So many decisions...

Hello!

I'm new to the truck driving scene and I just have a lot of decisions and questions that I was hoping some with experience could help with. I got a job about a year ago driving straight trucks and delivering packaged ice for Home City Ice in Illinois. I was reluctant to take the job at first because I had never driven anything bigger than a pickup truck, but I went ahead with it. I got the minimum license the company requires to drive and deliver (Non-CDL Class C) and it turns out I love it. I love driving all of our trucks (even though they're ALL junk) the only real downside is the actual delivery part. It's backbreaking, the days are long, the trucks have no A/C, and now working during the winter is horrible because the pay is commission based and delivering ice in winter...not really a good time. So I've decided to go to a CDL training program my community college offers and get my Class A to be able to get a job driving and hopefully less of the killer manual labor and crappy trucks.

The only problem is...I'm only 19 (turn 20 in 2 months) so I know my options for driving are limited. So should I wait to go to the CDL program until I turn 21 and go from there? I really don't want to work another summer at Home City Ice but if I have to I will. If I got my Class A License before I turn 21 I'm fairly certain my boss would let me drive our transport tractor trailer between our plant and some of our nearby warehouses, which would get me some driving experience for when I do turn 21. Or, I've also considered applying for a dock worker position at a local LTL company (Dohrn Transfer) to get familiar with the LTL side of trucking, as I am planning on staying local, and then trying to get a driving job with them after I go to the training program.

As you can see I'm just confused as to what I should do and how to go about doing it I just know I really enjoy driving at my current job even despite the bad working conditions, so I really want to get into something better.

Any help, suggestions, or any advice at all would be greatly appreciated, and please, I'm totally new so if I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about...It's because I don't



*EDIT* I posted this in "The Welcome Wagon" but didn't see this area where I could post questions. Somebody suggested going to a Beverage Distributor and we do have a few around where I live, I'm just worried I'll get stuck in a side loader once I get my license doing the same "cart-every-box" labor when I'd rather be doing bulk driving at higher volume accounts. I've heard that those positions are easier to get if you go to a CDL program. Again...any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

I appreciate it! I guess I'll keep on going with getting enrolled in the program if that's the best course. Is there anything I should know about the financial assistance for these CDL programs? I'm prepared to have to pay it all and finance it, but I've heard that there are several ways of getting decent financial assistance for them. What kind of assistance is there?

Hah! I'll never be the guy to claim I know more than I do.