old trucker need help!

There is still a lot of oil field work going on. You may check in Johnson county (Cleburne area). I have seen a number of tanker drivers in the area. I have been told that some don't require experience, but you will need to check to verify that information. It is difficult to get back in the industry after being away for a few years.

For those who have kept up their CDL, you may want to find a smaller fleet owner and see if they will give you a chance to get back into the business. They could require you to go with another driver for a short time or if the road test looks good, give you the keys to a truck. The way this industry treats seasoned drivers who have a gap in employment is horrendous. I don't see the quality of drivers coming out of schools. I would rather have a seasoned driver with a few years gap in the business rather than some of the cadets that I have seen being turned out of these schools. Not all schools are bad, but I would much rather see drivers start out with a straight truck and then move to 18 wheelers and skip the school than to have some come out of a school with no other experience.

Finding a job in this business is a numbers game. You may have to make a lot of calls before finding the right company. There are some smaller carriers around the metroplex. I have seen some around Bucyrus, Cleburne, Godley and other areas south of Fort Worth. Several larger carriers have terminals around the metroplex. Schneider, Warner and others have terminals in the area.

 

insurance, insurance, insurance, that's it, You start working for me my insurance says I've got to ride with you a week. Times are different, insurance has taken over

 

I did the same thing. I had not driven for anybody since 99 and went to work for a small company last October. The first day I started out on a small box truck, then moved up to their rollback dump truck. On the second day I was supposedly to go out with another driver, but he did not show up. They gave me a 2013 Volvo 780 hooked to a 2013 53' Utility reefer trailer and off I went. That is probably not the norm out there, but I had never heard anything about them being worried about insurance. Go door to door with small carriers or companies that use trucks for business. The company I drive for has trucks as an necessary evil of doing business to move their product. We do back hauls for brokers to get us home.