e. SEFL will (depending on the terminal needs) take you on working the dock and work with you (when the time comes) to get you your CDL so that you can slide into a Driver Trainee position. If you go that route...you'll already be in with a company (won't have to go through the hiring process again)...and you'll have far more consistent hours than you would if you got your CDL now and went to drive for a OTR company (assuming you could find one that would hire you).

Edit: $$ wise...unless you really luck out right off the bat...you're likely going to make more money (per hour) working the dock than guys driving OTR. Do the math...$700/week gross divided by 70 hours equals $10/hr. In my area...you're looking at $13+/hr to work the dock. With OTR...throw in a breakdown, traffic, etc. and you may as well just go flip burgers. That's just my $.02...

 

Yes sir, that would be correct. I got my class A in 2004. At the time I was driving a box truck for DHL doing local P/DC work.

I quit DHL to drive a big blue wiener mobile. I lasted about 3 weeks before I quit wiener and went back to DHL.

I did eventually go OTR for 6 years, but I did heavy haul at a small shop for 30% load pay.

Unless you specialize like I did, there's no real money in driving. You can make more driving a forklift at a union company than you could make driving a semi for a mega.