Comments By Robert

Thank you. I will be sure to ask anyone from Schneider who happens to contact me about any jobs they may be closer to home.

Thanks guys, I have completed the Schneider application, the only positions they listed were both in Ohio, the closest one a couple of hours away from me, to the west of Pittsburgh, will see what happens. Am by no means desperate, luckily my wife is a doctor so it isn't essential I find a job for financial reasons, but I have always had the desire to drive a big rig, and want to spend at least a few years doing it before I plan to retire in ten years or so!

Qualified after only 20 hours tuition at local community college so have very few total on the road driving hours than say if I attended 6 week tuition course. Have some tractor trailer experience from 30 years ago in the military for which I still have the drivers license but of course I am unable to verify any driving experience by the way of total miles driven etc which is what prospective employers are requesting.

Was hoping if anyone on here knew of any possible routes into driving besides the usual team driving with the likes of CRST etc. Forum members may know of companies that may offer chances to newbie drivers with little or no experience. I don't mind the occasional night away but at my age (50) I don't want to be slave to any job, I would even be satisfied with part time or stand by type position or yard docking etc. I prefer not to work nights or any heavy lifting, or sheeting loads. Any help would be appreciated, I would be willing to commute up to 50 miles (or one hours' drive) from my home town of Everett, PA.

Thanks in advance.

Am a CDL student. Doing OK with most things apart from shifting the 10 speed. Getting up to speed/upshifting and driving the truck I'm generally OK. the problem is during downshift. I tend to panic when approaching areas I know I have to slow down and downshift, probably because I'm having to think of other things, downshifting just doesn't come as naturally as upshifting, sometimes I'll completely panic and forget the shift pattern, I will sometimes hold in the clutch when revving for the sweet spot, I have a mental block. Sometimes I manage to do it cleanly but a lot of times I end up grinding, on some occasions my instructor has had to pull on the shifter to get into gear whilst shouting FOOT OFF CLUTCH/REV THE ENGINE!!!, which makes it even harder! I know the theory and what I need to, i.e the revs I need to apply etc but has anyone got any advice on how to stay calm or an easy aide memoire that could help! I have my test in a couple of weeks and desperate to pass it!

Thanks for all of your advice, gotta say this is a great forum. Come to the conclusion that it will not do me any harm but to start from the beginning and to that end I'm enrolling in a 6 week CDL course at my local community college starting on the 15 May. The number of students is limited to four and I think it provides 200 hours of driving tuition as well as classroom based stuff. It isn't cheap, at $6000, but I think it will give me a good start as regards starting a career as a driver.

Hi, I'm brand new on here so please go easy on me! A bit of background. I'm a 49 years old male. I want to obtain my Class A CDL asap. I'm originally from the UK. I first moved to the US in 1983, joined the military shortly after and served a four year term. During my time in the military I was a heavy equipment operator/tractor trailer driver, although this license was a military one only but still gave me plenty of commercial driving experience, including loading and unloading construction equipment onto rigs, medium to long range highway driving of tractor trailers. Since then I have mostly done office based jobs in the UK, but returned to the US in October and would love to commit to commercial driving for the rest of my working life, no way I want to be stuck in an office again! My question is, can anyone recommend a commercial driving program that will suit my needs? I know it's been a while since I have driven commercially, but because of my past experience (albeit a while ago), I don't feel the need to start from scratch as regards taking as much as a four week course or whatever. I feel a weeks' tuition, which would provide me with the minimum 16 hours of hands of driving required for taking the PA practical road test would be enough, I'm sure it will all come back to me! I have my PA Commercial Driver's Manual which I can study, I'm pretty certain I can study enough at home to pass the theory part. Wanted to ask members whether they thought the training I had in mind would be enough based on my experience? I have available funds to self finance, and prefer not to go via the 'learn as you drive route', from what I've read these companies seem pretty exploitative. I live in Everett, Bedford County PA, but if a company came highly recommended and I were able to condense my training down to a week or two it wouldn't be a problem for me to stay in a hotel or whatever for the duration of training. I'm sorry this post is so long, well done if you are still reading, but wanted to try and cover all things that may be relevant to forum members to be able to help, thanks in advance. Rob