I am about to give up!

most likely his location

 

I got my CDL in December. I tried all the OTR companies and they all turned me down because of some prison time I did when I was 16 years old in 1996. (arson, I know stupid kid stuff) I got a local job...yes local, driving for a tree farm. We drive flat beds and vans hauling trees They hired me in May with no experience at $19 an hour. So, DON"T GIVE UP!!! If I got a job driving YOU can too.....just wait, it will happen. Good luck, and hopefully my story will help ease the worry.

 

I got out of jail in January for assault 4th degree (misdemeanor) served 90 days. Made one phone call and the next day I was hired per waiting on drug test to return. I figured it would be easier to hire on with someone local.

 

new CDL A license, no experience, lots of applications and walk-ins. no luck. finally took a job in may driving a staright reefer truck. thought it better to drive than not to, but does not do much to get me into a 16-wheeler eventually. only experience i am getting is how not to get pissed-off at receivers, general on-road stuff (don't follow too close, etc), loading and unloading with pallet jacks. i would be hard for me to go OTR now anyway with a 17-year-old daughter living with me part-time. she needs parenting now more than ever.....geez!

 

Tz, that's not a bad thing....The experience you're getting of having many "bosses" every day, is good. May not be fun, may or may not mean anything at the end of the day, but in a year or two you can say you did strait truck with all the duties that come with it all while being accident free. (Hopefully)

It's all good, let us know how things turn out for ya!

 

I read a few of the recent posts and thought I would jump on with my personal experience. I've been looking for work driving since the first of March. As have most folks, I carpeted all the usual suspects during school, sent out the schools' 8 app. pack, and did another 15 on my own while between classes all during the course. A few call backs, alot said they wern't hiring students back in the spring, and a few outright no's. I'd gone in remembering the "high-demand" days when a guy was getting 2 grand to go to work driving and making a decent living. These are NOT those days. I wondered what could be causing my rotten luck. My background and driving record is squeeky clean, I was a recent school grad with class A and hazmat, no issues and no holdbacks, but I couldn't, and haven't been able to buy a job driving despite all my best efforts. Fate conspired against me a few times, orrientations filled up and I was "bumped" out, or companies stopped training out of certain areas and stopped providing transports there...before I knew it I was no longer a "recent" graduate and now have to take a "refresher" before I'm a jucy kill on the radar screen of OTR companies. So I tell ya, it's a hang and swing kind of proposition. A guy with all the right background and set up still can't get a job sometimes. I've been hanging on to a part time (starving) gig that pays around 36 hours a month and wipes me out hoping I get enough money together for the "refresher" that no work assist or financial aid will help attain. Sometimes you have to get back up with sand in your eyes and dirt in your cuts if you want another shot at this dream of driving some of us seem to be too stupid to give up. You'll go the distance if your like some of the rest of us, and fate will turn her heart and smile where she was raining down pitchforks for so long. I wish you luck with your efforts, and kindly let us other strugglers know how your're comming along with it.

 

I would just like to know what a refresher course is going to teach anyone. If you have your cdl, you have driven a truck, know how to do a log book, read a map or follow a gps what is there to learn. Its like riding a bike. Once you do it you never forget.

 

You'd think they would ease up on that during this job crisis. Makes no sense. I for one would be crushed if I spent my last dime on a school and couldn't get hired, then be stuck with a "refresher" in my way of a job - while broke!

 

The reason why so many students aren't getting hired is because..... "DRUM ROLL PLEASE"......


The economy is in the #######.... people aren't spending money.... Meaning stores ain't ordering anything..... Meaning that many driver's lost their jobs..... And many trucking companies went under..... So many experienced driver's out of work..... Companies can pick & choose who they hire..... A company will pick a 10 year veteran with a spotless record before they take their chances on a inexperienced student.

 

so true REDD, so true...most of us in "my" boat figure we've bought the job 3 times over already, whats a few more hundred bucks..."Sit spot, roll over spot, stand up spot, now beg for it...beg for that job!" What are you going to do, woof woof...desperate times.

Most of us will be happy when we're not seeing pitchforks anymore. Even a little sunshine after the rain looks good.