Need help!

Ok I need some help here, I have 17 years experience and have been out of the business for 8 years and no one will give me the time of day! I have called lots of companies and nobody will give me a chance. I have a totally clean record on everything and plenty of experience class a CDL, plus 4 years owner operator, and they just say you need current experience. How can I get back in the business and find a good job?

 

Start at the bottom, unfortunately.

 

Try to find a smaller Co.
Or an OO with a few Trucks.

 

unforntuatley 8 years out of the industry you are now concidered a newbie again
like you have NO CMV expierence at all..
like above said and I had to do it too out for 6 went back to a company I was leased to years ago
he only had an 8 truck operation and signed me back on as one of his drivers.
stayed with them for 5 years till he retired and closed was able to go anywhere I wanted after that

 

One way could be to get on with Schneider as a bulk driver. The pay would be pretty good, just to give you that recent experience that you'd need to eventually go into whatever area of trucking you'd like to be in again. Schneider would require you to get Hazmat and Tanker endorsements, if you don't have them already, and take a 40 hour Refresher course which would cost you roughly $2300 out of pocket. They would gradually reimburse you for this expense once you came on driving for them. Just my two cents.

 

What about calling some of the places you worked at before, If you didn't burn any bridges you never know.
I had the same problem as you 11yrs.exp but quit for about 15-16- yrs. But let my cdl go, So went thru a company school and still with them about 16 mo. now, Good luck

 

Call CRST in cedar rapids IA. they team drive almost 100% of their drivers. Be cool to them when you call a recruiter and they might take you on board.

 

Thanks everyone for all the info!

 

well I tell you how I re entered after being off the road for 10years.. Had a friend that owned a pool company and said I was working with them for the past eight years delivering fiberglass pools. Well low and behold they sent an employment verification to him and all he did was respond and tell them I was a team player and verified employment. Off I went and never looked back. Worked for me. Shhhh you didn't hear that from me tho.

 

I left in 1998 and came back in 2012, I was told only by the mega carriers that I had to go back to a refresher course. I told them no thanks.

I found a local reefer company that would hire me about 17 miles from the house. worked out just fine for me.