Hello from Oregon

Greetings, all!

I just finished truck driving school and will be getting my CDL today.

Looks like a very active forum and I'm looking forward to posting here often. I have questions but I'll try to give back to the community as time goes along.

I am an Engineer by profession but cannot find a job so here I am. I have moved out of my apartment, am 53 and free of family obligations, so I am planning on "stretching my legs" and doing long-haul dry van with no real need to return home all that often. Right now, I am mainly here to figure out who to work for. I want to get started before the end of the year and of course am trying to make the most money I can.

It's time to start browsing the threads here . . .

 

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm trying to understand this industry from the perspective of a rookie, and what I'm coming up with so far is that the best companies simply do not hire recent graduates, and leave it to the so-called bottom feeders to break in the new guys. This pretty much guarantees that lots of drivers - the smart and ambitious ones - are going to moving to a better company after 6 months or a year. Am I right?

I'd rather find a good company and stay with them for at least a few years, but I'm gonna do what I gotta do. I just applied to Schneider, we'll see how that goes. I'll be applying to lots more tomorrow.

 

Looks like I'm headed to Missoula for orientation at Watkins Shepard.

I like everything I've heard about them, both from the recruiter and from all the input on this forum. 10 days and then I'm on the road, that might be the best part. The physical work I might see doesn't scare me a bit, I need the exercise, lol.

Just waiting for the safety guy to call today and then I'll take the HPE exam and my understanding is that the next step is a bus ticket for Dec 26th.

I hope I'm not jinxing anything by posting this early in the process . . .

 

Hi Boo-Radley, let me be the first to welcome you then!

Which school? I went to Western Pacific.

 

It seems like this business, in spite of it being so huge, defies generalizations. Everyone's situation is unique, and you just cannot say that what makes sense for one person makes sense for anyone else.

Maybe the one thing that can be said in general, though, is that getting the CDL and starting off driving is an adventure! I hope you find that CRE ain't all that bad and that you keep me and everyone else posted.