Have CDL, Need to get my 180 Hrs. in.

Your best bet is to call an O/O,most to all mega carriers required 150 hours of truck driving training from a approved school.I would look into a trucking company that have there own schools like Swift,FFE,Central Refrigerated.Some don't required any payment but do required you to drive for them at lease a year to 18 months before you can quit.There others too.

 

Get in contact with some of the oilfield companies and see if any of them will give you a go. I know they are so hard up for warm bodies they may give you a shot. You'll obviously have to move to an area with oilfields if they give you a shot.

 

Welcome to the TTR Forum. Most companies won't consider your experience. If it was not OTR you are pretty much out of luck. I don't see an owner/operator or small company being able to use this experience unless it was OTR.

While I have no experience with Prime, I think they might be a possible option for you. Without OTR tractor trailer experience or training you are fighting nearly impossible odds.

I'll share my standard advice, maybe it will help in some way.

You need to research and find out what the important questions are. You can make an above average living but you will make sacrifices that other jobs don't require. Read the "good companies" and "bad companies" section on this forum and get an idea of what company you want to work for and what kind of trailer you want to pull. Don't just go to school and then try to figure out where to go.

I don't know your financial situation. Don't take training from a company if you can afford it or get it with financial aid. You will be their slave for up to year. If you leave they will trash you DAC and credit record. Check out your local community colleges and employment office.

Just know that most training and trucking company recruiters will do nothing but lie to you. They will let you talk about what you want and then tell you what you want to hear. Trucking is about moving freight to make money for the company. Your home time, family, paycheck and everything else comes second.

It is not like any other job. Local is usually backbreaking delivery work 10+ hours a day, 6 days a week. Often you unload dozens of times a day or you are a salesman. In my area most dump truck jobs pay less than a good factory job. Regional is lots of loading and unloading time, fewer miles than OTR and not as hard as local but will wear on you and push your HOS limits. OTR is out 3 - 5 weeks with 3 - 4 days home, less manual labor and more miles.

You'll probably have to pay your dues before you get the gravy job. Weekends off, if you are lucky enough to get something like that starting out, may be home Thursday afternoon and leave Saturday night or home Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon. Loads deliver on Monday early and you leave in time to get them there. Often your home time will be in the middle of the week.

Regardless of your driving choice, after school you will go through company training. For OTR this can be six weeks to three months with little or no home time. The first phase is usually $400 a week and the second phase is $500-550 a week. Some pay less. One company pays 12 CPM for training.

You don't want to wait around too long after training or you'll have trouble finding a job. If you get out before you have a year in, when you try to come back a few months later you will find they want you to start over.

One last thing, if you have anything that makes you less desirable than your competing job applicants, a phone or in-person interview will often bring the best results. Even if I am the best candidate I will choose face-to-face if at all possible and phone if not. Sure you may have to fill out that online application but that isn't the best way to get a good job. You have to do something or be someone who stands out from the crowd. Do regular follow-ups by phone on the jobs you really want.

 

Think outside the box !!!!



Maybe start a class b job, where they also have class a trucks, maybe you could advance.

 

You are very welcome. I ran into the same problem at Prime. Sorry I didn't think about that.

Schneider offered to take me if I would do a refresher course. They said the would give me a short company training period after the refresher. Here in my area, a full training course is $4,000 and a refresher is $1,333.

I have no recent experience but it is handled about the same as local experience. Either way they know you can drive but don't count your experience.

 

Call FFE and Central Refrigerated,when I call them I told them I had my CDL but no experience within last few years,they told me I can go to there school.Some reason Prime and some companies are picky don't know why.

 

It is all about insurance.