hi all,
retired in june after 30 years in telephone construction. still a young 54 years old and cant sit home. i have had my CDL A for alot of years been driving heavy duty trucks, trailering poles and equipment my whole life. spotless license no tickets, no accidents,no drugs no booze and a current D.O.T medical card. now i know i dont have any recent experience driving a tractor trailer but i have driven them in the past and felt very comfortable doing it. so i guess my question is how in the hell are you supposed to get experience if no one will take a chance on you?? after a company road test of course.do i have to go to driving school? just a bit confused here. thanks.

You will have to probably have to go to at least a refresher course to get anyone to pay attention to you. Unless you have recent experience and or a load of experience in the industry most companies really cannot hire you. There is a glut of experience drivers out there who take the primo jobs.. so the new drivers have to head for the "megas" or risk damaging themselves driving for some pirate outfit.

If you have had a clean CDL for several years and experience driving 18 wheelers, you might find a company that will hire you without having to go through additional training. You might need to work with a trainer for a short time due to the lack of over the road experience. There have been many who have started in this business with no experience that are into their sixties. The mega carriers may want to see more recent otr experience. A smaller carrier might be more willing to give you a chance without a lot of training.

whether local, regional or national, OTR companies won't consider any non-OTR experience, even though you are using a class A license, and driving heavy equipment.
Unless you find a O/O who will train you, a school is your best option.

I've been driving for the same company for close to 9 years, in that time I put about 1.3 million safe miles behind me. BUT all those miles are on a dedicated run inside NY state, some companies might look at that and say I need more experience and training!
Sucks but that's the way it is. A refresher course may be what you need , ask a few prospective companies.

thanks for the reply's.

Doyle, what area of the country do you live? Someone might know of a company or owner you could contact. You might also check the company listing on this forum.