57 and starting over need advice

Swift Refrigerated – Sign On for the Trucking Career of a Lifetime with Swift Refrigerated
Academy Opportunities – Earn your CDL in as little as 4 weeks

 

You can turn your life around with trucking. There are a few ways to pay for CDL school:

WIOA grant through state unemployment office. It pays for everything.

Loan for CDL school. EVERY CDL school will find someone to loan you money. Half of trucking companies offer Tuition Reimbursement TR. You earn pay by driving & company pays additional amount weekly or monthly you apply toward school loan. DO NOT PAY OUT OF POCKET & expect to pocket the TR. Some companies only pay TR on an outstanding loan. Also the TR amount may or may not be equal or adequate to cover the monthly loan payment. You need to satisfy the loan as the agreement states.

Go to a "free" CDL school associated with the trucking company that hires you & requires you to work for them, NO MATTER WHAT, for 12-24 months or mileage total of maybe 125,000 miles per year. If you don't satisfy that time or mileage obligation you will owe the company all or part of the inflated tuition cost.

The most important thing is FIRST find the job that provides what you need AND THEN decide about how to get licensed. CDL school is not college. You will NOT have time during the few weeks of school to properly investigate an employer. Insufficient investigation of the employer gives you an 80-90% chance of leaving trucking very quickly

The goal is a job where you learn & work for 12 months, not the easiest path to ANY OL TRUCKING COMPANY. It's the difference between a wedding ceremony & a wife. Which one of those 2 are the more important decision?

A key part to picking a company is accurate information about the 10-20 things that go into a job that fits you. Some of these are;
Pay (not just CPM, but CPM & miles per week)
Type of freight (dry van, reefer, flatbed) flatbed is physical labor & driving.
Time off. In your case probably focus on if you accumulate time off every week or if company gives you 34 hour reset every "weekend".
Parking of truck & trailer & your car when you are working. It's better if you come & go from a trucking terminal with their own shop & secure parking for your car.
Health insurance & any fringe benefits.
What part of country you want to travel or avoid. Northeast is not truck friendly & California is just awful.
How is your blood pressure & blood sugar. Have you used any FEDERALLY ILLEGAL drugs in last 6 months? NOBODY CARES IF YOUR STATE HAS LEGAL WEED, IT IS ILLEGAL FEDERALLY AND YOU WILL BE DRUG TESTED. ANY product with THC, even if the clerk doesn't tell you about it or the CBD product claims no THC, any THC is a failed drug test. If blood pressure is over 140/90 or you use BP medecine, you will only get a 1 year medical card. A 1 year card is fine for trucking. Insulin-dependant diabetes is not eligible for trucking.

An online only.search for info IS NOT SUFFICIENT to arrive at a decision. Company web sites DO NOT provide accurate or reliable info. They are PR documents. Recruiters will tell you anything to get you to work for that company. Any question you ask will be "answered" with a "I don't know, I'll look into it." You never get that answer, just a hurry up & finish you application. When you pick an employer you just decided the answers to the items above because you get what they give. You wanted to stay working for 4 weeks and take 3 days off, well if they give you 34 hour reset every 5 days you get 34 hour resets every 5 days. You will not change what they do. You get what the company gives, choose wisely.

You must must must make the company put you in contact with CURRENT working drivers working on the same customer account for which you are being hired. Ask those drivers to tell you the pay, miles, schedule last week. Ask about the things on your list. DO NOT ASK "do you make good money, is this a good company?" Good means different things to different people. You need the details then you decide if that fits your needs.

Do not got to CDL school, even if it is "free" unless you know enough to want to work for that company for 12 months.

If you have any criminal record, traffic tickets, accidents STOP and find out if they will seriously hurt your ability to get hired. If you are planning on changing states of residence, long periods of not available for work then don't start the CDL school process. Expect to find the job you want, learn what that company requires of newbies & if you will qualify once you get a CDL and plan to be working the .Monday after you compete school for 2 months.

You are probably
Old enough to ignore this but trucks are big & heavy. If you hit objects as a new-hire, even dirty or difficult to see things or get tickets you won't be working for long. This industry is slow AND THERE IS NO DRIVER SHORTAGE, IT'S FAKE NEWS.

We all will try to help you, if you ask specific questions. Just liking that long car trip vacation is not what this job is like. That is about 25% of this job and lots of frustrating other stuff, day after day for a long time.

 

They are all pretty much the same
Prime
Crst
Jr England

 

If you jump into trucking with little preparation or research you will leave quickly. All companies are not alike, all companies that hire almost everyone that applies may be alike. I never worked for any of them and I had a pretty good career and retired early after 28 years. It's often a frustrating job, but being indifferent if the company you apply to is difficult or not will not make this job any easier.

Get every endorsement (Doubles/Triples, Tanker, HazMat) and you are more valuable. HazMat costs maybe $150 is various fees. Tanker is required for freight carried in dry van, reefer, or on flatbeds. It's not just required for liquid tanker trailers. After a year of dry van or reefer, you can get hired at most tanker companies. Tanker is humane and professional segment of trucking, and tanker is much easier to back. Tanker customers are better than most dry van or reefer.

 

West Memphis Arkansas is a big trucking hub. USA Truck has a terminal with bunk rooms upstairs. Washer/dryer, showers, Walmart nearby.

Swift Transportation also has a training academy in Memphis.

 

I started out with Schneider National -- at age 56.

Trucking can be a good "fit" for you, if:

• You possess a genuine zest for adventure (almost like Lewis & Clark -- but not quite that hard-core)
• You like working alone, & like being alone -- for extended periods of time
• You don't mind working LONG HOURS
• You possess the patience of a grandfather clock
• You don't mind being gone from "home"...for weeks/months at a time
• You have the work ethic of a fully-loaded freight train
• You can stomach a certain amount of disrespect -- & laugh it off (i.e., you have a thick skin -- & are NOT easily provoked)
• You have an excellent sense of humor
• You are a "gearhead"....or at least a "gearhead" wannabe
• You really like driving (obviously)
• You don't mind temporarily weak pay -- for much better pay, later (think of your first 2 years of trucking as an "apprenticeship")

Trucking involves 2 clocks: an 11 hour clock, & a 14 hour clock.

The 11 hours is for driving; the 14 is for "on duty".

Those numbers should give you some clues as to what each day will involve.

Because of the long hours, & the extensive travel involved -- trucking is not just a job -- it's also a LIFESTYLE.


If you can't check off all of the above -- it's likely that you will later be miserable.

-- L