Opinion wanted: Experience posted in profile on forum...

Just a silly question but I wanted to ask and see what everyone else's opinion is...

I've got prior driving experience, however it's over 3 years ago, so I figured if the carriers won't count it, I shouldn't put it down here on the forum.

But at the same time, I don't want people to assume I'm wet behind the ears either.

So what do you all think? Should the experience we put down here in our profiles include ALL professional driving experience or just the stuff that the carriers would count?

 

That's a good point about insurance being the #1 reasoning behind it. Personally I prefer to think if I drove it, I earned it. However, I also know that driving now will be completely different from how it was in the 90's or even back in '06 when I drove for a short period of time. On the same token though, cursing at your kingpin release when you're doing a drop n' hook...hammering away at your trailer's landing gear and squirting it with WD-40 when it's stuck in the middle of winter and many more things won't ever change.

So, part of me says, "Hey, it *is* a new driving experience" and part of me says, "Some things just don't ever change..."

 

I'd agree that OTR is the only real count - local hauling just isn't the same. If you're not living in the truck, you're not livin' the life, right?

 

Agreed. And I don't know of a single OTR carrier than considers "driving a truck" in any way other than OTR as valid experience. I look at the driving experience on the forum as OTR driving experience.

Otherwise, I could drive a straight truck with a local delivery company for 20 years and consider myself a "truck driver with 20 years experience" and not know the first thing about a log book, DOT regs, how to scale a load properly or even how to drive a semi.

Just my two cents, your mileage may vary.