What are my options here?

You sound young, messed up and want to do better. Whatever the situation, you have kids and you have to put you and your wives reasons for quitting behind you. Them kids are #1. I'm not even married or a father and know that much.
When things are tough, the tough get going means you apply yourself and not run away from things.
My drill sergeant always use to tell us, It's all in your mother huckin mind.

Men stood in lines for weeks hoping for a job to feed their families in the depression when they were building the Hoover Dam. Someone would fall and die, they were happy in line. Now that's tough.

Try small companies or go back to a dump. Those are your best shots. If that don't work. Try other jobs. You want one, you can find one.

 

It seems to me you're spending a lot of energy dwelling on past history. If you keep thinking about it and not concentrating on the current objective you don't stand a chance of getting back in the business. So what ever it is, get over it.

Next, like Allow Me asked you, be prepared to answer questions with a potential employer about your work history. You may have to work on your presentation a little but you need to generate a positive "can do" attitude.

Contact driver training schools regarding refresher courses and make the arrangements.

If your lucky enough to get hired, expect to run with a trainer for a while. Do what he tells you. They need to evaluate your skills. Maybe you can solo out in a couple of weeks.

If you want to truly re-enter this business, remember that it's all about attitude. If you're still dragging around baggage about what happened to you, it was my fault, yada, yada, yada, they're going to pick up on it and you'll be back in you car going home before you know it. You have to overcome a questionable work history. So it's going to take a serious effort on your part. You must get your act together.

So you need to decide if you're willing to invest in the time, money and effort to see this through, or decide that trucking's not for you.

If you are successful and you get back in the left seat. Stay there for at least a year. Work hard and have a good attitude.

Remember, no one wants to be around someone who is miserable. So if that's who you are, change it, or move on to something else.

Good luck to you, driver.

 

How far are you from Kendallville? There is a PFG hub there. They gave me my first driving job after I got my CDL (although I worked out of the Maryland DC). If you don't like OTR and if you've got a strong back and if you can handle running in teams/driving all night, its not a bad gig.

The equipment is usually new and in good shape and their schedule is 4 days per week (mon, tue, thur, fri). And like your first company, they never lied to me or treated me poorly. The pay isn't great, but it ain't bad either. And since they hire guys with wet ink on their CDL, I would imagine (though I'm only guessing) they'd be willing to look at someone like yourself with a bit of experience but no recent driving.


I think the bigger question that no one has asked yet has to do with your crippling depression. Where are you with that now? Are you currently medicated or do you need to be? My advice would be to make sure you have that sorted and effectively under control before you get another job. Because the reality is there are desirable CDL jobs (good equipment, good quality of life, fair treatment and fair pay) and there are not so desirable CDL jobs (crumby equipment, poor quality of life, low pay etc). And with your level of experience/job history, chances are most of the jobs that will be open to you will fall into the undesirable category. So you might end up having to tough it out with one of those for a year or two before you can upgrade to job that better suites you. And if you've still got depression issues going on, toughing it out in a bad job is going to be 10 times as hard if not impossible. And like someone else said, try not to quit a job unless/until you already have a better job to go to.

 

Listen up dude! Kittyfoot + Allow Me = 70 years trucking!

 

Since you are in Indiana, have you considered looking around at some of the farms? Harvest season is in full swing and hoppers need to be driven. It will get you some more recent experience and since it's seasonal, potential employers would understand a short duration.

Just a thought. Good luck to you.

 

Third time's a charm?