Same old question

Paddyirishman

New Member
Hello everyone, have enjoyed reading the posts here.

I have just moved here from Ireland and although i haven't driven OTR for about 3 years at home i have been driving trucks pretty consistently since i was 18 (British military). I was trained in the military as a heavy diesel mechanic and although i enjoyed that and continued with it for a while, the driving was where the money was at the time and i love to move.

Now i know from people i have asked that my previous experience in Ireland, England and Europe will be relatively worthless here and my license is as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. So i am headed back to school or a CDL mill sometime soon. I am pretty sure that the enlightened (not) dispatchers and fleet managers in Ireland cant be any better than here, and i was out 4 - 6 weeks OTR at home (that last ferry to Dublin was like a mirage). So all in all i have no illusions about trucking, i have driven junk trucks and good trucks in good and bad conditions on autobahns and over the Alps and Pyrenes, my bar was never high when it came to driving.

My question is (and i'm sure you have heard this one before) what is my best route to sitting behind the wheel of that VN 780. I did have a DUI 8 years ago at home and have had 1 bobtail accident 11 years ago which was minor and no other parties involved. Should i go to a school, go to a CDL mill or what else?

Any feedback you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time and keep her between the hedges.

Warren
 
Well, first off, I don't think I would mention your DUI or accident from Ireland. I may be wrong, but I don't think that can be checked here in the United States.

Yes, your experience is worthless. With 3 years off the road, even if your experience was in the United States, it would still be worthless.

I think the best way to go right now is finding a company that will send you to school. Don't expect the job to be great, but stick it out for a year (or whatever their contract requires) and move on if you don't like that company. Not a whole lot of companies out there right now that are hiring, but there are a few options.
 
I haven't been off the road for 3 years, just no OTR in 3 years. Having said that the European experience is still worthless though.

I was looking at Swift, and i have read all the criticism of them and i don't expect to make big bucks anytime soon. Yeah i won't be mentioning the Dui, it isn't even on my irish license so all good, although i did hear somewhere that CA requires a 10 yr driving history although that may be a form to fill out.

Thanks for your reply, do you know any decent companies in Nor Cal that train?
 
Over here, it it OTR that matters. Being a local driver means little to most of the companies here who run OTR. I never really understood why, but that is just the way it is. But yeah, being that your experience is from Ireland makes it all fairly useless here. Not completely useless though because companies here may verify employment still from those jobs you had over there.

This my opinion, but I would avoid SWIFT as much as possible. Don't completely mark them off the list, but use them as a last resort. You will be sent out with a trainer no matter who you go out with, and this company has a bad reputation regarding their training. I have personally ran across some of their trainers, and they had little to no experience themselves. I would have never gotten into a truck with a couple of these guys.

Being in California, you might consider KLLM if you are interested in pulling a reefer. Last I checked, they were taking on students, and they have plenty business in the produce industry. Another option, if they hire drivers out of California, is Stevens Transport. Again, this is a company that does quite a bit of business in the produce industry out of California.

Another company to look at, and I don't know their hiring policy regarding students and/or training is IWX (Indian Western Express). From what I remember, they have some driver that run strictly in California who bring produce out to Arizona and drop it for the long haul drivers. They may also have drivers who run these loads to their destination.

Being in Sacramento, produce hauling is likely your best avenue for employment.
 
Thank you for the company names, i have a lot of experience with reefers, some produce, mainly hanging beef and lambs and frozen goods. Always found i got good miles with reefers, we gotta eat.
 

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