OK, why will a company hire a complete newbie for there training program that has absolutely no experience?
But, they won't take someone who has 5 years of local experience for the same training program?
All I would like Is for someone to explain this lame policy to me.

 

it is called the insurance company. the newbie just came out of an accredited school and will be assigned a trainer by the company to teach him/her. most big companies do not take local experience as OTR and somebody like yourself that knows how to drive will probably not subject yourself to a six week training program in the cab of a truck with another driver so the newbie wins out plus they can pay the newbie a lot less money

 

Most otr companies will not accept local work as experience and I believe xl is right insurance is the key. Plus they do not know if you can handle the mental part of being away from home and being in areas that you are not familiar with. I drove local for a while years ago and otr is a whole different animal

 

Why would a newbee have a better understanding of being away from home or not getting lost know more than a local driver who has tractor trailer experience.?

kc0iv

 

Newbies are eager to learn and locals do a lot of deliveries in a day but may not understand the grinds of driving hundreds of miles everyday,dealing with strange docks constantly finding parking ect... I do not agree with the standard but this is why I believe things are handled like they are. My suggestion is to do some research and find a company that will hire you otr with little or no training and get some time under your belt then you will have more choices...Best of luck.

 

Having done both for several years I really didn't see the difference. I could see the dock thing if a local drove a route.

But I did pull containers when I drove local. I saw all kinds of docks with all kinds of trailers in some towns that only God knew where they were. I drove around 1500 miles per week.

As far as newbee drivers. I think the single biggest problem is for them is they don't have a clue what OTR driving is really like. They are thinking a 8-5 job weekend off. Pull off anytime they want to get a byte to eat. Pretty much do what they want when ever they want.

They are not being told the true facts from both the schools and the recruiter. I'm convinced the turn-over rate would be a lot less if these two groups were more straight foward with what they are telling would be drives.

Off my soap box.

kc0iv

 

We hire experienced local drivers all the time and take them into our training program. There MUST be more to it than this. How is your DAC, your MVR, your credit rating, your criminal history etc??? If you are a "clean slate" with nothing objectionable in your past, I see NO REASON why you couldn't work for TMC.

 

There is NOT more to it than that. I know, I've been facing the exact same problem. 10 yrs prior experience, been off the road since '97 and recently closed my business and was looking to jump back into a rig. I couldn't find any companies that would hire me because of my layoff regardless of my past experience. Not one. They told me they'd love to have some one with my experience but their insurance company wouldn't insure me because I didn't have RECENT experience in the last 3 years or I wasn't a recent graduate student, so they couldn't hire me. I probably heard that answer from no less than 50 companies. The insurance companies run the trucking industry and Splitter has experienced the same problem with that as I have. And I thought it was just me and my bad stretch of luck I've been having. It is a really lame policy no doubt about it.

 

Are you willing to take a "CDL refresher class"? It's usually 2 weeks long and barring any problems, that should get you "in".

 

2 weeks for a refresher class? I could see maybe 4 or 5 days but 2 weeks? I'm not interested at this time in going OTR anymore or being gone a week or two at a time unless your paying me a min of $1000k a week and I know that isn't happenin these days without sacrificing and killing myself by not showering, not sleeping, barely having time to eat just to run the wheels off the truck to make that kind of money. Alot of guys are doing that for ALOT less than that and their nuts IMO.

I understand TMC is a good company but not what I'm looking for right now. Plus after my less than stellar CDL tests my head just isn't in the game enough right now to go to some 2 week refresher course to relearn what I did 20 years ago or how to do the new log book correctly so I can learn how to cheat legitimally. Right now I'd rather sell sweatshirts on a street corner and probably make alot more money with alot less hassle.