Are O/O's interested in training new drivers?

Drivers with 20 years experience have high insurance rates if they take a year or 2 off. Insurance companies only care about recent experience in a class A cdl vehicle. Your best bet is get a year under your belt with a mega carrier that self insures then go for a smaller company.

 

True that....

You put your time in with a mega carrier and then you can look to other options.
Insuring someone in your case will be very expensive and not really of value to an O/O, unless
he happened to be a friend of your or some other connection.

Ride out the bus thing until it busts (if it does) and then apply at one of the Mega Carriers and put your time in...then do whatever you want!



PS. An Independent O/O (like me) has to create a driver file and background check/application as well as MVR and then make sure you're enrolled in a Drug and Alcohol program. An O/O thats leased (technically an L/O) would have to work this out with his company and any additional concerns they might have.

 

As Darko said above, the for hire O/O's would have a lot of additional paperwork, as well as cost, IF you are wanting to drive. However, if you just need to blow the dust off and get some seat-time, but aren't looking to learn about getting loads, rate negotiation, regulations, etc. you know, Independent O/O stuff, then I would suggest this: Find a large farm that has Class 8 trucks / trailers. Offer to haul some loads for them for cheap or free, after a few ride-alongs. That will get you the seat time, and the farmers don't have to pay for basically anything compared to the for-hire O/O. The farmer can let any farm hand drive it legally without a CDL even, and the insurance is dirt cheap. You'd just be driving within a 150 mile radius, delivering the farm product, or picking up material for the farm.

 

It matters only if you let your CDL LAPSE and you renew it. My insurance just saw it as having 20+ years of experience. Didn't care that I took 15 years off.

 

What insurance company do you use? They would be a fool to not care about someone taking 15 years off. You would of course get a little rusty during that time.

 

I've never had an insurance company inquire about job history for the drivers I hired, merely check CDL and driving history. This guy should be ok with his "seasoned" CDL. Of course, I've actually hired drivers and have been a carrier, I'm not merely speculating based on tenth hand information.

 

All they cared about was that my CDL was never lapsed from 1990 to current. Nor was it suspended or anything like that.

 

When I had my insurance , they didn't care about my job history. They only worried about how long I had my license. I have heard about some insurance companies verifying employment. Don't know if that is true.