Not much time and only one shot at this. Please help.

UPDATE: I've been in CDL school for 2 weeks. Enjoying it so far.
I'm driving a Freightliner with a sleeper and a 53 ft dry van trailer. It's a manual 10-speed and they're making me double clutch during practice driving and for the final test. I have no idea why they require that when no one ever double clutches manuals once they get a driving job. They float gears.

Been studying a 7 or so page pre-trip document: "It's secure, not cracked or broken, worn or frayed, not leaking, damaged, bent, twisted", etc etc, they want us to recite verbatim on the test for the pre-trip. A point is taken off for every one of the 50 adjectives for each part LOL! Kinda ridiculous, but I understand the reasoning behind it.

I'm doing well with the backing maneuvers: straight line backing, offset reverse left and right and blindside and driver side parallel parking. Gonna learn the 90 degree alley backing next week.

I've done 2 hours worth of real world driving on the interstate and city driving in heavy traffic with a lot of tight turns. One of those hours was in pouring rain.

Two trucking company recruiters have shown up so far: Benny Whitehead and Melton. Benny Whitehead is OTR reefer with low pay and they require a minimum of one year team driving with a trainer before they'll let you go solo. I'm not going to commit to jumping in the cab with someone I don't know for a year. Melton is flatbed. A decent starting company from what I can tell, but if you remember, I have a bad lower back. I picked up his rolled up tarp and threw it on my shoulder (about 80 to 100 lbs I guess) with no problem. But several hours later when I got home, my lower back is slightly aching from doing that. Pretty sure flatbed is a no go for me as you all have already said. But the money! Can't risk it. Would really suck to quit my current job to take on flatbed and then injure my back and lose that job and be unemployed and unemployable. I'm sure a few more recruiters will show up before I graduate in mid-June. We'll see. I really don't want to get suckered into a bad mega carrier for my first year.

I've been referring back to this thread often and I'm listening very carefully to everyone's advice here. I appreciate it more than I can say. I only get one shot at this decision and I must do it right.

 

It's actually both. I have a shattered disk in my lower back from years of heavy work. I've just been living with it for the past 20 years, never got surgery. It doesn't hurt all the time, only if I pick up something too heavy or twist my back the wrong way. I'm not overweight or anything, but I'm out of shape in the sense that I've been sedentary working desk jobs in management since I hurt my back 20 years ago. Neither of these issues cause me any problems with driving for long periods of time or just getting in and out of vehicles or light duty work.

After I saw what picking up that Melton guy's tarp to my shoulder did to my lower back, flatbed probably isn't a good idea for me. Right now I'm taking a hard look at KLLM reefer and liking what I'm seeing so far.

 

That Melton flatbed driver told me that, too, and that's what got me convinced to go with flatbed. That is until a few hours later when I felt what picking up that tarp just one time did to my back. I was in pain for a full 24 hours after that. I can't risk quitting my current job to take a flatbed job, only to find I can't physically do the flatbed job a week or two later. Then I'll be unemployed and risk losing our house. I'm thankful to have had that opportunity to actually throw that tarp on my shoulder before I committed to flatbed.