Will waiting 4 months after getting CDL hurt me ???

Rule of thumb is to find a job before three months have passed. If not, companies will say you've lost your skills and a refresher is required.

 

I'm a week away from my two month mark . . . I'm finally getting things taken care of at home and I'm hoping to be putting my two week notice in with my employer next week. But that will be contingent on the recruiter's approval of my application and phone interview.

During orientation, will it will possible to get a practice run in before the real thing? I'm not really worried about my skills to much except I'll probably be a little rough with shifting at first but after I get a good repetition going I'm usually pretty smooth at it. I'm not too worried about backing. I put 5 weeks of blood, sweat, and fear at community college. The best advice I could give myself about backing is don't let the trailer out run me and that the clutch and brake are my friends to slow down with.

 

Probably no practice run. They'll just expect you to do a road test. Just remember, you're definitely not the first person with zero experience they've taken on a road test. They won't expect you to be great at shifting or backing. Just drive safely and don't curb it. When backing, it's no longer for the state. Get out and look as many times as you want and pull up 50 times if necessary. Once it's comes to the real world, it's all about putting it in the hole safely and nothing else.

 

Can I chime in on this? I graduated from TDI on 12/21/12 and I didn't get hired by Stevens until yesterday. I passed the road test, but my backing sucks! I think if you get with the right company, they will work with you. I was not a pro truck driver by any means when I got out of CDL school. I'm with a trainer now so I believe repetition will help you get better!

 

Nobody is a pro straight outa school. Where I started what they said they expected was for you to be able to opperate the truck safely. I was at nearly two months outa school when i started, thanks to the first company I was going to work with jerking me around. As for the original question, several companys that recruited at my school said they prefer folks less than 30 days outa school. 60 was pushing it. Sounds like your looking at pulling some nice scratch if you chance it. I would have a hard time not taking the $$ and hoping it worked out. But then again nobody ever accused me of being the smartest, most responsible person. Good luck to you!

 

Sure you can. First step is to avoid the mega training companies. $25/hr is totally doable.