Leavin' the big yellow bus to run with the big dogs

After 6 years of driving a big ol' school bus, I'm getting ready to move on from snot-nosed kids to drive an 18 wheeler.
My husband drives a truck and is a company man. He is happy with his current gig and supportive of me upgrading to a Class A. I'm currently checking out my options: independant school or company based. Not quite sure yet.

As for the independant school, I am considering Western Pacific. They have a campus in Modesto that would be nearest to my home.
Company school is a toss up between Central Ref. and Prime. Again, Central is closest, but I drive by their Modesto TDA yard frequently and it's not very impressive. Prime is out of state and my husband isn't thrilled with that prospect.

As for what I will be doing once I get my upgrade (I currently have a class B CDL), well he is not to keen on me going OTR either. But you gotta do what you gotta do until you have enough experience to land a decemt LTL. He knows that. It was difficult when he started too, but he doesn't like to think about that possibility.

I tried to get him to go OTR with me, but again he likes his current gig.

I have been surfing the forums and getting lots of info, but wanted to take a minute to introduce myself.

Looking forward to chatting with you all

 

Thanks! There's so much great info here. I'm looking forward to being part of the discussion

 

Who did you drive for n9mxq? Did you find driving a bus helped transition to big rig?

 

I'm currently in the California Central Valley. About 30 miles southwest from Modesto.

 

It's looking like I'm leaning toward Central Refridgerated. The have a school in Cali and I won't have to transfer nor lose my school bus cert. I just renewed last year, and we go through so much to get and then maintain it, I'm not sure I'd like to let it go right away. I've known a couple drivers to leave school bus and go OTR only to have some things change in their lives and need to get off the truck and come back home. They licensed with a company out of state and therefore couldn't come back to school bus without having to go through re-cert as an original. Even though you transfer back to your resident state, the cert is pulled.