Can anyone give me some advice

You are obviously not a youngster, so you have the maturity factor in your favor. How did the class 1 course go? Does the handling, shifting, manouvering, backing etc. of a big rig come at all easily, or was it a struggle? Trucking can be a tough gig, especially in our area with the winters we get. The job becomes very, shall we say, "interesting" in this cold when you have to figure out why you can't get brakes to release, or air bags won't air up, you go to hook to a trailer and the glad hands snap in half because they are brittle (had that twice this winter), brake shoes freeze to their drums after sitting a few days, and if you aren't observant you drag a set of wheels down the highway and burn off a set of tires unless you crawled underneath with a hammer and a propane torch to get them free first. These kinds of things, and then you have to deal with roads, such as if you are familiar with hwy 44 n. of 16 and how it gets in winter with snow blowing across and traffic driving on it, your rig essentially becomes a big curling rock, that you have to keep from running over what I call the "white knucklers" who seem to have to be on the road for some unknown reason when they should be at home on the couch.
I am not trying to scare you off, you may well be aware of a lot of this, especially if you had a good driver trainer.

Trucking jobs in this area seem to be plentiful, but I am not sure about the part time thing. You may find you have to sign on full time. There are several oil field service companies which would be an excellent place to get training and practical experience. Do some checking in the oil field trucking forum here.

One last point I would offer to you is this, if you are starting from scratch, you may want to consider starting in the spring or summer when you don't have the ice, snow and cold to deal with on top of everything else. (Then you'll only have mud and gumbo, lol).

Hope this helps a little, and best of luck.

 

I know everyone will jump on me for this one, but. You might want to contact some of the temp agencies just to get a foot in the door. Being part time with that schedule might scare some companies off. If it was the same days off every week they might be able to work with you. Just my 2cents.

 

I'd go with what bobbyt said. After you get some experience you may be able to find a local O/O who would like someone mature and reliable who can spell them off so that their truck still earns while they take a few days off.

 

Watch this youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGDWGHrX11E

That guy has a regular job and drives on the weekends for extra money. In his videos he says you can contact him about what he earns, and for other questions.

Good luck to you.

 

Very insightful! thanks