Wannabe trucker concerns

1) There are laws prohibiting age-based discrimination. As long as you pass the DOT physical and meet the companies fitness requirements, your age shouldn't matter.

2) Generally, tickets are only going to matter for 3 years (except for more serious offenses...as in 15+ mph over the limit, reckless driving, DUI, etc...). Wrecks matter for 5 years, but a minor fender bender nearly 5 years ago likely won't be TOO much of an issue.

3) Work history is a big issue. If you worked the same job for years and years, that looks great. The situation the job ended under also matters. Were you fired because the company downsized or closed up shop? Or were you fired for something you did to give them a reason to fire you? If you were merely downsized or the company went belly up, it probably won't be held against you. If you screwed up and they had good reason to fire you, that might not look too good.

 

Nothing in what you shared will keep you from getting a job with most companies. Even the more restrictive ones wont look past a year on the speeding violation and definitely not past 3 years. I had a similar situation as you. I started truckin at age 59.
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I would not recommend spending any $$$ for school until you have "spilled the beans" to at least 5 major carriers. Tell it all, don't leave any gray areas open for future scrutiny and speculation. There's a new sheriff in town and his name is CSA 2010 (google it!). Carriers soon are going to have their collective feet to the fire more than ever before and the actions of their drivers will be the flame fanners.

Get a copy of your DMV report from every state in which you've held a license at any time during the past 20 years (my carrier went back over 15 years). THERE IS NO ETCHED IN STONE "NUMBER OF YEARS BACK" with respect to a carriers' probing. The state might say one thing but a carrier can have stricter requirements. E.g. your state might be willing to issue you a CDL, but that doesn't mean a carrier has to hire you.

Finally, pester the ever-loving crap out of the recruiters you get in touch with. If you can communicate with them via email, do it that way.

Finally, finally, get neck deep into this forum. Learn which members know what's up, ignore the sad sacks and the naysayers!

(I'll be 57 in December and I have just completed training...age is not an issue.) Good luck!!!!

 

ONGB gives excellent advice........

Better to know now, then after shelling out hard earned money for no reason.

 

JerrytAZ-welcome!
As panhead said check out Oldnewbiegonnabe's posts and threads-you can click on someone's name and then go to their page and see their stats/posts and threads.
I have been on here since April as a newbie trucker wife and the stuff I have learned!!! Oldnewbie got on here in September and did his homework and research-he asked all the questions good and bad and found the member's who will give you the staight up. I have followed a few newbies from wannabee thru to CDL and on=there are alot of negative comments but the one thing I noticed about most of the newbies is their attitude, and for some, their passion to want to drive.
good luck to you!! keep asking questions!

 

I'm having the same issue with trying to get into the industry - I lightly rear ended someone back in December and was given a careless operation citation for it. I'm going to court to challenge it because of the situation i was put in, and basically hitting the car in front of me was the least careless thing that I could do - even the cop said he had to give it to me but to challenge it and get it lowered in intensity or dropped.

Every company I apply to turns me down for the careless op. Really want to start trucking, but it's annoying that i'm getting shot down for something that I really couldn't avoid.

 

Those 2 words have to disappear!!!!
Good luck, don't give up...

 

I'm fighting it - basically what happened is that i was behind a van going 45 mph on a 5 lane road (2 going each way with a middle turn lane), i was in lane #2 and the van in front of me did one of those wonderful quick swerves into the right lane cutting off the person alongside my truck (Ford Ranger). In front of the van less than 15-20 yards was a row of cars that were stopped in the middle of the road because someone didn't get into the middle turn lane to turn left because there was oncoming traffic backing up from the intersection to turn left. I slammed on the brakes, couldn't merge right because the cars on my right were slamming on their brakes due to the van, and couldn't merge left because there was oncoming traffic stopped to turn left at the intersection behind me. All i could do was brake my truck, pray, and hit the car as lightly as possible :-/

Cop said 99.95% of the time it would have resulted in a wreck, was glad that i didn't do something stupid like freak out and start bouncing off the cars to my left or right. But he had to give me a citation for something, and careless is what I got because the car I hit was stopped.

My argument when I go to court next month is that they were stopped in a moving lane with no stop sign or stop lights, i had no way to avoid the wreck, i was going UNDER the speed limit, and my vision was blocked by the van. I've been driving for 14 years now, and that was the first time i had ever hit anyone and have ever been given a ticket with this severity.

Cop says that I should be able to get the ticket dropped or reduced to a minor violation, which in this town is usually something that doesn't show up on a MVR. I hope that's what happens because I really don't want to have to put trucking on the side for another five years