Comments By Thomas (Knot Head)

You may have found out that you can actually get a CDL-A without the schooling, with a friend network or something. But you would still miss the other part: official training from an accredited school. No dice. You need the sheepskin from a school before any major, or even minor, trucking company will even look at your resume. You may find a school that could get you a discounted "fast track" rate since you do have the full CDL-A. (Or do you? That's not clear here.)

We're here to help.

No I had no choice but to let my learner's permit lapse. So now I am back to just a Class B non-CDL. Thank you for all the information all of you have been able to provide so far. I really do want to give it a try. Just got to find financial assistance. I do have somewhat of an idea of where I would like to go. I have been checking out the companies that the local driving schools around me us and there is about 3 or 4 companies that I am really interested in.

Thank y'all for your input. Errol: I do have a wife and two step kids. 16 and 14 years old. So I know gong into it that I would be separated from them from time to time but I am almost doing that now with my current schedule. The shift schedule I am on now makes me flip from first shift to third shift every two weeks. The two weeks I am on third it is like I am not even here anyway. I am at work while they sleep and then I am sleeping while they are up and about. I have been doing this shift work for 8 years and I am just getting burnt out on the shifts, the "clients" that we have to deal with and office politics.

I did work part-time for FEDEX Ground as a home delivery driver, mostly during the Holiday Seasons. I know it is not like truck driving but I like to think it is as close as I have gotten so far. I enjoyed it. I would pick up my rental cargo van, load my route packages, get my manifest and turn by turn directions and then head out. I enjoyed the hell out of it. I was so used to working and being involved in emergency services, that this was a welcomed break from my "normal". It was nice to just load my van, go drive and deliver with no one on my back. The temp agency I worked with that contracted with them let the contract expire so all of us got thrown out.

Like you said Gizmo, I am not looking to get rich and I know that truck driving is not going to make me rich but I just want to be able to make all my bills and have some left over to be "comfortable".

My first idea was to try and get into trucking part-time just to see if I would like it, then make the switch to full-time if I did. But I have learned, the hard way, that there is almost no way to get into this career without jumping in it full throttle. No one around here wants you unless you went to a trucking school or had experience and I have neither. I did go and get my learner's permit and had it for 6 months. A buddy of mine was trying to get me hooked up with a buddy of his that has his own truck but that guy would never answer his phone and wouldn't return my messages. I was trying to find someone that would take me out, even if it was daily and so me what it all entails, and if possible let me drive to get comfortable with it before I went and took the road test for get my CDL. But that all fell apart. I learned very quickly that what I thought I could do, wasn't going to happen. Can't always get what you want. lol.

I was wondering what kind of advice anyone could give me on what it is like for "rookies" out on the road? I have always been interested in driving a truck as far back as I can remember. As a kid I rode across the country in a truck, once, and then again up around the New England area, once.

I have been thinking for about a year or two now about maybe trying to change careers to trucking. I have a bunch of questions, concerns and fears. My first concern is that I don't know if I would enjoy the trucking lifestyle. I think I could but I don't like jumping into something without knowing exactly what I am getting myself into, or at least an idea. I only know two people that are friends that drive trucks and I have been talking to them but both of their companies do not allow riders. I was wanting to ride to get an idea if this is really what I want or not. My next biggest concern is that I already live paycheck to paycheck and I DO NOT have the funds to pay for CDL school and I don't have the credit score that would allow me to get a loan for it. So schooling is my first problem.

Random thought: Is there any company that would actually consider 12 years of driving fire trucks as "experience"? Would it matter at all? I do have a Class B, but it is not a CDL because emergency vehicles are exempt in my state.