Advice for returning to the road

First off i would like to say hi to everyone and i hope i dont sound like an idiot..lol anyway, i took an early retirement in 03' after 3 solid years on the road to stay home and raise the kids because i been away since birth on the road and the wife wanted to go to nursing school and work. I started out with schneider national and trained in their school and on the skidpad. great training experience but not a very good driver relations experience. I would go back but, no school anymore and i was thinking refresher but a lot has changed and i feel i need the entire thing over again and i already have student loans out so i dont realy want to go to a private school. I had my school contract from schneider baught out by m.s. carriers, in my opnion was the best of the best in any company and i so wish they were still around. after swift baught them i went to gainey out of michigan where im from but, horror story like many others. Now, my kids are grown and I went thru a very nasty devorce wich was a financial disaster. Im 42 and have nothing left but the open road. For me 90% of horror stories i hear are not an issue with me, for me it's all about a garenteed weekly paycheck for at least the next ten years. so my question is : wich company today would you guy's suggest for driver training ?

all im looking for is : a steady paycheck above local pay, electonic logs, id like to get into automatic my uncle has one and i loved it, i dont realy want to be with a trainer for more than a month thats just a money thing, mostly drop and hook, mostly no touch frieght and halfway decent home time and what i mean by this is no less than 9 days out with the possability of 2 days home and if possible no more than three weeks at a time with the possability of at least 3 days home. <<< "not too picky about this but would be good enough for me".

what i don't care about is : sitting for a minute waiting for a load it happens so what, equipment is going to break down so if it does i just want to know that the company has contingencies in place, not big on pay scale as long as i get payed and it's more than minimum wage lol, long hauls short hauls who cares as long as im working im content, benefits - i have my own so no biggy there, ride share would be nice but not a complaint and minimal if not no upfront charges for training. im not sure how much of this has changed but when i went thru schneider the only thing i paid for was the beer i drank on the weekend..lol. im not sure if i would ever team again not just because of a bad experience but the away time was just too much for me.

I have found a handfull of companies that "say" they fit my criteria but not sure which one to trust or which one would be the better of several evils. Im not going to post which ones im looking at i just want your opinions. Im currently in a possition to be picky but would much rather be out on the road with all of you. Yes i would like to restart my career as a road runner and i can feel it pulsate in my bones but if i can't find a good company that i can trust to meet me half way then...I might as well hang up my hat and call it quits and thats sad...

thank you in advance for any imput you can give me on (COMPANIES)

p.s. my last run for m.s. carriers i needed a trailer to get home so they had me pick up a schneider (whom i left for m.s.) and my new fuel card was swift (whom took over after i signed on)...yup i got hurassed on 19 and pulled into ever coup from kansas city to detroit so they can.....TAKE PICTURES...lmao..yes i have one and when i find it i will post it.

I was also parked and taking a nap at new york paper 3 hours before the towers were hit, talk about a day. Good thing i got hungry i guess.

 

Im currently in las vegas, nevada in the process of moving back to michigan hopefully after i reinstate my cdl. No i did not maintain my cdl, I thought after the first 5 years i was going to be done and went to collage for a different career that would keep me home with the family and as you see from my info, it didn't work out. As far as remembering how to drive (lmao) i took a couple of road test already and both times they told me i would benefit from just doing the training over not because i can't steer or back, back when i was working i was a natural and did things with my truck most would say impossible but i forgot a few things that would be unsafe so it's best i just start over. I don't know what happend, i just can't remember..lol.

 

thanx ribeye, no my kids are in the flint area but there all on there own now. It's just me so thought it would be a good time to hit the road and restart my career. They are talking college and i have 10 years of debt and it's just me so i thought it would be aperfect time. I diid however take a couple practice writin tests onhere and boy are they different from back when i took them...lol needless to say i didn't do very well hence why the testers thought i would benefit from just retaking a course to update me on the changes.

 

thank you chinatown that was very helpful. ya i see that the dot has changed a bit but shouldnt be a problem for me im in pretty good shape and see a doc. and chiro regularly that both said i was ready to go by their standards. I was fully endorsed before so shouldnt be a problem either it's just been a wile and from my research to me does seem like a lot has changed since before. Im just ready to get back to work and don't want to deal with any sales pitching hence why im asking arround. I just want to make sure my time isn't waisted and i don't get screwed by the turn over companies. I have looked at roel and swift and they didnt seem too bad i was leabing more towards stevens or us express but still dealing with dmv so until i get that mess sorted out i'll call those 4.