Trouble getting a company to hire me. i would love some advice

There's a Landstar forum with 139 threads: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/landstar/

I'm interested in Landstar or Schneider (as an O/O) myself but what I'm doing now is better for me now. (I've also suggested where I work that maybe they could sell me one of their trucks and I'd lease it back to them.)

If I were exploring Landstar, I'd check where Landstar O/O's want to sell their rigs and will do so on a drive-to-buy. The Landstar for sale by owner site is: http://www.lcapp.com/ForSale/ForSaleByOwner.asp. Many Landstar O/O's have multiple trucks (2 or more) and hire drivers to run them. You still have to qualify with Landstar before you could wrap a deal up, tho. You could just call or visit Landstar and ask. I'd visit and make a contact.

When we got laid off from a contractor to USPS, a buddy (whose father is a heavy duty mechanic) already had a '96 Pete with a 3406 Cat and he and his dad just hurried up the final touches and he's been running Landstar ever since. Will have 2 years in come October and he tells me he's happy, altho says, "it's not the company it used to be." The nice thing about the for sale web site is cheap trucks with current inspection and in the Landstar system. I'm very impressed, frankly.

Another thought is yourself as a #2 driver. That is, buy a truck (if you have the $$), hire a driver. Put the truck to work. Be the 'silent' #2 driver--maybe without going through the full due diligence. It might be less than forthright, but it's not criminal, I think. You could put an ad on CraigsList today and start interviewing. I had a FedEx O/O try get me to run with him when, due to an employer falling off the 3-years, I didn't have a full year showing and wouldn't qualify for FedEx w/o more time showing. Guy was real insistent. Said we'd sign me up officially when I had the extra few months showing...

If I were you I'd sharpen my pencil and talk to every company out there with a lease deal. But I think you need at least $10K liquid in any event. Most of these lease scenarios (the walk-away leases especially) are just rip-offs but you might find one that has some humanity left. You're gonna just have to keep turning over rocks until you find something that works for you. But you will if you're persistent and a little creative.

Also, I apologize for the bashing you've received here. There's not much worse than ignorance plus anger and it's usually taken out just like this thread, at someone else's expense.

 

Just checking now. Here's an example:

If they don't say, 'no owner financing' it's a maybe. I'd talk to all of them anyway. Some of these trucks are really, really tempting. Maybe I should buy one and start interviewing off CraigsList for a driver myself!!

Not familiar with ABP. How long did you do that? Solo or team? What kind of freight, trlr, power? Seems unusual you could do that @ age 20 or below. It will help you if you can verify that experience, no matter how long or short.

I think Landstar requires 2 years recent, though.​

 

1. search the internet.

2. search: tax credit for hiring ex con drivers.

And do some real research.

The only thing holding you back,

is You !!

Good Luck

 

Some years back (well, before 2008 dropped me on my financial rear), I started an effort called 'Mobility of Bloomington'. I bought good, unattractive cars at dealer auction in Indy and made them available to gals who were victims of domestic abuse--no money down, pmts less than bus pass, no risk, would take back car with no questions asked in any condition and tear up the contract. First 3 payments were savings, returned to buyer if car returned.

My 'best' car placement came through the local WorkOne (unemployment office) when asked to help a young guy just out of prison for a felony drug conviction. The gals were just too suspicious to take full advantage despite that I had a girlfriend's help to work with them. The young guy just out of prison used the car to get a good job with a car parts manufacturer up in Greencastle, got training from them to program their computer-controlled equipment, kept his payments up, made repairs to the car and bought a newer car when he could afford it.

Haven't stayed in touch with him, but as far as it went I was well pleased with the outcome. Last time I heard his girlfriend had moved in and they were planning a wedding. Oh, yeah. Happy endings happen.

 

as far as slamming folks if you look back you will see I was one of the first to give you real advice. I believe in people getting a second chance if...............they are upfront and honest........let's look at this post.

you were 20 when busted 24 now. BEFORE you were busted, another words before you were 20 yrs old, you were driving OTR all over the Midwest? huh, last time I checked you had to be 21 to cross state lines in a commercial vehicle.

do you see where this is going wrong for you? there are so many folks here, from so many walks of life, trying to blow smoke will not work and eventually they will all see it for what it is and not help you.

if you want help, real help, drop the BS. stand up, take responsibility for your life in total and than get back on track to fixing your past.

before you get too P'Od about my post, I have a son your age with nearly your past, and he wants to go driving too. broke his heart when I told him if I owned a truck I would not let him drive it. Wasn't because oh his past, it was because he wouldn't own up to it in totality. now days he has a girl, a child, a great job and guess what the other day he came over and said "lets talk" suddenly he realized what I meant when I told him the same thing I'm telling you. Now everyone wants to give him a chance.

 

You know, the law in its wisdom has classified crimes in to categories of severity and effects on the general public and victims.
For example, a crime against a Child would effect nearly everyone, where as an Armed Bank Robbery generally affects those who were present at the time of the Robbery. Both crimes are Felonies because both offenses take without permission, threatening life and the well being of others through an act of selfishness or greed. Where the line between the two separates is more emotional than anything else. But the penalties are very similar to each other depending on the judge who passes sentence.
Looking at both offenses they also show the group or individual has abused the trust of the community and humanity as a whole. And although they pay their debt for the crime by going to prison for a number of years, the trust that was broken will remain until the person/s reproves themselves. That can take years and sometimes not at all.
So in the employment areas of trucking, where 10 year references are required it is only natural that those references show reliability and trust. The responsibility of the Truck Driver is in general over looked by most even Drivers themselves. There is the responsibility to the owner and company of the truck and trailer, the responsibility of the cargo belonging to the shipper and end purchaser of his products being transported. The responsibility of the Drivers control and abeyance to the laws put in place for safety, protection of the truck, the driver and general public. And there is the responsibility that the trust put on all concerned remains untarnished.
When an offender is released back in to society, they have according to the law served their sentence. But have they? If the sentence has been served according to law why is there a record kept and used against them? The reason is because the trust that was broken needs to be satisfactorily proved by the offender. Statistically people who have served time in prison, return to prison for similar crimes or others they found to be opportunistic.

No I am Sorry, an offender has to reprove they are trustworthy enough to be allowed the responsibility of Driving a truck and all the responsibilities that come with it.

I have read and pondered the responses on this thread and my opinions have not wavered. I would not hire someone with a felony because I would need to trust them with my reputation, equipment and everything I have worked for.

 

It puzzles me how many of you interpreted the comments I have made in this thread as bashing, intolerant, sitting on high horse, not willing to give second chances, judgemental, etc, etc...

A man ought to have a second chance, and he ought to take advantage of it if he is lucky enough to get one. And you know what else? Statistics show that well over half of convicted felons DO commit another crime. That is across the board, with two (2) of those classes showing practically no success at rehabilitation period (thieves and sex offenders). Those are not assertions made by me, those are statistically supported facts. If you are arguing anything else, you are in a statistically untenable position. Hard data shows that it will likely happen again. It amazes me how many of you interpret that as "bashing" the OP. I will agree to "facting" him on some things.

Someone posted earlier that rehabilitation is a fallacy. I don't entirely agree with that although stats would indicate that it is generally true. Something the OP said in his latest post (#100) makes me think he understands where he went wrong. That is what I was wanting to hear. OP nobody has 100% your best interests at heart but you. If you hang out with the wrong people, bad things happen. Get rid of them SOB's! Get them out of your life! If you hang with those kind of people they will drag you right down the crap can with them. Hold YOURSELF to a higher standard than they do. Pretty soon they will start to disappear on their own because you "expect too much out of them".

I think your best course of action would be to bite the bullet, wait a while on the driving, and get this expunged from your record. At that point you would have basically the same standing as anybody else. It was always my experience that if companies had a bargaining chip to play against you, it wasn't if they would use it but when. As long as that's on your record they will always have something to hold over your head. Compared to some of the applications I have seen your problem is minor believe it or not.

In closing, I posted those statistics for a reason. Do you see what a chance a carrier is taking by hiring you according to the data? If you get that chance be thankful for it and good lord don't mess it up. A lot of people never even get a fair first chance not to mention a second one. Keep in touch about what happened.

 

Okay, I've stayed away from posting on this thread, but I can't ignore this one. For the record, I'm not a trucker. I'm a trucker's girlfriend. I also hold a master's degree in mathematics with a concentration in statistics and probability theory and have taken all the coursework for a Ph.D in the same field (though never finished my dissertation). In other words, I am a statistician.

There is no such thing as a "statistical fact". Statistics are probabilities, not facts. A single dry statistic tells you nothing. A single test of significance can be manipulated. Heck, I can "prove" that Mendel's theory of genetic inheritance is "wrong" simply by manipulating certain numbers in the test itself (using Mendel's own data). We all know that Mendel was not wrong, but I can use statistics to say he was.

Context and other implicating factors are often ignored when people try to use statistics to prove their point. Let's take the one used above. "Over 50% of felons re-offend". That sounds really bad, but what if I were to interview all those felons and ask them how many of them were able to support themselves after they got out of prison? How many were frustrated because they were in low paying, dead end jobs, unable to pay the rent and utility bills. While it's still not okay, we, as a society contribute to the recidivism rate by continuing to punish these people. Your single statistic doesn't tell that story. As such, it's useless. It's just another example of people using bad statistics to tell the story they want to tell.

We haven't changed much as a society since the days of "Les Miserables". Maybe we should learn the lesson Victor Hugo was trying to teach us. What would the recidivism rate be if ex-cons were able to get into jobs that had a chance of paying the bills? People can and do change. As a professor at a community college I had the privilege of teaching all kinds of people, and ex-cons were among those numbers. In my experience, those ex-cons were working 10 times as hard as my other students to turn their lives around and live clean. I watched their spirits get crushed and their resolves wane as they dealt with rejection after rejection simply because they made a mistake.

Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that it should be a little harder to gain somebody's trust after one has screwed up so badly, but they should not be denied the chance to try. I believe that denial is at the heart of the re-offense rate among most types of felons.

Now, off my soap box.

 

been reading along awhile now..wow..

*Scatters oats for the horses
Climbs way up in the bleachers so i don't miss anyone. Drinks an iced and nibbles on popcorn*

 

I agree with some of the others that a person should be given a second chance. I also agree, due to the nature of some trucking jobs that hiring a felon may certainly open those carriers to negligent hiring lawsuits if a person with such a history were to commit a crime on the property of a customer. There are some positions in trucking that can't stand that sort of exposure, while in others it will make no difference. People can change, and the OP should be given a second chance.

I hear that the Philadelphia Eagles hire ex-felons. I'd bet that the judgmental crowd on this thread doesn't mind someone with that background being employed there. Think about it.