Will I Be Able To Get A Job?

Hello, I am about a year away from retirement. I will be 60 yrs old at that time. Have worked as a health care professional for the last 35 years. I just got my CLP here in Texas, and am going to use a private training company that is an approved FMCSA training provider. After having read many remarks on this site, I know that most do not recommend getting your CDL on your own. Most on here say do either company sponsored school or some other driving school. This private company is going to provide me with a weeks worth of training and I will be able to use their truck for my skills test. My hope is to find a local job after I retire. It will not be a have to situation, but more like something that I have always wanted to pursue. If I have to go with a company and get "reschooled", I will be ok with that. I am looking at it as getting some pre-training. My question is , do you think I will have an opportunity to get hired by going this route, full time or part time after I retire?

Without a 160 hour or longer certificate from an accredited school your CDL won't be very useful most companies will want that. If you get that certificate you should be able to find a local job, I'd look into LTL companies.

I don't see any of this as a benefit. If you get your CDL through any program, then don't use it, 1) you ended up spending thousands of dollars, 2) you now have a "stale license". This is a qualification that you haven't utilized for a period of say three months or longer.

You really won't have a leg up on anybody that doesn't have a CDL with no experience, so what's the point?

I would study and participate in the High Road Training Program on here, read everything you can stand on here, watch all the videos on YouTube trucking channels, then hit it hard once retired WITH the money you didn't spend.

Hi Jimmy,

For a week's worth of training and the use of their vehicle, I'd pay them 50 bucks cause that's about all its worth.

I think your plan to drive for one year and then finding a local route is reasonable, if you don't cut corners and trying to find shortcuts.

Keep in mind that local routes are sometimes more physically demanding and require early morning starts.

Good luck.

Hello Jimmy, and welcome to our forum!

You said this...

After having read many remarks on this site, I know that most do not recommend getting your CDL on your own. Most on here say do either company sponsored school or some other driving school.

That's right, but you want to ignore that advice. Just keep in mind that we have no agenda here. We volunteer our time for free. We get no kickbacks or payments of any kind to give you sound advice. You don't have to take our advice, but you need to realize that it comes from professionals who are out here living the dream and experiencing exceptional success as professional drivers.

Overall, I have to say your plan is really a bad one. You will end up with a stale CDL which means no one will want to touch you. You will have such limited training that it will be virtually useless. On top of both of those bad ideas you want to start your career as a local driver. That is another big mistake for several reasons. Foremost is that it is extremely difficult to land a local job as an inexperienced driver, and it is even worse to keep that job as a rookie because you are going to make some mistakes that your employer more than likely will not forgive. We have seen this countless times in here. A new driver somehow lands a local job for their first driving job. They have a minor accident, and then the employer has to fire them because their insurance company refuses to cover the driver. Then the driver cannot get another job. He is in a sort of trucking purgatory. He has a CDL in a time of great demand for drivers, yet he is unemployable.

I would never recommend someone take your path to this career. It is not likely to turn out well. We have a young lady in here right now who went to trucking school and needs a local job because she is a single mom and has to be there for her kids. If you have seen her postings you will see that she is having a terrible time getting a job. It is just not a good way to go about starting this career. If you have about a year's worth of experience it would be different. Experience opens up those local driving job doors. The absolute best way to gain that experience is to do OTR (over the road) driving.

One of the biggest reasons people fail at trucking (and a lot of people do fail) is that they have unrealistic expectations concerning the career. I don't know what you are thinking. You may be thinking that the high driver demand will make it easy for you to find a job. You may possibly be thinking this job is easy. After all, it is just driving. Anybody can drive! You may even be thinking it would just be cool to drive a big rig for a little while to earn a little money on the side. I don't know how you are approaching this. I do know this career takes a huge commitment of time and energy. It is not something that people do for a side hustle. If you are going to get into it then do it with gusto. Don't decide you know better than seasoned veterans at this. Don;t cut corners. Don't blackball yourself from success at trucking. Success at trucking comes with a price. The price is a great deal of commitment. I don't see much of that in your plan.

Why You Don't Want To Start Your Trucking Career As A Local Driver

Thank you to all that have replied. I appreciate every ones advice and comments. I will definitely take everything said to heart.