No Company Will Hire A R.S.O.

Howdy Folks.

Just wanted to give you'all a progress report.

After I'd worked for the paving company for about a year, I told the owner of the company that I would like to get into hauling freight. He was supportive of my career goals and gave me his "blessing."

Since I didn't have semi-tractor/trailer experience, I wasn't sure how my job hunt was going to go. After a few rejections, I found a food service company that needed a shuttle driver ("drop & hook") hauling double reefers to their different hubs in CA.

My criminal background came up in the initial interview and I was transparent about it. When the hiring manager found out that it didn't involve something like theft or drunken driving, he said that it wasn't something that would prevent me from getting the job and he hired me!

As I mentioned, I'm still on parole and my PO approved the new job, even though it caused me to travel out of the county on a daily basis.

I've been working at Saladinos for a couple of months. It's still considered "local" work (hourly) but I do get about 1000 miles a week of freeway & city driving experience.

My goal is to eventually haul flatbed either OTR , or Regionally. In the meantime, I'm getting valuable experience even though I'm "limited" to local driving.

I hope this encourages someone.

Thanks for all your support.

Jeff V.

Congrats on your progress Jeff.

Jeff, that’s a great story of perseverance. Stay the course and your goals will become reality. Well done!

Jeff, that is fantastic news. Thanks for coming back and updating us. Keep up the good work.

I know this topic can be very Taboo to discuss. I am also a RSO, and I can confirm that reentering society after prison with this label can be very challenging. The label itself is very broad and can be anthing from the most heinous crime to having sex with a girl who is 17 and you were 19. Every state has different laws, it is very complex to navigate and understand.

Anyways, that being said, I have been contemplating getting my CDL. I know the hiring process will be difficult, but I wondered if it was even possible. And after reading this thread I have found a lot of valuble information. So I wanted to take a moment and say thans to everyone for being transparent and non-judgemntal during this discussion. The reality is that we all want the present/future version of ourselve to be better than who we were in the past.

So thanks for all the insight, knowledge, and compassion shared here.