Have CDL but haven't driven in awhile....

Where is your location?

 

wow that would really suck to have to go through school all over again that's another $5000 isn't it? I started driving after a 6 year break never went to no schools no driver trainer the prospective boss just put me in a truck and we took a test drive just like riding a bike i haven't ridden one for nearly 30 years i bet i can still get on one and ride like i'd never ever stopped so to driving a truck while you may be a little rusty you'll soon pick it up very quickly however if your not very confident by all means get someone to give you a little refresher. So anyway i went from not driving for 6 years to hauling 63 tonne tanker loads of Cattle supplements and then to now doing fuel deliveries so there is hope for all.

 

Even though some on here don't believe it, some cdl schools are free.
The old saying, "nothing is free", is false. A new driver shouldn't expect to be a driver and the CEO of the trucking company at the same time.

 

Rust is easy to break off. Dont you worry.

I stopped OTR in 2001, got into a ford 9000 to do yard jockey work with trailer one in dock two. That one was backed in in one move (Thank god...) and by 4 hours later I had rust taken off me. It ws a tiny little job in 2008 for half a day when the other jockey broke a big bone hopping out.

At the same time I was only one of three trusted to take entire tractor trailers into a auction barn. When you consider there is a two inch gas line right at 13'7 inches up there you were very gentle and just so. That kept me pretty polished. Being a crew boss teaching the latest in autos and manuals to those who need a quick intro kept me somewhat current until then. No worries.

You do need a refresher and you WILL benefit from running with a trainer. Just make sure that you if HIRED go straight to the DMV in your home state and swear out a Tier One document that you are back to Commercial hauling in Interstate and Intrastate. Its a small detail but dont forget it. Many states keep tiers now mine was tier two without medical card to keep CDL for either farm work to silo on property or hauling dead bodies after a nuclear disaster attack or whatever as explained to me by the revenuer. (In short grandfathered CDL, but I had to sign that document on each renewal which included tanker and one or two other endorsements plus airbrakes etc)

I know I can ride a tractor trailer right now with maybe 30 minutes to a hour alone with it in a gravel lot or some place out of the way. But the actual trucking say from Yakima (WA) to Boston (Mass)? Now that would need a little bit of time and getting used to all over again but not too long. The knowledge is there. Particularly of the old Iron which might be valuable someday in some sort of restoration or other living history type exhibitions if there is one.

Today's computer trucks have to be blunt made idiots out of a percentage of truckers. There is nothing in them to actually participate in your own driving or the actual doing. You are told what to do when to do it and how by electronic alarms all over the place now.

 

Try Jim Palmer Trucking. The pay is much better than Swift for new drivers. Jim Palmer starts you at over .40 cpm and the trucks are really fancy & set up for driver comfort.

Swift may get you in class faster though. I don't know for sure.

 

Your experience driving a bus is still commercial driving experience. About half of the jobs I've interviewed for in the past two years, offer automatic-only fleets. As far as anything else, your anxiety is from simply not driving in a while. Get in that truck and go down the road, and it will all come back to you 100% in about 30 minutes. This anxiety is something I go through anytime I am out of the truck longer than 2 weeks.

 

Schneider might approve you with only a quickie refresher course of 40 hours, which is just one week. Ask about that.
Since money is tight, that might be the quickest way to get back on the road.