Profile For Ozzy

Well,

Things did not turned out the way that I had planned but they are still on track. My wife, daughter and I were half way down to SC and we ended up having to turn around and moved in with my mother-in-law in Ellerslie, MD. I called TMC Monday and they told me that my move wasn't a problem. I have to call Gus back on Thursday for my 8 digit confirmation number for my bus ticket and I will be taking a bus out of Frederick, MD on Saturday at 8:50 p.m. and arriving at Des Moines, IA on Sunday at 5:50 p.m. I guess everything worked out. My mother-in-law's husband has lived here his whole life so he knows everyone in this little town. He made a few calls and he got me permission to park my truck behind the local post office. The gravel lot there is owned by the fire department. So, I am all set and am beyond excited to go to orientation.

Just an update,

I talked to my recruiter, Gus, at TMC this morning and told him that I got my CDL hard copy in the mail yesterday. He confirmed my moving date again to SC and told me to give him a call on June 24th so he can set me up with my bus ticket and hotel reservations for the weekend of June 29th. I will be staring orientation July 1st. The only thing I am not looking forward to is the 34 hour bus ride with 4 stops.

Patrick,

You can get the endorsments when you get your permit. They are fairly cheap (in VA), only a couple of dollars per year. The one that costs the most is the HazMat and in VA is $90, you take your test on the computer and get your finger prints done right at the DMV ( only certain DMVs do the finger prints so look it up before you walk into one) and it takes about one week for the background check.

Thank you. Yeah, I let the school know. They actually have know about it for about 3-4 weeks and one of the instructors tried to fix it but he told the school that the truck needs a new gauge cluster. I guess the school is a little cheap and don't want to pay for a new one.

Rebel,

In VA the point of no return isn't a law. As far as the stale green lights, I know all about them. My problem was that I had just started going and was only in 3rd gear when I crossed the white line. The green light was only green for about 10 seconds at most, and we were on a major avenue (Not sure why it turned yellow so quick). Guy is right about the ticket, in VA if any part of your vehicle is still in the intersection and the light turns red you can get a ticket for running a red light.

You can get your CDL when you are 18 but most likely you wont be able to find a job until you are at least 21-23. You have to be at least 21 to be able to cross state lines with a commercial vehicle.

Congrats on the start to a new career. Keep us posted on your progress. I am relatively new to trucking and I am heading to Iowa at the end of June to go to TMC's orientation, so I enjoy reading updates from people that are in the same boat as me and just starting their careers out.

That is what I figured. Our instructors however, told us that our vehicle is supposed to be fully out of the intersection before the red light comes on. Either way I wasn't about to stop past the white line and take a automatic failure, I figured I take my chances and it worked.

Joe,

There are schools that will allow you to finance the price and then you could look into a company that reimburses you that money. That is the route I took. Just throwing it out there.

I would just recommend for you to look closely at their pay. I have been pre hired with them and what turned me away from them was the pay. According to the pre hire letter that I got and pay chart, they star you off at 31 cpm I believe. But, to reach their maximum pay which is 41 cpm it takes 14 years of working form them.

I am not saying that they are a bad company, just wanted to point out something that I found out after digging around a bit.