Well here goes. If like me you have been looking through all the trucker forums goggle could muster, trying to see if this career is for you check in once in a while and I hope this will help.
After weeks of searching and reading there seemed to be a common line of thinking on the forums; all large companies are just out to rip the drivers off, all load dispatchers have driven only a desk and have no idea how to actually help a driver make miles or even find where to un load the truck, and we just won't even get into the single digit IQ of the trainers. Well I don't know about you but when things are either all negative or all positive it usually turns out to be just way biased opinion of few that may or may not be true. Than I ran across the diaries of papa bear who was a newbie for Schneider and cool breeze who was going through training with Swift. Good reads giving the good bad and frustrating of working with their companies. Like all jobs, some things bad some things good and the attitude you take to the job basically determine what you get out of the job. So I made up my mind to do the same if I decided to go through with trucking.
What brings me to Trucking? I am 50 years old, and have not one but three education degrees. B.S.E. M.A. and D.I.T. that last one stand for Doctorate of Industrial Technology. Well I worked for a government agency for 11 years helping fifteen different school districts develop course work for their kids that would meet requirements of feds and state officials, when "No Child Left Behind" came into being, the state agency I worked for decided everyone needed to be credentialed as reading or math. So the history guy and I had our position eliminated. No offer of retraining, no golden parachute, not even a Kleenex. Add a divorce that was not a nice one two years earlier, and wanting to stay around the southeast corner of Iowa to be in my youngest sons life when needed and I have survived on minimum wage and less jobs for three years. I have run through all my savings and retirement in the last three years, so this is a total career and life change for me. Starting over from zero is an adequate description of my situation.
I have always liked driving, thought this might be an interesting career, and now with nothing to keep me tied to Iowa, trucking seemed like a fit. My son is now 15, and understands that dad needs to make a living and is supportive of my career change. I did apply to Schneider but they said I did not meet their requirements for a steady work history. I have held three jobs in the last three years. I am now in one of the largest towns in Iowa, Des Moines and there are lots of folks that will let me feel out an application, but than look at it and say "why are you applying with us?" Seems schools would rather higher new grads at half the money they would need to pay me in order to meet the union scale contract. So, Monday I start my training with CRST, the gold Internationals and Freight Liners you see, who are based out of Cedar Rapids Iowa. Why them? Because it was within commuting distance of where I live and they would train me at no cost. I will verify the terms Monday and up date this post, as to the honesty of the recruiter. I have been told that the only charge to me will be the cost of the DOT Physical and the License fee itself. In Iowa that amounts to around $150. I will be committed to working for 6 months to pay back my loan, which is a good deal shorter than most training companies, but I will be working at a, shall we say modest income until the training period is completed. Does that make CRST on of the bad guys taking advantage of a guy in a bad situation? Not in my book. Makes them a smart business that is willing to give a guy a chance in return I get to prove to them I can be there best driver in a short time, fair trade in my book. I will arrive at the CRST terminal for orientation, dot drug testing and physical on Monday. The rest of the training is to take place on the Kirkwood Community College truck driving range.
WHY CRST: applied, learned how to word the app. From Schneider, and the recruiter calls. He and the company have no problem with my work history considering the circumstances I described and would love to have me work with them. So that?s how I fell into a new career with an established company. Scared, you bet, well apprehensive any way, anxious to get on with it yep. Oh yea, literally arriving with an empty gas tank and no money, none, not kidding. Lucky for me I have a friend that is willing to put me up and feed me during training. Hey, if you cant much from a friend once in a while who can you much off of?