Comments By Carley T.

Welcome Carley. At this point in your life, age is your number one limiting factor. Most carriers will not hire you until you reach the age of 21, (some require 23). I would strongly suggest to wait until you are at least 20 and no more than 3 months away from your 21st birthday before committing to a truck driving school. And even then, send out applications for a pre-hire commitment letter as follows:

• Article: Understanding Pre-Hire Letters: The What, Why, And How Of This Important Step
• Trucker's Wiki: "Pre-Hire Letters"
• Forum Topics Tagged "CDL Pre-Hire Letters"

Or look into a Paid CDL Training Programs

In the mean time you can prepare yourself by researching the industry and the qualifications. These links are a good start:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

Thank you g-town I know I have to be 21 and that's why I pLan to go to private schools for trucking as I can save up until then but thank you for all the links I will definitely look though them

So I'm 17 years old and I want to become a trucker and I would love some advice from any of yall here so first I'm going to give some information about myself (I will try to keep this from Being to long) so I am a 17 year old male from mississippi I love to drive and take in the scenery even if I have seen it 100s of times I have never drove more than an hour and a half I don't have many friends and the only people I'm really close to are my parents (I'm pretty anti-social) I don't do drugs or anything like that also i play to go to a private trucking school i figured out i wanted to be a trucker becaue my grandpa was a trucker and about 6 month ago I got his briefcase with logs and notes and all that in it and I thought about becoming a trucker and loved the idea and started looking into it now what I want from trucking isnt that much just a lot of driving and not much time home money wise as long as I can feed (not truck stops every night that adds up way to quick) myself put money into a 401k plan and the occasional treet I'd be perfectly happy my plan is to get my g.e.d (because I'm home schooled) and get a job when I turn 18 to pay bills and save up for schooling my parents know I plan to become a trucker and want me to leave my stuff at there house and just stay there when I'm home (I felt like I'd be free loading but the more I thought about it the more I realized I'd mostly stay with them when I'm home anyways) I have already looked into what school I want to go to (a local college that my mom and sister went to and liked and where I plan on going to get my g.e.d. they have there own trucking school) it's 8 weeks long but I can't find a price just yet but price isn't the biggest issue because I will be able to borrow a bit from my parents if I can't save up enough and if all else fails I'll have to get a loan now I have a few issues with becoming a trucker, I'm afraid I won't be able to stay awake driving for so long (I can stay awake for quite a while but I'm sitting doing the same thing for so many hours straight I don't know if I could do it) and the second is I hear companies are starting to have you do a bmi and you have to be under a certain limit (39 what I hear) now I'm a big guy (round wise) I'm 5'7 and 271 pounds so my bmi comes out around 40-something now I know I can lose enough weight to pass but I can't just diet alone I need a lot of exercise to lose weight so I may gain weight sitting all day even if I diet and those are my only 2 concerns but they ain't small ones okay thats about all I can think I need to say (and more) but if I left out anything important just let me know and I will reply as soon as I see it thanks in advance for hepping me out

Stay safe and god bless