My CDL is still current but I haven't driven a truck since 1999. I am wondering if some of the carriers who offer training will be willing to hire me and send with out with a trainer or will I be required to attend a refresher course? I understand the Hours Of Service regs have been tweeked a bit since then but shifting and bumping docks seems like it would come back to me rather quickly. Anyone have any experience with a similar situation?

 

At a minimum I'd do a forty hour refresher if a school in your area offers it. The best answer will be from a carrier you're looking to hook up with and what their answer/recommendation is. BOL

 

if you got your CDL through a good school call them up and they might give you a refresher if you have a pre hire letter for free

 

Many thanks for the advice. I suppose each carrier might have a different answer for me. I don't really have the extra spending cash to enroll in a school at this time. I wonder if reimbursement is offered for refreshers the same as recent graduates. I did get my CDL from the local technical college before even submitting applications, which I think is the best way to go as apposed to being indebted to repay a company for their training if things don't work out the first year for whatever reason.
After all this time I still feel the tug of the highway :wink:

 

On occasion I get this type of request from people who have not driven for a while.

My recommendation is usually that they come in and take an Air Brakes course, take a pretrip course, and then we take them out for for an assessment.

the assessment is always just the tractor. We can tell from there how they have retained what they had from before. Mostly what we look for is how they think, not so much how they drive. I don't need a trailer on for that and it tends to make the person more nervous.

That usually takes us no more than an hour.

After that we design for them what they need for the job they want. Also, from this point on, the trailer is on the back of the tractor.

As there is no MV road test at the end, we don't have to aim that at that and can focus more clearly on "Real World" driving.

I have tuned some up in as little as 6 hours, but never have taken longer than 20.

It really depends on how much driving you did before and how focused you are on what you are doing when in the truck.