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

If it's a "prevailing wage" Davis-Bacon type job, I would say go for it.
Otherwise I wouldn't expect more than $20 bucks an hour If you are lucky.

 

What is your location? A warm winter climate will sustain work more year round than up north. Last hire is usually first laid off when work is slow. Unless you are lucky enough to find a gig that respects hard work over years of employment, and you are ahead of others in that category.

Mikeeee

 

I know exactly how you feel OP. After spending the last 15 yrs selling crap for corporate America, I'm taking the same path you are. Quit my job and start CDL school at the end of May. I also live in a very rural and depressed area where decent jobs are hard to come by and my wife has an amazing job that will keep us afloat while I get some experience.

I was the same as you. Dreaded getting out of bed everyday to go peddle whatever product or service I was selling at the time. Discovered over the last few years the most enjoyable part of my day was behind the wheel (typically 40k-50k work miles a year). I know nothing compared to what I will be looking at in this industry.

I have lived on here for the kast month or so gathering info like crazy. Have my companies narrowed down to about 4 or 5 with one leading the pack right now. This place is a plethora of info and the people here are more than willing to help.

Good luck and maybe our paths will cross one day.

 

No 8 years 3 months ago.

Their are two drivers I work with that got their CDLs with that employer certification and I have met many more so don't say that doesn't happen.

Correct.

Incorrect. The whole reason WA state requires the 160 hours of training is agribusiness.

You see, all the eastern WA farmers and agribusinesses love driving their products around with spanish speaking workers. Wether illegal, on a H2A or H2B these workers are the choice of agribusiness. All agribusiness needs is a state that will ignore FMSCA 391.11:
(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;

Not only is WA that state, but thanks to lobbying from agribusiness, WA will hire an interpreter to verbally administer the CDL written and driving portion of the test.

Well, other foreign speakers decided to take WA state up on that offer, and allow the taxpayer to hire interpreters for the CDL in their native language also. Why not? No need to discriminate. Post office boxes could be set up out of state and you could bring in all comers from every state, test out in WA, and then transfer the newly minted Cdl to any state of your choice.

This was going on for years until one day it was noticed that the interpreters were better at test taking then the drivers. It was later found out their was quite a bit of money changing hands for that to happen. That is, for the interpreter to take the written CDL test instead of the prospective driver.

WA solution was to force every driver to take a 160hour course to get the CDL. Of course they allowed exceptions for business that wanted certify their own drivers.

The driving portion had to be from a certified 3rd party tester. Their were quite a few of them but they were weeded out after the testing scam.

 

There are 10's of thousands of cdl drivers that left office jobs, especially IT jobs, and are now truckers. Go for it and you'll enjoy your new career. If you get tired of construction, there's plenty of other types of trucking to change to. Finally found my niche in pulling hazmat tankers coast to coast.
More and more snowflakes are entering the workforce and ruining it for others. Snowflakes won't last long in trucking though because trucking isn't conducive to those that lounge around looking for reasons to be offended.

 

Satellite telecommunications here. 7 years after I left the Navy. It wasn't bad at first. Something different, not in a factory, no boss over my shoulder, enough pay to keep the bills paid. Then in 2009 things changed after the election. Prices went up on most things, but my pay didn't. I managed to buy I house with my wife in 2013, but then I noticed fairly quickly that with a house comes increased money being spent. So in 2014 I decided to use my GI Bill to get my CDL. It's now 3 years since I started my CDL school and I can honestly say I can't see doing much else. I more than doubled my income. I live in an area of Ohio where one can live in $450 a week. But one can't get ahead on that same $450 a week.

 

Where in Ohio?

 

I agree with what somebody said above, try to get the CDL through your new employer. There is nothing better than getting that license while on the clock. rather than shelling out thousands of dollars.

I'm in the opposite situation. Drove for almost ten years and now in a quiet office organizing truck registrations and driver files. I do miss getting my hands dirty.