I'm 25 Years Old Wanting To Get Into The Trucking Industry

Topic 33811 | Page 1

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Lang W.'s Comment
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I'm determined to get into the trucking industry and do otr driving I'm about to go to a school next week but my only worries are I have 2 misdemeanors a theft of property charge and a possession of marijuana charge both 6 years old,is there any chance I can get a otr driving job before I waste money?

OTR:

Over The Road

OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.

ID Mtn Gal's Comment
member avatar

Oh boy! You need to keep your money because those schools only guarantee that you get your CDL and that's it.

It will be tough for you to get a job with the drug charge. There will be many companies no matter how old that drug charge is won't have anything to do with you. Many companies require five to 10 years of being clean. The other incident of theft of property is still a concern but there will be companies that are forgiving of that.

Instead, I would talk with companies that train drivers and then keep them on after training with a job because they will have vetted those two incidents ahead of time. Below I will have some links that you need to read and hopefully you can proceed forward in getting your CDL.

I thought we had some links on having to get your CDL with a record, but I don't see them right off hand. Hopefully some of the guys will be along and can post them for you so you can read up on what it will take. It won't be easy in this economy but if you're persistent and show that you learn your lesson and you've been clean, it might not be as hard to get on with the company. You will get a lot of "No's" so don't get discouraged.

Laura

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

  • Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
  • Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
  • Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
  • Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
RealDiehl's Comment
member avatar

I will second what ID Mtn Gal said. Apply for company sponsored training. If they accept you into their training program you can be certain your past is not an issue. Just be honest with them when applying. You don't want them to discover something you failed to disclose and get sent home for it.

Company Sponsored Training:

A Company-Sponsored Training Program is a school that is owned and operated by a trucking company.

The schooling often requires little or no money up front. Instead of paying up-front tuition you will sign an agreement to work for the company for a specified amount of time after graduation, usually around a year, at a slightly lower rate of pay in order to pay for the training.

If you choose to quit working for the company before your year is up, they will normally require you to pay back a prorated amount of money for the schooling. The amount you pay back will be comparable to what you would have paid if you went to an independently owned school.

Company-sponsored training can be an excellent way to get your career underway if you can't afford the tuition up front for private schooling.

BK's Comment
member avatar

Totally agree with the previous comments.

Additionally, I’d like to mention a slightly different approach to this issue because it seems we get so many inquiries from individuals who made mistakes in the past but want to become drivers.

There are entry level driving jobs where a small company might send someone with a checkered past to a school so they can do specific driving. Not that it is easy to find such a company or opportunity, but they do exist.

Case in point: when I went to CDL school, my classmate was a young man who had gotten in some serious trouble related to substance abuse. He got a job with a recycling company that needed a driver to make a daily run to another facility and back again. This was all intrastate driving. So they sent him to this school to get his license and drive for them. He was like many who inquire here with past issues. He wouldn’t have been accepted for company training with a company like Prime or Swift or Schneider, etc., but this little niche job gave him a start and an opportunity to rehabilitate himself. So sometimes if a person has the desire and determination they can get a toe-hold as a driver by seeking out a less demanding company and then climb the ladder from there.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

  • Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
  • Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
  • Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
  • Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

Intrastate:

The act of purchasers and sellers transacting business while keeping all transactions in a single state, without crossing state lines to do so.

Trucker Kearsey 's Comment
member avatar

Cancel school. By the time you find a job, your schooling will be worthless and you will have to go through training again.

My company requires 10 years from sentence completion date... not date of conviction.

Errol V.'s Comment
member avatar

Lang, you're not the only person with "a record" that wants to get into trucking. We do have some helpful information.

First, you can ask our Answer Bot, Jimmy, who might get you more information than you asked for. Just copy/paste your question from above into Jimmy's entry box and here it comes!

Or you can go the old fashioned way and look here: Trucking Companies That Will Hire Felons.

Good luck!

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