Comments By ID Mtn Gal

How long have you been off the road? Did you have a chauffeur's license or a CDL at that time when running with your brother-in-law? Did you keep that license up or has it expired?

Let us know the answer to those questions and we can help you further. The laws have changed a lot and we really can't advise you which way to go yet.

In this tanked economy and the lack of training/experience, you need to use our link to send out applications to everyone. You need to get a refresher with a company and then stick with them for 1+ years. Being in Florida is a big hindrance also, so apply everywhere.

Apply For Truck Driving Jobs

Good luck

All companies are so different in how they deal with PTO. I work for a company that did not do PTO time, however, you could take up to a week off on your own dime. My last company that closed their doors in May, never said anything about PTO time when I hired on with them in January. Maybe they had a forewarning that they were going to have to close. The container company I drove for gave you $1,000 for one week vacation time that you got after 6 months. After every 6 months you got another week vacation time until you acquired two full weeks and then you lost your time if you didn't take it.

While this is a good paying job, it's unlike any other job out there. You can't compare it to anything you have ever done before.

Here are some links for you to go through before you get too bogged down worrying about vacation time:

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

Laura

Old School started 10 years younger than I did. I got my CDL at 63, 10 years ago this week, and I will be 73 on Friday. I would still be driving over the road, except my last company ended up closing their doors like 1000+ companies. The economy is horrible and many drivers with good records are having a hard time getting another job. I could, but I'm looking at doing local work in the AG field....they are begging for drivers. Part of their problem is that Idaho is an at-will state and they don't pay well, so drivers don't stay with them. Being on Social Security, if I make 2/3 of what I made over the road, I will be happy and will stay with the company for as long as my health will let me, which now is good.

Your age had nothing to do with companies not reaching out to you. Even the training companies have cut back on training drivers, because the freight has slowed way down.

Good luck thru school.

Laura

Howdy!

This site is mainly to help beginners learn what it takes to become a company driver.

We have one owner operator and one that's a former mechanic. Stevo Reno is now retired and living in the Philippines, but if he sees this post, he may respond. Otherwise, we are company drivers that take our vehicles to the shop because many of them are under warranty.

Laura

Many "green" lights have a blue tinge to them, just so R/G colorblind people have a better idea of which light is on.

My husband was green color blind. Some of the green lights appeared blue and others appeared yellow. He didn't confuse the green light with the others because it was always brighter whether in the bottom position or sideways in the right position.

For him, some grass appeared blue and others appeared yellow. If I saw a green house, I would ask him what color it looked like and he would tell me black, blue or yellow and that would be the base tint coming out. When he was in the army in the 50s, during war games they would put him in a helicopter to fly over the "enemy" to see where their tents were. All the tents to him were a solid black 🙂 For his chauffeur's license, he could pass the eye test easily enough and never had to do anything special. He last drove in 1993 with a chauffeur's license.

Laura

Congrats on being in your 70's and still trucking! Also, thanks for the (jaded) advice.

Jaded??? Not even. I see you can't take straight talking and you are already thinking you made a wrong move.

Good luck in whatever you do. In this economy you have to take what you can get.

That's cool! It does help.

When I was hauling goats to my Dairy goat shows, I would have people ask me to back their trailers in because they saw how I was able to do mine easily. I just have to remember that the shorter the trailer, the quicker it turns. 😉

Laura

We are friendly, but many of us are to the point and people can't handle that sometimes.

Yes, the zipper does work if everybody does it like it's supposed to. However, there are drivers out there that don't want to use that method, claiming it doesn't work and so they block the lane. When I came back on the road in 2014, that is what I did because that's what we did back in the 80s/90s when I drove. The zipper really didn't come about until about 5 or 6 years ago and like I said it does work.

As for that driver running you off the road and not letting you back on, that was wrong and either get the company name, truck number or trailer number (don't need license plate number) and call the company or call 911. Having a dash cam is a smart move. The one I had on the truck is now in my pickup because many companies have installed at least three cameras...one facing forward and two facing backward.

Be safe out there.

Today i get to shipper an2 hrs early, with a 1500 mile load... and they are telling me the load isn't going where i was told. They wont tell.me where and Prime cannot get answers from the broker.

So it could be going 300 miles to TX or 1400 to Atlanta.. and no one kmows. Been here waiting for an hour.

This is trucking.

Sounds like a blind bill of lading load. Got those a few times in my career and hated them because I couldn't say who was getting the product and where it was going to.

Laura