New Grad J

In general, it does NOT limit your future job opportunity to pick dry van, reefer, flatbed, or tanker, as your first job. It CAN limit you if you pick local/home-daily jobs and then quickly want to do OTR. Make a decision with being stuck at the first job for AT LEAST 12 months. Picking a job should NOT be like sampling ice cream flavors. You will be less hirable if you have 3 or 4 jobs in your first 12 months of trucking than if you have one job at a quality company for 12 months. The best companies do not want to see you hopping around and some of them will not hire if you have more than 3 different employers in 5 years. Carefully research the company before you decide, don't approach it like speed dating where you leave the instant you experience something you don't like. The first few weeks or months at any job are going to be confusing and more difficult than the rest of your time at the company as you learn their process adn they learn what you can do. Every time you change jobs you reset that difficulty timer to zero. Don't work for any company until you have spoken to current working drivers at the company you are interested in. You CANNOT believe what the recruiter or the company web site says. Those are less reliable than the words of a car salesman. Do your research if you want good results.

 

One company I investigated considered OTR to be regularly operating in more than 7 or 9 states. Each company or their insurance company has their own definition. There is no one definition for everyone.

 

This website has a company section for some companies.
Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop

Make the company you are investigating give your contact info to drivers doing the job you are applying for. Talk to them. Ask those drivers to describe the money, work conditions, benefits, work, home-time, etc you want to know about.

Yes, you can ask drivers at a nearby truck stop. They will be instantly suspicious of you until you tell them you only want to know about working for their company. They will suspect you are going to ask for money until you tell them why you are there.

If you are considering OTR driving, make sure to watch the videos on YouTube about that type of trucking. Understand you will essentially living in the truck until you get home again. Lots of new drivers think OTR will be as hard the whole tiem they do it as the first few weeks. Once you learn the job and get through a few trips SOLO is gets easier because you know what to do.

 

Yes, that's a good idea.

 

If you are merely calling these companies....in lieu of submitting completed applications FIRST -- then the recruiters may well be viewing that practice as merely "window shopping"....which is a HUGE MISTAKE in the current CDL job market.

ESPECIALLY IN THE CURRENT MARKET -- THERE ARE NO "SHORT CUTS" TO SUCCESS --> fill out the on-line application completely; then follow-up the submitted app with a phone call -- several days later.

Been there, done that. It works.

-- Lual

 

No one is hiring? Beg pardon?....

Swift Transportation -- class "A" dedicated position -- Dallas, TX

or

McLane -- truck driver trainee -- Ft Worth, TX

or

Labatt Food Service -- student driver -- Dallas, TX

All the above are "no prev experience req'd" positions....

--Lual