Profile For Miac

Great! Thank you so much, Old School, both for your answers here and your previous posts we read through on other threads. They're so insightful, and give a great idea of the industry. We're starting to research refrigerated companies that'll hire from our area, then we're aiming to get into training in the fall if we can.

Thank you so much for your patient, detailed reply!

The Pennsylvania DMV didn't mention any length of time rule for holding a driver's license before applying for a CDP on their website, which is why I was wondering if the companies themselves would care. I'll call the DMV to make sure.

Thanks for clearing that home time question up for me, that did seem a little crazy to me, being able to take like 3 months off hah. I'm glad you're not forced to take the time off if you don't want to though. So another question occurs to me. If you're assigned a truck, are you allowed to drive it home with you while you take your home time, or do you have to leave it at the terminal?

Hello!

Me and my mom are both seriously researching and considering truck driving careers. This site is invaluable (thanks for that!), it really gives a good idea of the lifestyle, which I think we're both well suited for.

We still have a few questions, though, if you don't mind. (Sorry if they've been asked before, I tried my best to search for answers.)

1. I've lived in big cities all my life, and mostly abroad, so I reached the ripe old age of 26 without ever needing to drive until we moved to the Pennsylvanian countryside. I finally got my (non-commercial) driver's license a few months ago. Will that be a problem for a company considering training and hiring me, the fact that I don't have much of a driving record at all (good or bad) ? I also happen to not have any credit history, because of the living abroad thing, which means I'm not in debt to anyone, but I've heard that's sometimes worse than having a bad credit score... Will that be a problem? (So far, I've only read that companies check driving and criminal records, and prior employment, nothing about a credit check...)

2. We're thinking of driving as a mother-daughter team (we're more like the best of friends, so the downsides of sharing a cab won't really apply for us.) How would that work? Could we both apply to a company, go through our separate CDL trainings and be paired as a team immediately after training?

3. Am I right in thinking that one of the advantages of driving as a team might be easier HOS management, since one can start their 14h clock the minute the other runs out of driving hours? (We're both on the perfectionist side of things... Being late for a delivery because of that artificial 14h clock won't sit well with us!)

And a few more general questions: 4. Driving OTR as a rookie (team or not), how long can you realistically expect to stay in the same cab? How does the cab assignment work? I assume you don't change cabs at every delivery, do you have to leave a cab for good when you go home for a couple days?

5. How does home time work? I gather you usually get one home day per week out, but is that day payed? People often seem to say they're out for about a month then home for 4 days, but can you "redeem" home time whenever you want, or are you forced to take them on that sort of schedule? Can you stay out for like 6 months straight and then take your 26 days off all at once?

Thank you!