Frustrated experienced driver

Sounds like what I'm dealing with right now. Experienced driver, got out of the truck 8 years ago to raise my daughter solo. Left on good terms with a good record. Now I am a 100% inexperienced driver in their eyes. I thought I might have to go out for a short time with a trainer to freshen up and prove myself, but no I have to go out for the full training period.

 

I hear all that. I'm going through the same thing. In 2008 I was hit by a tornado and spent a couple days in the hospital. Shook me up bad enough to set me out of a truck for 4 years. When I came back to driving I went back into a local company running frameless dump beds, now I'm ready to get back out on the road. I call 20-30 different companies to hear the same story..."Not enough experience OTR in the last 3 years." Seriously? Even J.B. turned me down because of this...a company I wouldn't have even thought twice about applying to when I was driving before. Talk about a serious buzz kill.

 

With the exception of their dcs and intermodal boards I really have no use for them but man, getting turned down by jb makes you feel pretty lowly. Its amazing they'll hire off the street, throw a noob in a class for 11 days and then in a truck with a guy for a few weeks and turn them loose in an 80k lbs missile but won't hire a guy who's been driving most of his life...that's just bass akward in my book.

 

Western Express & System Transport may hire you. Worth a phone call anyway. I think you're in their hiring area.

 

I'm actually leaving for western orientation tomorrow afternoon. Go with it til I can afford to come up with the down payment on another truck of my own. Times is tough all around and I may be a hillbilly but I sure ain't no jed clampett.

 

Barr-Nunn said to me I had to have over a year experience in the last three....and that was only this morning when I spoke to them.

 

I just got done with Western Express' orientation and I'll put it this way...I've worked for MUCH worse. There were some things they said that I didn't like, but some that I was really impressed by. Get an alternate route approved by dispatch that is a little longer, you get paid for the miles on the new route. That impressed me. Companies talk about practical miles and whatever, but when you get a different route cleared by dispatch that's 20 miles longer and you get paid for that extra 20 miles...that caught me off guard.

 

Seems weird to me that insurance companies think that you will forget how to drive a truck in such a short amount of time. Especially considering that its considered "unskilled labor."

They must have some statistics about this that guides their priorities, since that's what guides them. I'd love to see their stats on this..