Comments By Philip S.

Just this afternoon I got my slot confirmed for CDL school starting Monday. I'll be going to C1 Trucking School in Fort Wayne, IN through Driver Solutions. Technically, they're still waiting for 1 employer to verify, but the agent with Driver Solutions fully confirmed the slot anyway. After school, I'll be driving for USA Truck.

A little about me. I come from the IT field, where I've spent the vast majority of my short 12 year adult working career. I've done support to project management to development and love information technology itself; I just have grown to hate the field, if that makes any sense. In May of 2012, I lost my job and have struggled to find full-time work since. I considered numerous options in several different industries and ultimately decided on trucking.

I am going to give this at least 2 years from the time I start driving on my own to make my decision on whether to continue. From reading about other experiences, that should be sufficient time to make an informed decision. As an outsider, I have two things that I think will help to some small degree: I love to be alone and I enjoy driving on long trips. To me, flying is great when you're on a time crunch, but I'd much rather drive to get where I'm going, even if it's 1800 miles away.

Right now, I'm both excited and anxious. I worry about failure because I'm a perfectionist at heart. Plus, the recent struggles to find full-time work have chipped away at my confidence a bit. I am also worried a little about the DOT Physical. I'm overweight, 6'0" 220, and would hate to get all the way out to Indiana to be turned away needing to get an apnea study done. My BMI is less than 35, but I have a large neck (18 - 18.5). In the end, there is no use stressing about things over which I cannot control.

I plan to keep the community posted as best I can during the process and I'm sure I'll ask some bonehead questions along the way. This site has been the best resource I have encountered, by far. Without it, I'm not sure I'd be so eager to make the jump.

I've already stopped signing people up for the other one and they're going to start coming in here.

I was hoping that was the reason I never got signed up on the old forum. I sent the request just a couple hours before you posted the thread indicating this forum was ready.

This site has given me so much information in a positive tone so far. I'm glad to have the opportunity to be a member.