The perfect life for me? (Or, getting into trucking when there is nothing left...)

Hiya all. Will try to get this out with the least verbosity as possible. (Too late, lol!)

In a nutshell...Early 40s, never married, no kids. A variety of "careers" since high school graduation, focused mostly in the IT field. Last stint was for a big-box retailer, which ended 4 years ago after going on FMLA for a hip issue that suddenly cropped up. That company terminated me after 6 months of being on medical leave (which I have since learned is illegal, but that is another ongoing story.) Since that time I've been fighting to get on disability, and 4 years later, after being issued an unfavorable decision by a disability judge, and the 4th stage of appeal now almost a year in, I need to get something going again. My main issue is that I can't really stand for prolonged periods, and my days of humping 80 lb bags of concrete are over.

Through all of this I had exhausted all my savings, was so overwhelmed with debt that I filed Chapter 7 and had the debts discharged (last year), and sold all of my valuable items just to get by. I now own absolutely nothing (even this laptop is borrowed) except clothing and am living with a relative. I've been on food stamps for the past two years and want to get the hell off of them. Need to get out of my own head and get back to earning honest pay for honest work.

So no car, no money, a ruined credit history, no dependents, and no need or desire for the foreseeable future to call any place "home". In fact, I have been shuttling back and forth between FL and MA, alternating between living with some friends and living with the aforementioned relative. My physical addy is FL, in the Tampa area.

Trucking has been on my mind for some time and now seems as good a time as ever to try and get into it. I have had the experience of going through intensive trade schooling, where I spent 4 months in a motel learning to be a freight conductor for CSX, all out-of-pocket. Tuition plus housing ran me about $8,000. Then it was 2 weeks in Atlanta for paid training at the company facility, and then 3 weeks into it in the field in Boston I gave it up because I couldn't deal with the working-outdoors-in-all-weather-in-New England-thing. It is a decision I am currently regretting, because everything seemed to fall into place at the time and that opportunity will never again appear. Yet the thought of doing that sort of schooling again kind of puts me off, especially since without any money or transportation and no way to pay for anything myself, it seems insurmountable. But I digress... I must try.

I am going to a WIA (Workforce Investment Act) intake program next week to see how they could help me with funding for trucking school. Apparently Roadmasters is "an approved training facility" that the WIA program in Florida is willing to pay for, and thus I have been perusing their (and a host of other) website and reading this forum for opinions on the various schools out there. As expected, every single school/company/etc. has adherents and detractors. Quite frankly, it is overwhelming when one wants to make an informed decision but doesn't have the means to discern for themselves the quality of the training and/or success rate of students (i.e., to go through each school). Alas, if Roadmaster is the only one I can get funding for, so be it.

I have watched a few videos on the more difficult aspects of working with trailers, and the only tough bits for me (as I imagine it) will be shifting and backing, having never driven manual more than a couple of times over the years. I am sure I will get it down pat over time, and I like to think that being a whiz on a forklift would make me more attractive to a company than someone without.

To sum, does OTR seem like a perfect fit? It seems it is to me, on paper at least. No family obligations, no "home base" and no care about being "home" (essentially, I don't have a home to call my own and am not truly "permanent"). I guess I can say that I am totally flexible, because aside from motels I could "live" during any off times of a few days or a week or whatever in MA, FL, NY, TX, NJ or CA, where I have some friends or relatives. Would this flexibility be a feather in my cap to a company, since they would not have to worry about "routing me home" after 5-6 weeks? I ask because I have seen some posts about certain companies not hiring people from certain areas due to their not moving much cargo to/from that area.

Are there people out there who have ever lived in their truck for 6 months straight? A year? Are there companies out there that let you take the truck with you, as it were? By that I mean to use it as personal transport during scheduled off-times. And how much loading/unloading of freight do these companies expect of their drivers? As I mentioned above, I can run power equipment like forklifts, but manually unloading a trailer is off-limits for me now.

Thoughts welcome.

P.S. My driving record is ok. No violations such as DUIs, no criminal background. Only thing on record is a moving violation by crossing a double-yellow line, an "open container" citation (both about 5 1/2 years ago), and a one-vehicle accident 4 years ago (swerved and hit a boulder.) How would a trucking company look upon that?

 

If you cannot stand for long lengths of time, can you sit for hour after hour after hour ? Can you pass a DOT physical ?
Your driving record might not seem too bad, but there are some companies who would probably say no.
Sounds like you might have a problem finishing what you start.
BUT, you never know until you try. Good luck .

 

Well , First of all you need to decide if you want to be disabled or drive a truck,,, one or the other and not both at the same time;;;;Never report a health issue to a trucking employer .. you will be out the door so fast will make your head spin

All a trucking company wants to hear... is that you are capable,, Ready and willing to get the job done without fail or complaining...And carrying your self in a professional manner..At all times

Learn to make trucking work for you.. and it will not be easy... but is better than living with friends and relatives

This means dress ,, act,,, talk,, DRIVE,,,,And be a professional at all times...I can,t stress that enough..

and yes you can live in a truck like forever till you get some money squared away and find a place you want to call home...

In a nut shell no wife no kids PERFECT,,,,No reason to say I can,t do that,,,, I gotta do this... to a trucking company.. ever

Get my drift...

 

I just reread your post and I noticed your concerns about unloading...

I am thinking J.B.Hunt Or CR England or Swift Should be your choices...

Theses are good starter company,s .....But don,t screw up with them or your driving career will be over..

Get 3 to 5 years under your belt with the same company { DO NOT JOB HOP} with no violations and by then you will know enough about trucking to decide your own future.. AGYN Get my Drift !!!!

These company,s never want a driver touching freight or working on there truck that is not what you were hired to do....

Your job is to drive safley and inspect your equipment and follow all FMCSA.. and company rules and make your pick ups and delivery,s on time all the time,, be early ,,, never late if it can be helped,,, let them know you are the man for the job,,,, at all times... and that,s it.. Get my DRIFT !!!

 

where to start......
mvr may or may not be a problem....open container is what makes me think it will be to some. but what does your CURRENT mvr show? id see what i could do about getting a copy so i would know EXACTLY what i had to disclose. you said no criminal background, so i assume there was nothing but a citation attached to the open container.

sitting in a truck is not the worst part...the jostling around is. it can wreak havoc on a healthy back. this may or may not be a deterrent for you.

i would say call roadmaster (if you havent already) and ask...
do they help with job placement? what companies are they affiliated with/hire graduates from roadmaster? whatever companies they claim to have a relationship with...call em up and verify. the worst thing you can do is waste your time and/or money and have no companies out there that will recognize this as acceptable training. also...you need to make sure that any that WILL will also hire someone from florida. you live in a BAD state for trucking. the reason companies will not hire from florida is that no trucks ever go THROUGH florida to get somewhere else. same problem with maine, and to a lesser degree, my home in new york. some will hire from florida, but you already have less to pick from than most. im more apprehensive about the school, but thats only because ive never heard of it. just do the homework i suggested before signing anything.

the other 2 options you have for trucking school are...a company sponsored school, and a private school that will finance the cost of tuition and housing. swift, millis, scheider, and i think pride have their own school that is "free" (up front) and after graduating they take a certain amount per week out of your pay to recoup some of the cost. while i do NOT recommend company schools in general, what ive heard of millis' school left me questioning that. with a company school you agree you will work for them for x amount of time (after getting experience with them for 6 months to a year, they probably wont be paying you as much as you could make elsewhere). millis is one year, they take a reasonable amount (25/week?) out of your pay, they add some each week as a credit, and if you leave before the year is up they dont take back any payments made by them, so you only owe a portion of it, and they wont demand it all at once, you can make payments.
i went to c1 in indianapolis. they cost 4k at the time, and would finance everything, including meal money if you were that desperate. my bad credit at the time was not an issue, they woulda paid for everything. they GUARANTEED a job with my choice of 3 companies upon graduation...thats why i chose to go there. id heard bad things about local trucking school grads not being able to get a job after paying thousands to get a cdl. (pam,roehl and usa truck were the 3 companies). they also offered reduction of tuition to 2k if paid in cash, so we did that.

as far as time in truck....ive lived in a truck for about 6 months one time. i prefer in general to stay out longer and stay home longer. 6-8 weeks out then 6-8 days home. most companies allow you to take your truck "home" (ask them where acceptable places to park are, each has their own rules). most companies wont blink an eye if you go a little out of route during a run...less than 10% of the load's miles usually is "too much". so i go out of route to go to casinos. sometimes 2 miles, sometimes 60. never had anyone tell me i went too far out of route, ever. you route yourself with most companies, but have to stay within that 110% of the miles they are paying you to run. high value loads are a different story...if you have 2 million bucks worth of pharmaceuticals they keep a closer eye on where you are going of course. but thats pretty rare. (friend of mine went to sleep while teaming with another. pharm load. woke to find the teammate had decided to go 200 miles out of route to go home. he was fired of course)
you can take the truck as a personal conveyance a short distance when not on a load to go shopping. 1 hour total i believe..dont quote me on the time.

most companies will tell you they are 95% or more "no touch". this means they are telling you you will unload the truck 5% of the time. i can tell you in my experience thats kind of a lie. ive unloaded EXACTLY 4 trailers in all the time ive been driving. 1 because the load shifted (bottled water) and they were gonna refuse the load. if the refused it i wouldnt get home on time, and i had an appt. id miss my next pickup, and would not get home when i expected...so when they said they would accept it if i reworked it, i jumped at the chance. 2 others with first company were also my choice...i made extra money doing it and so chose to. so in 9+ years of driving ive HAD to unload one trailer.most large companies do not want you to unload...they pay you to drive. they pay lumpers to unload.

shifting is actually easier to learn in a truck if you havent done it in a car, since it involves double clutching and you dont wanna push the clutch to the floor. its different. not hard to learn for 99%.
backing is sometimes a pita for even an experienced driver. the secret is, never worry about someone looking down on you for getting out and looking. someimtes im the guy people will be laughing at cause ill get out 4,5,17 times if i feel i need to. sometimes im just not getting it...but if you hit something, theyll be laughing harder. and youll never see any of them again anyway, so what does it matter what they think?

the one other thing thats a pita is chaining up (putting chains on the tires for more traction in bad weather). you wont do it much, but you MUST know how to do it before you need it.make sure someone teaches you, if not at school (mine didnt) then ask your trainer to show you how. (i didnt, ended up getting a ticket once for "refusing to chain" when the officer told me to and i didnt because i still didnt know how).

 

A hip injury can be exacerbated by sitting for long periods, not to mention the motion of pushing the clutch in and out repetiously. Also, you should never conceal an injury on an application.

 

The main problem I see, is the ongoing medical litigation. No company will hire you if they know about this, if you get my drift. While looking at your options, take a look at Panther Expedite cargo vans; this would give you more flexibility as far as stopping when you may need to get out and stretch the legs & back for a few minutes. I've seen some real nice setups in those vans, such as fold up cot inside that is used when there's room to use it & camping generator, etc. Also, read on here a few months ago in a report on CDL schools, that Roadmaster is one of the top 3 in the nation.

 

Does everyone have a drift today? Anyways, sitting 11 hours a day can be youre worst enemy with a hip, leg, or back injury. Also you will not be able to take ANY prescribed narcotic pain meds when you need to. A lot of trucks now at large carriers, which is wherrre you most likely start, are automatic transmissions. But it would greatly benefit you to learn on an manual, so ne sure to ask any prospective schools.

I do not suggest company funded schools, they hold you to the contract you sign that if you leave before a pre determined date you will owe them the cost of schooling.

I know you are supposed too, but I would not tell them of youre hip. It can make a company not want to hire you. I would look up the medical crrtification, physical, requirements to be sure you can complete them and get certified to drive. So you dont waste youre time.

Job wise, not needing to be home does make you an ideal job candidate. The major carriers Swift, Schnider, Werner will hire in Florida if you plan to run the way you say you will. Its if you expect to be in Florida every other week that they wont.

...... Get my... Drift?

 

Where in FL are you located, pard? Since you mentioned CSX and Roadmaster, makes me think you might be in or near Jax. If so, you might consider First Coast Career Tech (FSCJ). Way more affordable than Roadmaster and since they're V.A. approved, chances are they're WIA approved too.

 

I'm sorry but I didn't make it past this sentence. Trucking is probably not for you.