Comments By Amanda D.

My husband has been looking at CDL school and now is thinking if he has to go OTR to take me with him. He thinks that if I'm with him and he's not hurrying home to get back to me and runs hard he can make 80,000 his rookie year. I've never heard of an OTR rookie making that...closest is 6 string but he's LTL. Is he being realistic?

Hmmm, from what I understand, FL is an outlier on the one-year rule, meaning that one can obtain a CDL in FL with less than a year of holding a regular driver's license. I've heard this from a driving school, the FL DMV and my husband pre-called some companies that said it shouldn't be a problem. I haven't heard it was a federal rule. But that's a good idea to email someone at DOT and for my husband to get on the phone following up on his applications. If there's going to be problems, I want to find out now, not after we've invested even more time.

Hi again,

We're currently working on getting my husband pre-hire letters. We haven't heard back anything but we also just started the process. We're looking for mostly local jobs, although he'd go OTR for a year if could bring me. We're currently in SWFL, but we'd move anywhere in the state where we can get jobs. He REALLY wants to get his CDL and start working.

Husband is a recent immigrant from Morocco. He worked in tourism with a legitimate company from 2009 to the end of 2013, when he came to the US to be with me. From 2008-2009, he worked odd jobs at a hotel. Before that he was a full-time student. He was unable to legally work in the US until he got his green card, so he has a year gap due to that (2014 till now).

His boss at the tourism company speaks good English and can give him a great reference. I assume the same is true for the hotel too. I'm not sure about his schools. They were a long time ago and there must have been turnover since he was a student.

He was a licensed driver in Morocco for eight years or so. He's been a licensed driver in the state of FL since December. Most states won't take drivers who have only had their Class E for less than a year but apparently FL is different, although I worry that individual companies won't hire him because of that. No accidents or issues.

He's never used drugs. No DUI/DWIs. Paid his Moroccan taxes when he lived there, no criminal history, upstanding citizen.

My question is, given how much weight trucking gives to driving and employment history, is it going to be an issue that practically all his history is in a different country? To make matters worse, Morocco is fairly incompetent at record-keeping and is known for corruption in the government.

How will this likely affect us going forward?

Thanks! Its good to know there's local possibilities. He applied with Conway and Lowes over the weekend for pre-hires, when should he call them and follow up? He is so eager to start working he just wants to go to school without the pre-hires.

Thank you so much for the reply and for this site! It's been a great resource since we were coming from knowing nothing about the industry. We've been doing more research, although we took a short break when we had family over. He applied at Conway and Lowes for Delivery positions. We looked on the OD website and they list jobs but no link to apply. I guess you just call and express your interest???? Oh and we spoke to two tech colleges with reasonable prices and solid curriculums. So we're making progress.

Well, I didn't get the job in NYC I was up for. Hubby and I are talking about staying in FL for an extra year so he can get his CDL and start saving $$$. We've looked around and there's local jobs in the bigger cities like Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville. He called down a short list of LTL companies yesterday and got a positive response from Conway. Good starting pay too. I know 6 string loves working for OD but we weren't able to get in touch with anyone there so far. I also looked at some driving jobs for grocery stores and oh man they are stringent. Publix requires 8-10 YEARS in entry-level work before someone can drive trucks for them. Craaaazy.

Now, we are researching and calling private schools. It seems to me that schools connected to technical colleges have the best funding opportunities. What should our next step be at this point? Secure pre-hires, a spot in school or should hubby study more before we do that? How long should it take someone to do the High Road Program, especially if he is not a native English speaker? Hubby wants to get to work yesterday, but I keep telling him we need more time to research and prepare.

Rick, that was my basic feeling on the matter. We will be making calls to both the FL and NY DMVs tomorrow to get the whole story straight.

Heavy, would you mind telling me what you made as a local driver your first year? I've heard so many variations there. And is local and P&D the same thing?

Thank you so much everybody!

Sorry that I keep blowing up these boards. Hubby is determined to get his CDL ASAP and neither of us know anything about the trucking industry. Obviously the recruiters aren't going to give it to us straight. I don't know where else to turn for the million questions I have, especially since our situation is kinda convoluted.

Hubby is a recent immigrant to the US, getting his GC and US Class E DL late last year. He's looking for jobs and became focused on trucking as a well-paid job that doesn't require tons of time and money for schooling. I don't want him to go OTR so he'd be looking at local and regional jobs only. I've read a few accounts of truckers here who got LTL jobs right out of school.

We live in FL but are planning to move to move to NYC. I have all my career contacts there and I'm up for a job there (used to live there). It also seems that he'd have better luck getting LTL being based in the NE/Eastern seaboard.

In NY there is a requirement that a potential driver hold a US Class E for a year before getting a CDL Class A. Apparently in FL there is no such requirement. He wouldn't have to wait a year in FL to go for his CDL.

A recruiter he talked to the other day recommended that he A) go to CDL school and get his CDL in FL, then B) move to NYC and transfer his CDL there, then C) get a job.

Hubby thinks that's a great plan. I'm skeptical. For one, I'm worried that the NY DMV and/or companies see that as trying to bypass certain requirements they set in place for a reason and that would not reflect well on him. The second worry I have is how would he be able to get any pre-hires this way? I mean, I wouldn't think that NY companies would issue pre-hire letters to a guy doing his CDL in FL who isn't qualified to get his CDL in NY yet.

So do you think this get CDL in FL/transfer to NY/bypassing the one-year requirement is a viable plan at all? Or would he be better off waiting out the year until he can get his CDL in NY?

We're planning on calling potential companies tomorrow to see what they say. But I wanted to put it out here since I know I can get good, honest advice here.

Noticed an error. He has an employment GAP due to immigration. He wasn't allowed to legally work in the US during the process. With the weight trucking puts on stable employment history, I could see the gap, plus the non-US work history, being a problem.

He wanted to verify the one-year non commercial DL requirement by talking to someone so I found the number of a recruiter for CR England. From what I've read, CR England is pretty much bottom of the barrel for driver requirements, so I figured the recruiter would tell him "sorry, have to wait one year," he'd finally accept that he couldn't get it until December and it would buy us time to research and study.

Well, that backfired on me. The recruiter told him that FL has no such requirement. He said, "but my wife is up for a great job in NYC." And she advised him to get his CDL in FL and then transfer it to NY and then he could apparently get hired (I'm skeptical about that).

So he all of the sudden was all pumped to start school on March 9th. I tried to point out all of the logistical issues with that (pre-hires, his work history is all in a different country+a employment due to immigration, he hasn't done any studying and knows nothing about trucking, LTL is VERY competitive for rookies and he needs to have his act together to have a shot) and it was like talking to a brick wall.

After lots of arguing and some tears on my part, he agreed to start The High Road, read CDL training diaries and read 6 string's linehaul post (all 22 pages of it). He's working on The High Road materials right now. He just asked me what an upgrade was or something like that. He does say he likes this website.

Are there any truckers on here (esp LTL) who would be willing to call him and give him a first-hand perspective of the industry?