I don’t believe any of the items you mentioned as possibly hurting your qualifications are in fact hurting you much, if any. Certainly being a female and being 50 years old is no problem at all. Not having full time employment in the past 3 years isn’t going to help as far as finding employment, but it won’t hurt much either, and a school wouldn’t care about that. Now when you say “I haven’t gotten my license yet” I’m assuming you mean your CDL, but you do in fact have a regular driver’s license, correct? Because that would be a very big deal.

Usually your health, your ability to get financing, your driving record, and your criminal record are the main things that schools and trucking companies look at. To be honest, schools generally accept anyone they feel can get the financing and will qualify to find work in the trucking industry. It’s rare to ever hear anyone get denied by an independent school. Now schools that are owned by trucking companies are obviously a bit different because they intent to hire you after the training ends, so their qualifications are more stringent.

As far as a pet policy goes, it’s just a matter of doing the research. I don’t have a master list of any sort that says which companies do or do not allow pets, and these types of policies change quite often. So you’ll just have to look it up on company websites or ask each company.

Thanks

Well, for starters you’re going to have to go through the training all over again like you never drove a truck before. You didn’t mention if you still have your CDL or not, but even if you do you’ll have to go out on the road with a trainer for a few weeks. No big deal, really. But it does mean you’ll have to go with a company that has training in the first place – which likely means a larger carrier.

With the bad economy, I’d say you should take a look at some of the larger refrigerated carriers like KLLM, England, Stevens, Prime, or Central Refrigerated. I wouldn’t worry yourself do death over which company you choose. If they’re a well-established carrier with a fairly large fleet, you know you can make things work out. You know how they should be treating you and you know if you’ll need to switch dispatchers and all that. You’ve been there.

Take a look at our page on companies with low-cost CDL training. If you have your CDL you may not need to go through the schooling, but they may want you to play around in the yard backing up trucks for a couple days and going over the newer logbook rules just to freshen you up – and it’s probably a really good idea for you to do so. Hey, what’s a few days in the yard, right? Nothin to it.

Take a look at some of those companies on that page along with the other companies that I had mentioned. Make a few phone calls, tell them your situation, and see what they say. I’m sure several of them would love to have you as long as your record has stayed decent these past few years.

Best of luck to ya! Enjoy being back out there! Hey, they have cell phones, GPS, wi-fi, and Satellite communications now! Remember when we had to rely on notebooks, payphones, and $5 maps???? LOL! I do not consider those the “good ole’ days”! I love the new technology which makes life so much easier out there now!

Good luck!