Making changes

I figured this was the place where you said hi and introduced yourself.

I've been a diesel mechanic for the last 5 years. I worked on transit and school buses. I've also been driving a school bus for 4 year.

I have class A's so I could run the wrecker but I'm restricted no tractor trailer right now so I'll be running off to trucker school here on the 11th.

Figured trucking school would teach me the basics and I'd learn the real lessons in the field.

I've used this forum to do a lot of research and I've decided that once I graduate I'll head on over to Schneider and get a couple years experience under my belt, I may decide to stick around after some of the things I've read on here.

You really want to confuse a recruiter for a trucking company or school, tell them you've got Class A's but you're restricted... They can't grasp that concept. The recruiter I spoke to at Schneider kept telling me I had Class B's if I couldn't drive a tractor trailer and the recruiter at the trucking school tried telling me that I had an invalid license! It's been a rather humorous adventure.

My dad drove and my brother drives so I'm very familiar with the industry, I just hope it turns out to be the right fit for me and my family.

 

It does count as a combo, which is why I have A's. But because I took my road test in a tandem axle wrecker towing a 40 foot, 26k pound transit bus the dmv restricted me. Doesn't make much sense to me either, I can (and have) hooked up to a road tractor that had a fully loaded 53' trailer and hauled it to the yard for repairs... But in the DMV mind, I can't drive it...

Only logical reasoning I can see behind it is the lack of a 5th wheel on my wrecker. Other than that it had everything else a regular road tractor would have and the pre-trip has to be done the exact same way as if you were hauling a 5th wheel'd trailer.

 

LOL! Alphas, we wore Alphas (Army might call them something else but Marines it was Alphas, Bravos, Charlies, and Deltas in our blues)

I'm in NC btw

 

I have a few months left on my Post 9/11 GI Bill so I'm going to use them to pay for school. I figured if I went through school and came into the industry with all my endorsements I'd have a better chance of doing something more to my liking.

I know I'm still going to have to pay my dues to get experience under the belt but eventually (like with in a year) I'd like to be in a day cab. I live with in a 30 minute drive of Epes, Estes, Cardinal, OD, Averitt, UPS, FedEx, and McClane so one of those is where I'm looking at going after I get enough seat time.

 

I did not know that! Thank you for that info.