Unable to join any CDL school due to bad employment history

I agree 1000000%. If the OPs income is low or nonexistent the OP can apply for a grant and have this pay for getting the CDL. No pre-hire letters are needed. As I stated in my first comment some of these trade schools have good connections with the carriers and can help the OP get hired.

One last point. For some reason, I am yet to fully understand some carriers misread Subparts B and C of part 391 as well as Subpart C to Part 383. To the best of my knowledge, there is no rule about having too many jobs in the job history. It's also not much of an insurance issue either, because almost all mega carriers self-insure.

 

@Chinatown posted about WIOA program. This is the route that I went. Here is what I suggest:

Find a trucking school that you know is accepted by WIOA program (a list can be found online). Go to that school and speak with an admissions counselor there. Tell them that you want to use WIOA. They will probably have a connection or two. Ask if they may suggest which state employment office to use. I started the process by going to the employment office closest to my house. When I spoke with the admissions counselor at the school, she told me that I would be waiting forever with that office. She gave me the address for an office about 2 hours away, as well as the name of the contact for WIOA at that office. I got into school a few months later. (Would have been sooner, if not for COVID-19 hitting in March 2020.) Started school in June 2020. Best of luck to you.

 

The reason for using the employment history as part of the vetting process is because people with unstable work history are less likely to stay with the company for a long duration. Those companies are trying to limit the number of people who use the company to get training and then bolt. Sure, they can require the trainee to pay the company back, but that's time and money spent in doing so. Besides, there are some who will just ignore the notices sent in the mail and the phone calls.

 

You could join the Army and let them train you. In 3 years you would have job and driving history and could go to most any trucking company you wanted to.

 

SEABEES - Navy

 

That's a rather drastic move just to get a CDL. The problem with that is that a person may choose a career field, but there is no guarantee of being assigned a MOS that requires a class A CDL. Once signing the enlistment papers, there is no going back, whether one likes the specific MOS or not.

This is coming from a US Marine Corps veteran.

 

That’s not the way it works in the Army.

In the Army you can get a guaranteed MOS. In this case 88M is heavy truck driver and qualifies for a CDL after 2 years without any testing.

 

Same with the Navy.

 

Would it automatically be a class A? If not, kind of a waste of time. Going from a class B to a class A is no different than going from non-commercial license to commercial.