Which Way

In many cases local driving experience is insufficient to land an otr gig. OTR companies are looking for multi state experience in all seasons and preferrably in all types of terrain.

Short of that experience the outfits will accept "trainees and students" from an accredited driving school (Insurance companies seem to be calling the shots on this part) for entry level pay.

If you are interested in being a road driver then I think you have made a good choice in Crete. They have a fairly decent rep overall especially when compared to the other companies you mentioned.

Remember though this is an investment in your future and in the event you decide to go thru a refresher course or a full fledged school for training the money you paid out will come back to you many times over in the first calendar year of working as an otr trucker.

 

If you have two years tractor trailer in the last ten, you should be in, some companies may want you to have a refresher. Forty hours, school I went to charges like twenty bucks for that.

 

This happened to a friend of mine. His OTR experience was 7 years previous the only company that would hire him was Florilli. Most want recent OTR. It is a LOT different than local.
Good luck!

 

If I took my experience of pulling an 85' truck and trailer hauling gasoline in the city and a company did not consider that experience the company would not be worth working for. I've done both and driving that large truck in the city is much harder than driving OTR. Driving a 10wheeler might be different but if you have any experince with a semi then if I were you I would look until you found a company that will not lock you into one of their CDL schools.

 

Thinking more on this subject I remember that my company did not take OTR experience unless it was tanker and delivering in the city. You might want to think about staying local and trying to get on with a good tanker company. The pay is much better.