Well, i have looked through every single one of the 74 trucking companies listed on cad for tx. The recurring problem i see in every single one, is thst i am under 21. I am 19 as of july 31 and have been looking for a trucking company in tx to transition to, as i will be moving there. i will be moving to harlingen, tx in august. basically i am in need of a company that has intrastate runs, without hazmat.

These are my "credentials" :

I graduated from Alexandria Technical College in December 2007
I am 19 years old as of July 31, 2008
I have airbrake, doubles/triples/ and tanker endorsements.
I have about 8 months and 17, 500 miles at the time of this posting.

any help is appreciated.

-mike

 

Maybe you could get some sort of rock box or dump truck run but the biggest thing is going to be your age.

Look at it from their perspective - lots of guys wanting to get off a 48 state run to be local ish and is older and has more miles. Plus being in TX I can imagine they will have and need people to go into La, Ok or Nm with loads - need to be 21 for that.....

 

Getting a driving job under 21 will be a challenge, mostly due to insurance requirements. There are a lot of growers around your area. The rules can be a little more flexible when driving farm equipment. Dumps are also an option. You may also take a look at driving a straight truck. It may not help you when you are looking for OTR, but it will give you some driving experience.

 

yea im driving a dust bin (grain trailer) right now...idk, i was kinda hoping to get out of driving these, but as my teacher said i was really gonna have to "pay my dues", even more so than other student drivers. a couple of other credentials i forgot to put in the list:


-Crystal Clear Driving record(amazingly )
-took a 8 hour defensive driving course...

[rant]it really sux that insurance companies can get away with discrimination supposedly legally, for example, i can drive truck equally as well if not better than many people twice my age can, yet insurance companies will insure them over me many times, in a heartbeat...


it irks my instructor as much as it does me...same goes for the state line and hazmat thing[/rant]

 

I agree and I'm in the same boat, but hopefully this company will hire me to drive a truck for them. I do know they haul grain and not sure what else but it's year round work.

 

pt 2

[rant]also the worst part, us under 21 drivers could petitoin the government all we want, but they arent gonna do chit! y u ask? cause they dont give a hoot! once again u may ask y. becuase to most of them, we truckers are just a large moving road hazard that is burning up the worlds oil! thats y they are trying to even reduce our hours, its not that they care about the crashes, injuries and deaths dont affect them a bit! government sux, PERIOD! any government is destined to fail, y because they really dont care about the people. all they care about is lining ther wallets! i believe that the people should govern themselves...we should have just nuked the entire mideast off the map and took the oil for ourselves, then we wouldnt have had to lose ANY of our troops! im gonna stop here for now, but this snowballs out...[/rant]

 

hey i know how u feel chub... i wanted to drive since i was a kid and i thought once i got 18 i would be straight... graduate and go str8 to truck driving school and be shifting gears in no time... but it didnt work out that way.. its just how it is man, like right now i would love to go drive for TMC right out of school but i can't due to their insurance regulations being 23.. its just how it is man but if your driving a truck now hauling grain keep it!! just wait until you turn 21 and if you have 2 years experience run with it!! trust me most of these guys on here would love to have your local job!!

 

i just figgured i would put that out there...it just irks me a bit...lol

 

Hawk is right on the head, if I get this job hauling grain I'm gonna keep it and it'll be experience on my part. May not be over the road but atleast it'll be experience and will benefit me in the short and long run.

 

Grain hauling builds character. I did it for 7 years, and hated every minute of it.