Taking a Leap - Civil Construction CDL-A driver? (short story, advice needed)

A lot of details we didn't need to ask a question, but good story.

Ok just do it, you don't need the school, get your permit and work for them on the job, then take the road test with their truck, problem solved.

This is the era of the crackerjack cdl

If you did work like you said, you ain't going to have a problem with getting a cdl.

By the way just say construction. Civil constructin sounds weird ... dad was in construction for decades.

Edit... sorry a) yes

B) no otr is not important, city driving is a better way to learn.

C) lots of stories to share with you but not a lot of patients to type them out on an iPad.

 

you can totally do it
hell lots of drivers have.

however, I warn you, you are going to be really really frustrated with how unbelievably stupid and behind the times trucking is. At all levels. And because you're just a "stupid truck driver", your opinion on how to improve any number of things will be completely ignored.

 

I bet that was a great feeling quitting that white coller job wasn't it?Now you're one of us.yell,cuss pretty much act normal lol.Anyway construction can be just as dreadful as your office job.But maybe you'll like it.Anything has to be better then hat office work right? You will work some long hrs and occasional Saturday depending on the project.Sounds like you may like it so I say give it a try.You have a buddy that'll help you along the way.

 

I went through the same kind of decision as you, I worked private security for a ski resort. I had ok pay, good benefits but work just completely dragged. I quit went to truck school paid out of pocket and got hired driving a mixer truck delivering concrete to private homes and businesses as well as all kinds of construction.

Most ready mix companies will hire with just CDL school and no experience then train you. Not a bad job keeps things interesting every day all day. Most construction jobs will be like this. Long days, start early end late expect 12 hour days.

One think to keep in mind is that everything is about experience so if you drive a class b truck for a year you won't have class a experience and it will be harder to get hired for class a work. If you get in a class a rig tractor trailer from the beginning then you will be able to have any job you really want.

Construction is not OTR and a lot of OTR companies will not consider class a construction experience as OTR experience. Kind of a weird over regulated industry controlled by insurance companies.

 

Before I get into this thing over coffee are you trying to say "TL DR" meaning too long did not read?

Is that a sign of neglect or lack of respect for content? If you did not think it's short enough or worth reading because of the length and devil dancing in the details, why are we here?

I have to ask that question before getting into this thing.

 

Here is my response to each of your paragraphs.

Settle in and read.


You need churching up in the ways of living free, strong and at work like a man ought to be. None of this effermite soft compliant and weak spineless servitute to a employer who does not care if you or some H1b worker does the job as long it's done. I think you spent enough that time of your life in 10 years cringing from any raised voices in that sorry outfit. Enough is enough. Quit.

OUTSTANDING. GOOD on you! And yes sometimes we MUST stop the drudgery before we do take that walk into the woods.... I refuse to stand for such wasteful loss of life and your time invested to see yourself hollowed out to that point of throwing away what is left of you, your spirit, love and powerful desire to thrive and be well with your loved ones at home. You and your spouse is a team. You and your former slave driving boss is not a team.


Let her choke on her food. If Society cannot stand or accept people such as yourself, then eff them. You are already so far ahead in life there is very little I can use here from this paragraph. I do enjoy good timber sawing and tree dropping regardless of the weather as well on my lands. Many a tree has been processed no matter how high or wide they were. It is work worthy to keep a family warm for several months for free over the worst of winter we have here in Arkansas. It also frees me to think things through in times of stress that requires mindless hard labor to free the mind to think the problem through many a time. I like your friend very much already.

Local trucking other than OTR is righteous. Ive done dump truck work and cement mixer as well as small tanker etc. Even a spot of crane work. But my best work is with a heavy equiptment such as a CAT 936 front end loader feeding a ready mix plant with sand and stone. Being a man or some kind of something has nothing to do with it. WHen I was finally allowed to do this work late in my life, there was rejoicing in my heart because it's no longer work, It's playtime with very large tonka toys. And very serious work too. Which is all the better as far as I am concerned. The hours go by very fast because I have so much fun with that front end loader.

Your Life is what you have that God Gave you. As far as I am concerned, I only have one spine. If Medicine was so good and advanced as to provide me with a new spine with the correct nerve connections equal to or better than my old failed 80 year old spine inside my back that constantly gives me trouble and keeps me out of trucking at 51, I should take that walk into the woods one day.... But regardless of your age, if there is something left in your body at 35, then get to it. And use it with a joyful heart. Someday you will be 50 like me contemplating a future that will have to be rebuilt from nothing.

Go get the CDL.

"You'll love it" he said. "There's always a beginning, a middle, and an end. If one job sucks and the superintendent is a ####in #######, you'll get through it and you'll be on to something new when it's done. You'll also have jobs that you ####ing love and never want to end. Best part is being the guy in the truck, you get to work outside, sometimes it's hotter than hell and sometimes you're freezing your ### off, but the weather always changes--at least you're not the ####in miserable guy who's not riding around in a truck, who knows why the hell they picked their lame ### jobs. No matter what, you can look back at the day and feel a sense of accomplishment because you can SEE your work. Look at the huge pile of rock you moved, look at a bridge being built and being able to tell people as you're driving over it one day, 'I helped build this' --and that's just ####ing cool."

I have nothing to add here. But work with a joyful and glad heart for it pleases your God and family back home to know that you will sleep good tonight. Tomorrow is a new day.

Driving a truck is a higher calling than yourself. You will serve America. That load of meat you deliver into Hunts Point NYC tonight will be on the tables across the city in a couple of days and consumed by at least 40,000 persons of the 10 million there. You understand there is about 50 more meat loads behind you coming from all over the American west each day so that the City can continue to eat well. Imagine 400 cities around the USA, all of them needing food in large amounts for a million citizens on up to 10 million. Work work work. Never ends. It only ends when you have had enough of it.

Anyone can drive a truck. A monkey can do it for cripes sake. But unfortunately, if I was in good health and pack my experience to get something like .70 cents per mile in payroll because I am a top driver, the company will prefer I stayed home so that Three H1b immigrant workers will take three tractor trailers into NYC for .22 cents a mile and generate three times the revenue for the company at cost of one of me. DO you understand?

You have to start somewhere. Local is not a bad place to start. You might not understand or need the stamina to endure a 2000 mile run week in and week out for months. But you do understand the need to work when the sun rises enough to see and keep going until it's too dark to see. Regardless of the weather.

Never mind the #### experience it is a hustle to have companies save on costs of breaking equiptment and training losses for those who are new to trucking. In the past every one trained on the job. But now companies want experience already. What is a newbie to do? Get the experience. Local work would do it. But it's bs.

I tell you what is REALLY important. Never mind the #### experience. It's actually being ACCIDENT FREE and STAYING AWAY from trouble, fines, OOS, preventable etc etc etc your first year. Your first year in trucking is the absolute most dangerous risk to your own future. When you screw it up and get fired for it... you might not drive again. Do you understand?

Soft hands? HA. You will bleed.

Bleed all you want in work. You can replace it soon enough. Just be happy and be glad in it. And it's not war. Sometimes it is war on your worst days out there in trucking to do battle against Nature, terrain, other dangerous drivers etc. I have lost my life about 8 times already but still here. Scared bad... really bad. But am still here. Ha. One of these days I'll be taken out by something I don't see coming. But Im going out with my boots on in battle and a hot gun as it were trying to solve the immediate problem and save lives if necessary.

I am a trucker and will die a trucker. Someday when you have enough love, experience and have been through a time or two you might say the same thing with a intense pride that you will never say for your dead, worthless and wasted IT years. I went to college a couple of years to learn IT and ran from it to cut my losses when I realized two things. H1b workers taking my work and bosses will demand me to be soft spoken and deferimental to higher authroity. That will NEVER happen. Many dispatchers know this from me and my big mouth with strong heart. I speak up. if they don't like it they can fire my ###. (And they have.) HA.

 

A) By "civil construction" you mean "prevailing wage" davis-bacon type job. Yes you can start as a beginner all you need is a in. Sounds like your buddy has a way in for you already.

The truth is, the nature of the work is far better and easier then any OTR job and pays much better too.

B) OTR experience counts for jack ####. Almost any other segment of the trucking market will look at your OTR experience and laugh with disrespect. Many know what kind of scam goes on there and will have less respect for you the more years you subject yourself to that scam. How do I know, hundreds of applications and dozens of interviews. Don't believe the crap you hear or read on other web sights saying different.

C)You can either do it or you can't. It really isn't that difficult, some pick it up right away others could spend a lifetime studying it and never get it. You will see exactly that in any trucking school.

Which by the way I would avoid too if at all possible: trucking school. As already mentioned, trucking school is nothing but a money making scam. In most states (all states actually) it is entirely possible to get your CDL without going to trucking school. If can avoid it, do just that. If your buddy has a in for the job, take your written test, get in a truck and learn what you need to before wasting money on a school.