Initially I started typing up a nice long blog about how things had gone for me with regards to work between June of 2020 and August of 2021 but it was getting a bit long and full of me ranting about a certain employer in the retail sector that I worked for from September 2020 to August of 2021 before decided that I just couldn't do it anymore and had to find something else. I had made the decision to get out months before but just didn't know how what to do at first so it stretched on a bit while I figured things out.
One thing I knew was that after working 23 years in an office environment (over half of my life) and then nine months in furniture sales... I did not want to go back to either even though I could make good money back in an office.
When you are looking for a job people always ask what you want to do for a living. Apparently 'Trust Fund Baby' or professional athlete aren't positions that I am currently qualified for so I had to really think about it because I was lost. I knew I wanted to do something where I could see the benefit of my work which I rarely had in my office life despite having experience across multiple areas. I had that in the retail world but that only when the furniture was available to actually deliver to the customer (and we were paid on commission with only minimum wage for 40 hours a week guaranteed while we were working 50+ hours) and working weekends and holidays was not something I wanted to keep doing for barely minimum wage. I would have loved to get into construction or another trade but at 43, I don't think I would have been physically up to the challenge even if I were to go and get the proper training.
One of the things that I regret from my 23 years with the same company was that even though I had five weeks of vacation every year by the end, I never used more than a week of it. I was making good money and had the vacation time to travel and see the country and/or world but I never took advantage of it. As I thought about that along with wanting to know that when I was actually accomplishing something that contributed to society, I started seeing ads trying to recruit Class A CDL drivers and hearing about the shortage of drivers so for six months I had that though rattling around in my head. I continued to look for other positions that interested me but I just kept going back to finally seeing the country, even if only from the highway, while helping to keep the economy going. It also doesn't hurt that you can make a lot of money driving.
I made my initial contact with the company I am now working for in January of 2021 but still held off and did more research for awhile until I finally made the decision and made that fateful call in the middle of July. Within a matter of a couple of calls and talking to recruiter and then other representatives of the company, I chose my start date for training and it has been a heck of a ride since then.
The ups and downs as well as the experiences and people that I've met since I decided to start this new career/adventure are the reason that I decided to start this site. I had heard so many different things both good and bad about the industry that it was a bit hard to really know what was true and what wasn't. Thankfully I've met some great people along the way who have really helped me get to this point along with a few who have set great examples of what NOT to do. I'm grateful for them all and in the spirit of those who have been so willing to help me the past few months, I plan on sharing all of those experiences on here for anybody who might be interested in my perspective and hopefully if somebody interested in a career as a driver finds this site they will find what I post here helpful.
I don't know exactly how often I will be able to post updates but I'm going to try and post them as much as possible. For the next few days I will likely have a lot of down time so I am going to try and post as much as I can about the actual recruiting process and getting on board with a company to pay for your CDL training to the actual training itself (which I am now learning varies wildly so there are definitely things to look out for) and then on to the experience of getting on the road with your new employer for the first time. Of course the experiences with each company vary widely too but I will share what I have heard about other companies in addition to my own experiences to try and help know what to look for, what you might want and what questions to ask.
I will probably also post randomly about other things too because that's just what I do. My mind is running in six different directions half of the time and I tend to ramble. That should be obvious to you by this point if you are still reading though.
One thing I will not do is mention any actual names of companies for the most part. I may mention the name of the actual training school I went to because I have nothing negative to say about them at all. After my first week here with my new employer, I have really come to appreciate the things that they taught me and how they went about it. I feel like myself and the other two students who went to the same school I did showed up here well ahead of most of the other new drivers but I'll get into why I say that in a later post. I'm still on the fence as to whether I mention the actual name of the school directly in any post though.
I want to provide information that is hopefully helpful to anybody considering this career but at the same time, I don't want to influence somebody to make a decision that isn't right for them just because I had a great or terrible experience or directly trash any company that I have not had a direct experience with based on my perceptions... plus nobody is paying me to try and direct people to their school or company although I am willing to listen to offers. But seriously, if you consider this line of work, you have to do your own research because your needs/personality/likes/dislikes and all of that are not the same as mine. We are most certainly in different points in our life with regards to just about every aspect. You have to make the right decision for yourself and that might be completely different than what's right for me which is OK.