Well today I took the first step in what will hopefully be a long career in OTR. I called Roehl first and they said they do not hire anyone who has not gone through a trucking school which I thought was odd, so I called TMC and they said basically the same thing. Difference was the lady at TMC seemed to know what she was talking about, and more importantly she seemed to understand what I was talking about when I explained to her my situation. My situation is this, I've been driving concrete for 7 years and the last year or two have been real bad earnings wise. I've always wanted to drive OTR but the money I was making in concrete just wouldn't allow me to give it a shot. Now is the best opportunity I've had to test the waters, I've put in for four months of winter leave from concrete and gotten the ball rolling on upgrading my license. I got my tanker endorsement the other day and got fingerprinted and my hazmat endorsement background application sent off to TSA a week ago. I've gotten a background check from the Justice department 3 times in the past two years for my explosives licenses so I know the TSA will come back just fine. She mentioned that I should attend a local truck driving school and I mentioned to her that it sounds like the TMC school would be the better option for me. The local school cost $3900 and is seven weeks, the TMC school cost $5500 but is only 3 weeks. I'm time sensitive right now with my winter leave on a very definitive time frame so I filled out the application and took the psych test, I'm going to contact her tomorrow and see what's what. I'm really anxious about getting the wheels turning here for two reasons, first I've always wanted to do this so it's kind of a kid in a candy store type thing and I've got years of straight truck experience dealing with hazardous job sites and such so the unnerving break in for people entirely new to trucking isn't going to be as much of a problem for me despite the entirely different animal that is OTR, second it's a HUGE risk. I've been at a union company building seniority for years, the TMC school is NOT cheap, and I might not know for sure when winter leave is up if I should stay or go. There is only one thing I know for certain right now, this forum has been an absolute gold mine of information and I've found myself reading a lot of things over again because I did not see that information coming. I'm in far far NW suburbs of Chicago, any recommendations from TMC drivers here? I told them I could get the A license on my own in the next few days but they said pretty unequivocally that I needed a trucking school in my resume unless I had A experience. Is the Chicago area a decent place to be a flatbed driver? Home time is not an issue for me, I'm single and no kids. Thanks in advance everyone.

I crossed Chicago a lot of times. Your area is great for freight.

__________________
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

-- J R R Tolkien

Thanks for the heads up Rawlco, good to know I'm in a solid area. Update on where I'm at: Today I got all of my pre-school license stuff taken care of. My TSA background check came in on Saturday, really fast, so I got that endorsement taken care of today at the DMV along with my A permit for school and my doubles/triples endorsement. The only thing left is the shcool and road test now. I found a school close to home that TMC recruits out of, it's half the price and will shave another week off the school. I'll post up when the schooling is complete and I ship for orientation.

I enrolled at the school today I start on Dec. 8th and I will graduate somewhere between the 21st-23rd. That should leave me available to start TMC orientation on either the 29th or Jan. 5th. My TMC application was sent to the review committee today and I should hear back either today or tomorrow. I'm very anxious to get this approval done so I can worry about one less thing. There is nothing on my application that would prevent me from being eligible, my MVR is clean I've never been arrested, I've had a DOT physical since 2001 and I've been driving concrete for the same company for more than 7 years. The only thing that could derail me is whether or not they are hiring out of my area but I'm in Chicagoland so I think I'll be okay. Can't wait to get all of this hammered out so I can finally relax and concentrate on the nuts and bolts of the job.