New CDL class A with lots of questions

Starting out in your current location with tanker won't be easy.

Doable? Maybe. But not easy.

That's one reason (among many others) why I earlier suggested Swift.

Do a year (or more) pulling boxes....then you'll have more options.

It's tough medicine.

But it's good medicine.

--Lual

 

I wouldn't have appreciated tankers if it weren't for the miserable week i spent otr with a millis "trainer."
Now if i can just get my boss to explain my missing 61 hours for last month..... meeting/fireworks tomorrow.

 

Wow?! can you send me the number for that five guys? I know it ain't a pizza parlour, but sounds like good dough.

 

Just a few "off the cuff" ideas:

Try Mountain Valley Express team driving with your wife. Get a nice out-and-back gravvy run.
They're under new ownership, can't remember who, but they should still come up in search results.

Also consider relocating. I used to live in Santa Barbara. I never would've found a job there. Maybe some wild reefer outfit where the owners don't speak English in Ventura, but I'd have to be in the L.A. basin all the time. You'd have to be in SF Bay area all the time.

One of the moderators on this site ought to be able to hook you up. He's well-versed in the logging industry up your way. You could probably start out doing that and it would put you a cut above the regular flipflop-wearing OTR soyboys when you go to apply to your tanker outfit later.

If you're willing to go inland you could probably find something regional (OR/Norcal) where you haul sludge or farm chemicals in a tanker. How about that trillion dollar infrastructure bill? Any work doing asphalt tanker? End dump?

I think California might not be the best place for a truck driver though. I've been looking at CDL schools there, and I want to say that a few of the websites I've seen claim that truck drivers average $55,000 annually, which seems so low almost like they haven't updated their website in ten years or something.

 

Man, logging would be as brutal as it gets. It's one thing to roll off a driveway in the Midwest as opposed to a mountain side in the Rockies or Sierras.
One and done

 

YRC/Yellow? Any good?

Yes....if you can get it.

The job posting for that opening on the Yellow website reads,

"Class A CDL Driving Experience Preferred"

That's "preferred"....but not necessarily...."required".

Thus....if you apply for it, you may get it....or not.

You may well be competing for it with other drivers who already have similar experience--or even against Yellow internal candidates who are looking to move up, from doing dock/P & D duty.

So yeah....go ahead and apply for it....just don't hold your breath.

And don't necessarily expect a call back from them in the next few days, either.

Some companies somehow take seemingly forever to make a possible hiring decision.

At my latest gig....the company waited 3 months (yes, it's true) to give me a call.

Apply for the job--but also apply to other jobs for which you qualify, as well.

Try to have as many irons in the fire as you can.

If an app asks you for when you are available, post a date that's AT LEAST A WEEK after you get back from your next vacation. A bit longer than that is probably even better.

--Lual