Profile For Dan H.

You can try going directly to companies' websites that offer training. Some of the training may not be "free" but there shouldn't be upfront costs for you and often come with a contract (must work for them for x years or they charge you).

Another idea is to check with local community colleges and see if they have a CDL program and if they offer financial assistance.

Well, nearly a month into my new truck driving job, and I FINALLY drove a truck! It was probably only about a mile, but still counts. It was nice to get out and go up and down the gears to remind myself I still can. 😂

The last month has been busy, though it has mostly been training. The company I work for is an environmental company and we primarily go pick up (or clean up) non-hazardous waste from different manufacturers. So, I have been doing OSHA training, MSHA Training, HAZWOPER 40 training (not quite finished yet) as well as a ton of site-specific training as well. I find the jobs we do pretty interesting as well as enjoy it being an active job. About the longest drive most guys do is about 3 hours to our headquarters/water treatment plant, though I know the guys that are assigned to tankers will go farther.

And that brings me to a drawback of the job, and that is most of the trucks we have are straight trucks that we slip seat. As far as combination rigs, there is one dry van we use to haul universal waste, and one tanker that isn't OFFICALLY assigned, however, there is only one driver that ever uses it. So it is a little disappointing that my opportunities to drive A truck are limited, as it would be nice to be building that experience just for the resume's sake.

I mentioned it's an active job, and that hit me hard last Monday. We were working on a job site with a heat index of 106 degrees. I was helping with the vactruck and, as a new employee, trying to not be a burden and help where I could. I was also trying to drink water the best I could, but within the first couple hours of the job, my jeans and shirt we soaked with sweat and I began feeling nauseous, and then vomited.

I thought maybe I had just drank to much water and/or was too active, and I took a break in the shade, drank more water, and then vomited again when I tried going back to work. Long story short, I ended up getting 5 liters of fluid through an IV and an overnight stay in the hospital from heat exhaustion and acute kidney injury. Definitely a wakeup call to be mindful of heat stress and hydration!

I also have to give my company a lot of credit. When the supervisor saw my puking, he called the shop for a ride, and my safety guy took me to the hospital when my symptoms didn't improve. The company also seems really committed to making changes to ensure that there aren't other heat injuries in the future.

Mishap aside, I have really enjoyed the last month. It's been a great change of pace being outside of the classroom. I will admit that even tonight as I write this, I still get a little anxiety about not having prepared my lesson or graded papers this weekend. Hopefully that goes away quickly!

Happy birthday young man!

Congrats! Get that paper!

I officially start tomorrow at Shamrock Environmental! So last week was all the pre-employment stuff. Last Monday was the physical, which was THOROUGH. I don't know how much was just the hazmat physical and how much was just the company, but I had the normal dot physical, blood drawn, audio test, multiple vision tests, a respirator test, a chest X-Ray, an EKG, lifting tests, as well as the drug test. Apparently, it is also a yearly thing as well.

So, my company got my results back Wednesday and quickly enrolled me in OSHA training on Thursday and an Orientation on Friday. I let that night for Greensboro (they put me in a hotel again) and had OSHA training at 7am. That actually wasn't too bad, we finished the class by noon-thirty and I passed the computer test with a 98%. What was disappointing/surprising was that I had two additional video courses for companies that contract with Shamrock. I passed those and finally walked out of the building by 3:30 pm.

Friday was orientation at Shamrock in Greensboro. It was 8am to 11:30, and was mostly just paperwork. I had to fill out at least 10 different State's W4's. I guess there's a chance we may end up on projects in other states and would have to pay state taxes in those states. Do OTR guys have to do that? We also went over benefits, I was given PPE, and then I tried on the uniform we have to wear. I'm not looking forward to this summer's heat/humidity, as the uniforms are very think material and long-sleeve. I was told this was for safety, for example, if acid splashed on a sleeve it would give me time to get the shirt off and not have the acid on my skin. Finally, they gave me an address to a boot-store and told me to get a pair on my way home. They covered the lion's share of my boot cost, which was awesome.

All in all, I'm excited to get started. I'm also very nervous about starting something that is nearly completely new, definitely experiencing some "impostor syndrome."

Currently sitting at my desk at school on what is my official last day! It is kind of bitter sweet, I have gotten a lot of compliments and I-will-miss-you-s the last few days. I will say that the adults in the building have been wonderful to work with, but--as I keep saying--I'm excited to not have to argue with 12-year-olds.

Monday I am going to Greensboro for my Hazmat Physical and drug test. I'm assuming all goes well (I have a prescription of allopurinol for gout, surely that isn't a banned substance?), and I will be doing training in Wilmington next Wednesday and Orientation back in Greensboro Friday. I also had to laugh because one of the emails said something to the effect of "if you're currently employed, do not give notice until you get the physical results." I found that funny since I put in my notice over a month ago.

By all appearances, the company I'm going to work for appears to be a pretty quality company. They are putting me up in a hotel Sunday night in Greensboro. I was also told to keep a log of my mileage and they would reimburse me. I'm excited to get going!

I would call local CDL schools, especially any CC's that had simulators and ask. I would agree with Davy A though, that ATS was a better sim compared to my schools $100,000 machine. It was only better in that the shifter would grind and not go into gear and the roads in the sim were not as forgiving as they are in ATS.

I'm in a similar place as you. I graduated CDL school on April 14th, and will start my new job on June 17th, and I'd like to get some time behind the wheel in-between but haven't come up with a solution as of yet. If we had a truck wash close, I thought about putting out an add offering to drive people's rigs in and wash them. 😂

Exciting update: I'm hired! (ish)

At the end of March I had applied for a CDL-A HAZWOPER job that was home daily and hourly pay that I got excited about. The recruiter emailed me back and she basically said once I had my CDL in hand they'd be interested (As stated above, I have some experience on manual transmissions from the farm, and I already had passed all my endorsement tests). In April, I emailed back once I had passed my skills test but mentioned I was planning on finishing the school year out and she told me to check back in once we were closer to the end of school.

A week ago, she reached back out to me and said they'd like to schedule an interview for last Wednesday, which I obliged. I didn't really quite know how to prepare for a trucking interview, so I did some googling which really only had questions/answers for more OTR type jobs. I kind of prepared for the few google questions that I thought would fit a Home-Daily job as well as "Tell me about yourself" and "Why do you want to work here?" Other than those, I basically figured I would win them over with my natural charm. 😂

When I arrived, the manager seemed like a pretty cool dude, he was very chill and conversational. All my preparation was for not as most of the interview was just the manager telling me about the position and trying to convey the more difficult aspects of it. When he asked how much I expected to make, I just told him on the lower end of the range I saw posted to Indeed. He scoffed and said "No you wont, it will be higher." He went on to say he finds it easier to just pay people up front so they stick around. In the end, he said he was going to make me an offer, gave me his card and said call him if I needed anything.

So now I'm talking with the recruiter about setting up a date for the physical and drug test. She also mentioned an OSHA course in her email. I tried calling her late Friday to discuss it, but I didn't get ahold of her. I'm hoping to take care of as much of the pre-hire stuff as possible before I start in June.

Based on the willingness to hire a new CDL holder, the length of time the job has been open/number of positions being hired I assume it really is a difficult job. However, I'm excited for the opportunity, and at least from talking to the manager, it seems like a pretty solid company to work for. It checks a lot of the boxes I've been looking for, they have manual trucks, and the napkin math for my wage also gets me close to what I was hoping for. I can definitely see myself working at this company for awhile if everything lines up. If not, I think having the experience of the Tanker/Hazmat hauling would be a big resume booster for potential future positions.

Well, I officially put in my resignation from the school yesterday and told those that I was the closest to that I'm not coming back next year. Even though I am very excited to begin a new career, it definitely was a scary moment--especially considering I don't currently have a job lined up. While my principal was definitely surprised by my decision (she stated she couldn't picture seeing me at a truck stop) many of my coworkers were more than understanding.

I have been searching Indeed and some of my target companies' websites nearly daily, but haven't put in too many applications as of yet. As I've stated before, I want to finish out the school year before transitioning to a new career and the first day I could actually go to work for a new company would be June 17th, so still over a month away. That being said, I still find a few jobs here or there that excite me enough to put in an application. Most have been outright rejected, though a vacuum trucking job was interested and wanted to talk, but closer to when I could actually start.

I'm still hopeful I can get a home daily gig off the rip. If it gets closer to June 17th, I will probably start applying to OTR jobs. I know I am already pushing my start date too far off my CDL School graduation and I would hate to end up having to pay for a refresher course.

I'm new myself, so I don't have any answers.

You will get more though if you post to the general discussion board if you already haven't. That board gets more traffic than this one.