57 and starting over need advice

Poor/bad choices for a first "starter" carrier...will thus produce corresponding bad experiences/outcomes.

Some rather "fun" recent examples :

How do I play this game?

&

God bless America

Drama, drama....& more drama.

-- L

 

Refrigerated freight offers steady work, &....generally speaking...a good paycheck.

Here's the "dark" side of refrigerated freight (also known as "reefer" freight...in the industry):

• Deliveries & pickups are scheduled all over the clock -- so say "goodbye"....to anything resembling a regular sleep schedule. Sleep is instead basically a series of catnaps.
• At many stops -- you will be treated with various levels of disrespect (think "stray animal"). Also: because of the grueling/tight delivery/pickup schedules & the corresponding working conditions, this side of the industry has attracted a lot of non-english speaking immigrants....many of whom will treat you like you are the bug & they are the windshield.
• Lots & lots & lots & lots (& lots) of "hurry up & wait"....docked at food warehouses...waiting...& waiting....& waiting....& waiting...to be loaded/unloaded. You may (or sometimes may not) have access to a bathroom during that time. I hope your chosen reefer carrier has a strong "detention time" payout -- BE SURE to get it in writing.
• Be sure your reefer carrier teaches you the ins & outs of the "split sleeper" clock function -- & also, "personal conveyance". If they don't/won't -- pass that job by.

Alternately -- if the above doesn't exactly sound like your "cup of tea" -- start out your CDL career in dry van, instead.

Many of those have more regular sleep schedules.

-- L

 

Wow, one thing that wasn't mentioned is the present employment market, it sucks.

It isn't about getting the CDL but another job if the first one falls through.

Not to piss on anyone's parade, but the other thing that isn't mentioned is this fact, just because you think you can drive a truck doesn't mean you can actually drive a truck. I never looked at the attrition rate for CDL schools but I think the better ones may be as high as 60%.

 

Quickest way to get a paying job driving is most likely with your local county school system

most are begging for bus drivers

The cargo is kinda crappy , but other than that it’s a pretty decent job , usually with benefits etc

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/oKYvVyFOZ2s?si=9RUgJMcVd5sY6EVq

 

Maybe be hired as a deck hand, culinary, etc.

 

Another thing to consider is your physical condition. Before you do it, it's easy to just envision driving along all day, with that being about the hardest part. That part is tiring, for sure, but at our age (I'm 60), the "working hours" can also be very fatiguing.

I drove for about 4 years, left the industry for about 10 years, and decided to try coming back a year or two ago. I ended up deciding that the extra 10 years made it so that the job was just a little too tough to get back into. Could I have done it? Sure. I knew exactly what I was getting to, but what I didn't anticipate were the little things about my age that just made the job tougher than I remembered it to be.

For example, when I drove before, I had perfect 20-20 vision and didn't wear glasses. Now, I have reading glasses. I was surprised to find that, even though I had just gotten new glasses, I was having trouble seeing the instruments on the dashboard when I was driving with my trainer.

Another thing I was dealing with on my return was arthritis in my hands. I suspect spending all that time driving and holding onto the steering wheel in my previous 4-year stint may have contributed to this, at least a little bit. Back then, it wasn't really an issue. This time around, I was really feeling it in my hands as I sat in the drivers seat for a few hours.

One little thing I never would have expected is that I was having some problem typing information into the electronic logs. My hands were shakier than they were 10 years before, and believe it or not, it just took longer to type stuff in on keyboard.

The thing that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, was when my trainer asked me to jump up into the trailer and blow it out with a blower. This is something I had done many times in my previous 4-year stint. It was never a problem. This time around, I experienced a bit of a problem getting up into the trailer. Part of it was because I was driving a reefer this time around, and the steps to get into the trailer were smaller and higher up. I was also stepping up from an icy parking lot, and this added to my problems. Over the last decade, I have experienced a definite loss of balance when I walk. This contributed to my issues with jumping into and out of the trailer.

Come to think of it, while I'm on the subject of jumping in and out, one thing I didn't encounter a problem with during training, but knew it could end up being a problem when I got out on my own, was just the wear and tear of jumping in and out of the cab of the truck over and over in a 14-hour day. I'm a big fat guy, and knew better than to think that I would realistically lose much weight on the road. Because of this, I remembered the pick-ups and drops where it would require me to jump in and out of the truck 10-15 times before getting out of the gate of the shipper or consignee. There were also days where I was doing short trips and had to drop my trailer and hook onto another one multiple times. There were more of these days than I would have preferred, because when you aren't moving and running up the miles, you aren't making much money.

If you are in decent shape, this is probably not a problem, but if you are like me, it's something to think about. At some places, you can pick up or drop with only a few ins and outs, but at others, you would be surprised how many times they have you jumping out of the truck. There are guard shacks at the entrance, check points, trailer sweeping, opening the trailer doors to back in, maybe having to unhook from the trailer after you are backed into the door. Then, to get out of the place, you have to do all of it again, in reverse order. Some days it seemed endless, and these are some of the things that people don't think about when they consider getting into trucking.

Now, for me, no one of these things was enough to prevent me from being able get back into driving. I could have pushed through and gotten the job done. But as I was driving with my trainer one day, I just started thinking about all of these things and decided that, cumulatively, the job had just become too physically demanding for me at my current age.

For you, because of your living situation, it may be well worth it to push through and deal with these things, but I just wanted to shed some light on it from the perspective of a fellow old guy.

Best of luck in whatever you decide!

 

Another reefer guy here. Everything discussed above is correct...many people aren't fans for those reasons but some of us don't mind as much. The "people gotta eat" argument seems to keep things moving more often than not, but as mentioned be sure inquire about detention policies up front because it is a definite factor.

As far as living in the truck that is very doable...I've been using my brother's address for mail and tax purposes for the past year and you'd be surprised how quickly you can stack cash when there's no mortgage/rent/utilities etc. Whenever I'm in town I just get an airbnb for a few days and it works out pretty well.

This board is a great resource when starting out in the industry...whatever questions you have will be answered from a number of different angles.