I'm a potential new guy, interested in Schneider...

Jersey's new CDL exam is The Jersey Way at its finest. Let's be the most difficult out there for the least valid reason (Gaming law is like this too - I used to call it the NJ Casino Control Freak Commission). The recruiter as S&S Bellmawr told me a story about a group of their students that all failed that test on the same day. Each person came back and told a similar horror story about the DMV person administering the exam. Long story short, the school took written statements and filed appeals. Every person who failed that day was magically passed.

Best of luck to you, sir. I think your path might be similar to mine, if only I knew what was going on as far as paying and be able to go. I have another hotel interview next week; keeping a foot in each pool until I know for sure what's going on.

 

The school will send out 8 or 9 testers on any given day and usually 1 or 2 at max will pass. Most people fail on air brakes or pre trip and don't even get to the skills maneuvers or road test. A few guys failed last week because their minute didn't match up to the examiner's minute on the applied brake test. I refuse to fail because of something so trivial. Don't get me wrong, some of these people can't tell a semi from an apple and i hope to never see them out on the road but others really have their stuff together and still fail for little things. I can only worry about me though. I don't have time to retake the test.

As I stated previously, it might not be such a bad thing that you have to wait. I do hope you get the financial stuff straightened out so you can breath a little easier. SNI will probably open Bulk back up to new drivers once the weather warms up and you won't have to worry about transferring over and what not. When you do get into the school, I'll give you some tips on how to navigate the chaos, stand up for yourself, and be taken seriously. Otherwise your just another body that gets lost in their endless pool of students and negativity.

 

Seems like the combo of OTR and Northeast are what got closed off to noobs re: Bulk. Just for the poops and giggles of it, I set SNI's job search filter to Bulk with no geographic restriction. Everywhere else in the country is looking for regional and will take any CDL holder. If you're north and east of Cory, you're screwed for the time being.

Having said that, some of the Bulk threads I've read basically say that regional tank has its home time penalized because you get killed on the miles.

 

thats the case for van too. There is a sacrifice soemwhere. Better miles the longer you are out = sacrifice family life. Better family life with more regular TAH = sacrifice to some degree the miles.

set your goals near, mid, long term. Work and do what is necessary to achieve them. Having the wife fully onboard as well.

 

If you take that portion literally, you and the wife teaming and putting all money into the same household would solve both issues. Unless you have kids or some other factor. You'll find what works for your individual situation.

 

The kid thing is a singular for right now - we agreed on plural (2) but recent circumstances have made firing up the oven a bad idea. Add that to my wife's desire to stay home and you have the solo driver.

Went to the required meeting in DE today to get assigned the caseworker who says yes or no to paying for training. One more box on the never-ending list checked...

 

Wait...Wait...you were prior usaf? I was prior usmc and used a very small portion of my gi bill to pay for cdl training. Not a similar option for you?

 

Nope. Burned it all on a Master's degree that I've been considering walking away from.

 

Well dang. How far can that degree get you in the trucking world? Can't you get an office job as a driver manger? Or is driving your main interest? I would hate to have used all your gi bill for a degree you can't use in this industry.

 

I have looked at DBL jobs, but I'm not close enough to anything currently open. Carlisle is hiring, but Keasbey isn't. Keasbey is also too far of a daily commute for anything resembling a first-shift job; I'd be in the car two hours each way with traffic. It's not that driving is or isn't my main interest; making money is the main interest, such that my wife can stay home. You can't find that in hotels, at least not in hotel operations, which is the last 12 years of my life.

The first interview I went on since this thread was born has said that we are too far apart on money...but he does want me, so he's working on meeting my number. The second interview was kind enough to send me a paper reject letter which arrived today. The personality profiler at the Delaware unemployment meeting nailed me as a hotel industry person; it even suggested a job title that I'd previously held and was very happy with before I had a wife and kids. Only problem with that is that I feel burned out on hotels (there's the screen name and avatar reference - sticking a pitchfork in a pineapple)...I cringe at the thought of "May I help you?"