47 year old unemployed ex-professor

Why not? I am 47 and have come out of retirement to start Aug 4 with a company. I was a field service engineer and have a long useless resume in today's current economy.

Cost 3-5k and good mechanical (spacial) ability. Can you back a boat trailer without taking out property or blue-crossing people? You have to be honest with yourself before you take on this trade.

Jump in; the waters fine...p.s expect to cut your pay a smigg HA!

 

Take a lot of time to review various threads on this board before you take the plunge.

I wish I had before shelling out almost $5k for truck school.

 

Sure two years ago maybe. Trucking is HARD work. I hope you know how to tie down a load when its freezing out or you have to sling chains on your tires. Can you do that without getting frostbite? Can you handle the weight of those icy cold chains? Keep reading and then decide.

 

Care to expand on your previous career?

 

For the record, I went through a company school and was classmates with a 50-some-odd-year-old ex-computer programmer.

Also ran into an out-of-retirement ex-county sheriff about your age.

It can be done, but realize that to some extent driving is going to be hard on anybody that doesn't have a little bit of innate mechanical sense.

Some of the guys my age just didn't get the shifting pattern, or the high center of gravity, or the stopping distance, etc. The couple of more middle-aged gents were pretty good about it.

I know it's a little ethereal, but if you "get" driving, it'll be easier to pass through school than otherwise.

As far as schools go, opinions vary, but in my case, I did the company school (as I said) and had the "whole guaranteed job if you pass through training" thing going for me.

Most company schools are 3-4 weeks, cost of company schools ranges from 3500-5000. Often they'll loan you the money and escrow your checks at 35-50 bucks a week to pay it off. I leased (thought I was a smart bugger, turned out otherwise) and because of that, they forgave a portion of my loan every week ($35) and at the end of 9 months or a year (I forget which) they forgave the balance.

Community college/tech school courses are longer, and the price will vary greatly depending on who you're looking at. The benefit there is that you just might feel a little less wet-behind-the-ears when you get through a tech school course than if you go company school. Downside is that you don't have the guaranteed job.

Probably best to go tech school and give due diligence to the companies you're interested in. I have to admit, I probably went in a little blind due to over-eagerness.

My two bits.

 

Werner guaranteed me a job if i went to truck driving school and passed on my own, and they had a reimbursement program, where if i had gotten a loan from the local school here, it would have paid my payment every month until i stopped working for them. Problem was i couldnt get a loan. They also had their recruiters and a recruiter that worked for the local school hounding me, though. Werner isnt one of the best companies but i've met several people who worked for them and liked them. I'm sure other companies probably do similar things.