Transitioning back to the work force

Hello. Long time lurker. Been reading/researching/educating myself on the CDL life. I haven't seriously worked in close to 16 years. Put my wife through nursing school, then she became a nurse practitioner. Makes good money. Stay at home dad soon as she started working, with intent to go back to work when our youngest became school age. Turned out he was on the spectrum and I've been home with him for 9 years with therapies/modified educational plans etc. He's grown a lot and understand his struggles, even at 9, and knows what it takes to over come those things.. some things he just has to work harder than other kids, other things he's years ahead on. I don't need to work, but I went from working 60 hr weeks in a clinic all those years ago, to at home doing nothing but chores and such. We've got good, smart kids because of that sacrifice. Fine and all but I've been jonesin for awhile to get back in to the workforce.

I've got family when I was a kid did nothin but run trucks. I'm from lower Al originally, we had lotta chicken farms, and then other family member ran lumber. Now we're up in WA state, been here a while, and with things becoming manageable I'm wanting to get back out there.

I'm about an hour or so South of Seattle, in the Lacey/Yelm area. The amount of jobs are plentiful it seems, from dump trucks to loggers to tankers, and everything in between with dedicated home depot/lowes/etc accounts.

I've read all sorts of things about mega training vs school training.. folks who advocate mega training talk about the length and thoroughness of training you get vs private school seeming to cram in 4 weeks like a license mill and things don't stick as well as a result. One of the schools I'd looked at is called Washington Trucking School . I don't see much mention of it around here though, but the forum search function isn't the best, or I just haven't figured it out.

End of the day, I'd like to see myself in a tanker and those also seem more than abundant up here. My biggest needs are home daily and defined/set schedule, which I know one of the milk tanker outfits in the area get knocked hard because it's a beck and call deal.

Anyhow, I look forward to getting to know and understand more as I figure out a path forward. If you read this far, you musta been as bored as I was to finally take the time to write this, and I appreciate that.

 

Thanks for the info. Seems their training academy is 4 weeks in the midwest, as far as looking in to 2022 goes (kansas city and south bend). Seems like I saw McLane, Old Dominion, Central Transport, CFI? (cant remember if that was the name or not) had Indeed ads up doing training for non-CDL persons. Would those ads be recruiting locally and sending a person out to a similar midwestern training hub? I'll put this one on my radar and see if they offer up seattle/portland locations. Thanks again

Given the amount of local cdl jobs available, I'm not too concerned about being gone anymore than my wife is (12 hr shifts over 3-4 days, when home shes sleepin on work days). There's several local residential propane haulers for example, and I know they're home every evening based off our drivers discussions with me. More than enough logging and dump trucks too and air products has a local gig available. You're saying I still wouldn't be home? I could work 5 12's and be a happy camper.

 

excellent info. thanks.

 

Preciate the concern folks. It's something my wife and I have discussed prior to arriving at this decision. My goal is to find something locally on a set schedule up to 5 12's a week home daily. No plans to be gone 99% of the time. I used to work 5 12's prior to staying at home full time. These types seem plentiful on our stretch of the I-5 corridor.