Military to civilian.

Just retired (Still on Terminal Leave until end of this month) from the USAF. TA paid for half of the tuition at Sage which I graduated on the 13th of June.

I applied with a few local oilfield companies and had three offers and I took one driving water tankers. All three took my 4 years of driving trucks (flatbeds/lowboys) part-time in the Military as experience. The other two companies called me up right after I hired on; one the day of, and the other a day later. Seemed like everybody needed drivers like right now. I'm home every night, unless I'm working nights, then I'm home days LOL. Hours can be long, and the work can get dirty/muddy, but the pay is decent. A lot of repitition; drive to a rural water well, fill up, drive to location and unload, rinse and repeat until all the frac tanks are full. Most days are around 12-13 hours, but time and a half over 40. I'm sitting on a little over 100 hours since the 2nd with hopefully some more in the next few days after these fracs have been done. Unlike OTR drivers, we only need a 24 hour break to reset our 70, so you can rack up some hours. Plus you don't drive but maybe 6 hours a day...half your time is spent filling up, unloading, hooking up, and disconnecting hoses.

My suggestion is to walk, don't phone or email, into some local trucking places and see what they say.

 

JO, 1st and foremost thank you your family for your service to the nation.

Now, some have advised you to use TA to help pay for school. As a retired MSgt, I can say this is an excellent idea. By attending a private school you will not be tied to the 1st company you hire onto. Knowing that you have the freedom to seek another company can be a big relief, even if you choose to hang on.

Is there a military base (Army preffered) near where you plan to settle down? If so, there are many civilian jobs on base that require a CDL. As a former GI, you have hiring precedence. You've already had the background checks for base access, etc etc. Look into Left Behind Equipment (LBE), flight line fueling and Temporary Motor Pool (TMP). They pay quite well and you'll be home every night. Also two companies to look at: Mantec and HCI. Both use contractors for base support.

If you are set upon hitting the road, large companies are a mixed blessing. You often can fade into the woodwork and become "meat in the seat". A couple of advantages: they often have a wider variety of trucking jobs (Intermodal, tanker, flatbed, reefers, etc) and due to their size they have a wider customer base to keep you rolling.


I did 2 years with Swift working a variety of driving jobs such as Heavy Haul vans, reefers and intermodal. The whole idea of Swift was to gain a variety of experience. After that I landed the base jobs I described above.

I hope I've helped. Feel free to PM me if I can assist in anyway.

Pal