I'm thinking about getting back on the road. Some questions and possible problems.

I drove for PST for a short time 15 or so years ago. It was fine during training and for a while after that. Then they had me doing short runs on the east coast for 6 weeks. Their solution to get me home was to have me leave my truck and get on a bus back to Chicago. I did that and then took a short vacation to AZ. I was going to fly back to Chicago but they had a truck sitting in a yard in Phoenix that they wanted me to take. It was a rolling junkyard.

The final straw was when I had an accident going in to pick up a load. I was making a left turn on yellow and the light cycled fast. The cars in the left turn lane of the road I was turning onto moved forward blocking my turn and I couldn't stop in time. I clipped one of them. Once the accident was all cleared up I went to pickup the load and was told that it didn't exist. That was the final straw. I parked the truck at the yard and told them I quit.

So that is one accident.

I quit so I don't know what they put on my record.

I was cited for an "improper u-turn" in Jersey. PST paid the ticket so I didn't fight it even though it wasn't a u-turn. I was off the road in a parking lot but to the officer it looked like a u-turn.

I have a 5 year old DUI.

I will test positive for Valium even though I'm not taking it anymore.

I've recently done some heavy drinking with friends so that will show up in a hair test.

Those are the potential problems. Now for the questions.

Is any one of those a deal breaker?

Where should I start? Swift has a school nearby. There is also a private school in town that accepts Federal loans.

I'm not sure how to go about this. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

I completely agree. That's why I'm looking into school. I would never get behind the wheel of a truck without some training.

I also need to get my CDL back. I let it go when I moved to AZ because at the time I had no intention of driving a truck again. My normal license is good until I'm 65. They will bug me for an updated photo but that's it. I didn't want to spend the time and money keeping up a CDL that I didn't think I'd ever use again.

Thanks for wishing me luck.

 

My Doctor tells me it's absorbed into fatty tissue and it takes a while (read months) for the body to clean it out. That's what causes a positive on the test. So, even though I've stopped taking it and it doesn't effect me anymore I can still test positive. The up side is that I don't think it's one of the drugs they screen for.

Just to be safe I'm going to get a letter from my PCP stating that he is no longer prescribing it to me and explaining why it would still show up in a test.

Concerning the DUI, 5 years seems to be the cutoff for many companies. I spoke to Swift on the phone and if it's 5 years old they don't care.

All I want is to drive again. I just took a trip in a box truck from Chicago to Prescott and, aside from it being a horrible box truck, I loved it.


Thanks all for the help. Please keep your suggestions coming.

 

That bothers me too. I can understand them looking for illegal drugs but an old prescription from a doctor is silly.


Another question. I've been told they ask for everything concerning Police. I have no idea when my last speeding ticket was. I know it's around 6 years ago. I have even less a chance of remembering when the accident and u-turn tickets were. If they go through my entire life how am I supposed to remember the speeding ticket from 20 years ago? I remember exactly what happened but I couldn't tell you the date.

Edit: There was also a warrant for my arrest because AZ is stupid. I paid the ticket but transposed the change so instead of x and 83 cents I wrote the check for x and 38 cents. The only reason I found out is because my sister was pulled over for speeding. I was rear ended while borrowing her car so I made a point of having it on record in case there was any damage that wasn't visible at the time. That caused me to show up to the Police and they started asking her if she knew where I was. She called me and after a series of long phone calls I found out that I owed them 50 cents. I paid it and it was all done.