Your Opinion and Advice please (kind of long)

I have been lurking here for a few days now, and am enjoying the website. I could use a little advice.

I have been unemployed for close to a year and a half. I am looking to (no choice) change careers.
First a little background. My family owned and operated a local trucking and warehouse firm out of New York City from the 1920’s (my Grandfather) to the 1980’s (my Father and Uncle). I never drove for my father, but having spent time with him in his trucks as well as his friends in the industry I am well aware of the issues surrounding and the lifestyle that professional drivers maintain. My children are grown, I am still relatively young and don’t have anything really holding me home on a consistent basis. My wife would not mind me out of the house for a few weeks at a time either.

I have started researching the possibility of becoming a driver here in New York. I live on Long Island and have close proximity to the airports as well as the ports of New York and New Jersey. As I am now running low on funds this is my plan and I would like some advice.

We have a commercial driver training school here called “Commercial Driver Training” that has been in business since 1961. I could not find anything bad about this school including no complaints with the BBB. I have visited the school, discussed my plans and the suggested that I go for my Class B with air brakes, passenger and bus endorsements. I also intend to get hazmat along with this. It was indicated that this might be my best method of obtaining employment. Since my funds are now limited I can only afford to pay for private lessons with them instead of attending classes in their school. I have already passed my DOT physical and I am going for my permits tomorrow. I have no tickets, no legal issues and am clean for a drug test. Does anyone have any opinion or suggestions as to what I plan to do. Should I go Class A instead of B? Any Idea as to who I might approach for a job in the New York area?

Thanks for your help,
Tony

 

Thanks for the replies. I was advised against the CDL A due to the fact that no one will hire me without experience. I am also worried that the amount of lessons that I can afford will get me through the road test but that is it. Based on the replies here I will test for my A permit tomorrow, I had studied those sections just in case I decided to go that route.

Smitty66, I'm finally glad to hear that this is a good school and they do use Hicksville for the road test.

Thanks,
Tony

 

well I passed my permit test for Class A along with passenger and schoolbus endorsement. The DMV tester was impressed, only about 10 questions wrong total for all five tests. Off to driving school tomorrow along with 2k to pay for it.

Tony