Hello from Chicago. Help me get to Texas

Hello

My name is Mark and I have been lurking on this site for the last two weeks now. I first found this site from the great jobs in Texas thread. (I can't post links yet)
I have been trying to find a way to move my family to Texas (We have close friends in San Antonio) and get a trucking job in the oil fields. I currently do not have a CDL and all of my trucking experience is unverifiable. My background is in construction and all of my driving experience has been a direct result of this.

I have driven C-class dump trucks towing backhoes on a daily basis for about a year, however that was almost 10 years ago. I also had another job (again in a construction trade) that led me to driving a truck again. This was a International 4300 with a 24' box. I told the boss that I had driven a truck at a previous job and before I knew it I was being sent from Chicago to Wisconsin every Wednesday and to Indiana every Friday.

After a few years of this job I moved on to another construction job but remained friends with the boss of the previous job. As it turns out he was an avid car collector and would pay me to drive one of his trucks all over the country picking up cars he would buy. This was a nice way to make some extra $$ when it was just the wife and I. Once my first son was born, I decided that I didn't want to be gone for days at a time anymore.

All the time I was doing these various jobs I had never taken a cdl test. Now I am kicking myself for not doing so. Tuition cost is so high for driving school and I don't have the $$. I don't even have access to a truck to take a test in. To wrap up such a long first post, I'm now on a mission, with no cdl, no real verifiable experience, and no real $$, to pack up and move 1200 miles, and beg for a job that can support my family. Construction in Chicago isn't cutting it anymore and I'm about to sell off everything I own and try again. Even selling everything is easier said than done.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Mark

 

Sorry, I need two posts to link my story in the Great jobs in Texas thread

 

I have a feeling more people have got into trucking this way as well. This last Feb. we had a huge snow storm in Chicago. I got a call from a friend who knew someone looking for a driver with any license. Believe it or not, in construction it can be hard to find someone with a drivers license. I was sent to a rental yard to pick up a small dump truck and head into downtown around 3pm or so. By about 10pm I was loading my truck and 2 others with a loader.

There were guys on top of parking garages with bobcats just throwing snow down 4 stories into the streets and allies. We were hauling the snow away to empty lots just outside of downtown. These trucks were not the big semi's that most people on here probably drive. They were top kick's, Chevy 6500's, and F750's. I don't think the semis would have even fit down the side streets as the ones we were driving were EXTREMELY tight.

By the next morning, the boss (who I had just met the evening before) had given me a credit card to keep fuel in the trucks and machines, and addresses to other parking garages that also needed to be cleaned. He left the first site for the night. I'm putting machines on trailers, moving them to other locations, and trying to calm down neighbors who are throwing a fit that streets and allies are blocked off.

I had started this job on Friday and only stopped for about 12 hours Sat night to get some sleep. By Monday morning, I had finished digging out the last blocked ally. I loaded the last two machines on a trailer and brought them to a parking lot. I was instructed to leave the machines and truck there and someone would meet me to give me a ride back home.

The point of the story is that no one had cared about how much experience I had. They were just looking for someone that could get a job done. My experience in the remodeling trades has been the same exact way. While I hear about trade schools all the time, I have learned everything I know by working in the field along side those who do this type of work every day. The real professionals were teaching me the way things are really done.

I have talked to recruiters at Schneider who said they would train me on a tank truck only after I have completed a driving school first. The cheapest I can find is $1800 and takes 4 weeks. If I had $1800 burning a hole in my pocket and could survive 4 weeks of not working, I probably wouldn't be talking to a recruiter in the first place. I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the driving schools, and I don't think I know it all by any means. I'm just beginning to wonder if there is any way to begin without school. I would think that I would learn more from the guy I'd be riding with on the tank truck then I would in a classroom. I guess this is just a whole different animal then the industry I come from.
Sometimes I feel like everyone around me is turning into a full time student and I'm the only one left here trying to kill my dinner and drag it home.

 

Thanks for the advice. The recruiter I had met with basically told me that all my experience is unverifiable. I was also led to believe that no one would hire me without graduating from a driving school. Its funny what you say about getting my foot in the door. Every time I ended up in a truck, I had started in a different position.

1st time was as a laborer for a concrete crew digging and pouring foundations for glass patio enclosure additions. It couldn't have been more than a few weeks before I was excavating with a backhoe that I was pulling to the jobs and spending more time running dirt back a forth to a dump.

2nd time was as a helper for a contractor. We were brought in to an old factory that was purchased by a window manufacturer. We spent a few months there building various workbenches, installing machines, and building offices for the owners. When the work was finished, we were hired as full time carpenters by the factory owner directly.

One morning, I was going over a list of things to be done with the owner. In conversation, I mentioned to him about driving the dump truck at a previous job. He asked if I would be willing to deliver some windows from time to time if need be. Before I knew it, I was no longer the carpenter that could drive the trucks. I was the truck driver that could fix things.