Comments By Onsdag

Awesome. Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone! Getting more excited as we speak!

Hi everyone!

I've been considering a trucking career and visiting this site on occasion trying to learn what I can for a little over a year now. It's a big leap into the unknown, and definitely would take me outside of my comfort zone, but something I feel is right for me at this point in my life. However I keep letting fears of the unknown, lack of knowledge, waiting for a 'better' time, lack of money, etc., hold me back from taking that leap. Well, I'm tired of that. It's time to take my future in my own hands and just take the leap. There will be no better time than the present. And I'm reaching out to you, the TT community, for help, advice, and encouragement in taking that leap.

Steps that I have taken so far:

• I've read the Truck Driver's Career Guide (granted it was about a year ago and things might have changed and/or I have forgotten things).
• I've read Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version) (same as above, it's been about a year)
• I'm in the middle of taking the High Road CDL Training Program(though, oddly enough, after signing up and creating my profile here on TT just now it's reset my progress?)
• Last week I had my physical and received the Medical Examiner's Certificate.

I'll continue to take and finish (hopefully completed this week) the High Road CDL Training Program as time allows. After which I hope to take the CDL Practice Tests.

Questions, concerns, unknowns in moving forward at this point:

Manual Transmission - I've never driven a manual transmission before. I'm not afraid of learning or doing it, however I am concerned about a steep or costly learning process. As a child I remember my mother having the most difficult time learning it, burning several clutches, and ultimately switching back to automatic transmissions. How difficult is it for a complete novice to learn? I know there are plenty of automatic trucks out there, but I'd prefer not to be limited to only using them. Besides, I love learning and have always wanted to learn the manual but have never really had opportunities or a teacher, so this is a perfect opportunity I think.

Background check - As a teenager I did some stupid things, which I sought religious and professional counseling for, self-reported to the police, and went through the legal system in order to try doing what was right and correcting the problems. I was originally charged on a second degree felony, but it was reduced to a misdemeanor after successfully completing therapy and court-ordered probation. I've been clean ever since (20+ years now). I'm certain this'll come up in a background check, and I'm definitely not going to try hiding or glossing over it, but my question is when it comes time to acknowledge it do I report it as a felony or misdemeanor? In past job applications I report it as a misdemeanor as that is what it was reduced to, unless the application has specific wording such as "have you ever been convicted of a felony?" in which case I would say yes as that was the original conviction. However, reading through the forums it seems potential employers will know every little thing and want to see if you're being completely honest with them and I'm afraid if I do report it as a misdemeanor they'll think I'm trying to be dismissive of it or not be completely truthful with them.

Accidents - similar to the above, how much detail needs to be provided? About 15 years ago I was in a car accident and the other person was cited as being at fault. Another time, about 4 years ago, I had a very minor accident with a bicyclist, police weren't called and no report was filed... until he came to my work (business markings on vehicle) a couple of hours later with one of his friends (who hadn't been at the scene) asking for insurance information. I suspected he/they were trying to commit insurance fraud and so after they gathered my insurance information and left I went down to the police station and filed a report. It wasn't an accident report as the police said both parties left the scene, but it was a police report nonetheless. I had a dashcam which recorded everything, and the officer who looked at it said he wasn't going to cite anybody since it was after the fact, but that he would've cited the cyclist as being at fault as they were disobeying several traffic laws (such as going against the flow of traffic and not yielding the right of way). By the way, the dashcam saved me and the insurance claim was dropped in that case. Would either of these be pulled up in a search and/or need to be reported?

School - I don't have the money and so plan on applying through this site to a company that will provide training and hire me right away. Will they pay for and take care of everything including my learner's permit, DMV records, endorsements, etc.? Or do I need to save up money to pay out of my own pocket? I'd like to get started as soon as possible so I can actually start making money because I'm completely broke at this point. I'm also afraid that if I delay then I'll start to lose the courage to take the leap, or find some other excuse to back down, and I think committing to a company will help hold my feet to the fire.