Lots Of Experience, Now Have To Start All Over!

They have a training program, too.

Cypress was the first one I checked out, good regional company with the training available, they were interested in me, but sadly, they have no pet policy.

Prime is a wonderful company, so I've been told. I know they have some of the highest training pay and starting pay in the business and so many different divisions so there's lots of opportunity there.

You may not have thought about Stevens Transport. I don't know much about them, except my nephew got his start there and said they treated him extremely well and their school was good. He lives in Florida too. He only left to enter into a business partnership with his uncle/my brother in law. My brother in law works as a supervisor for FL Dept of agriculture, but also farms, in addition to a couple other businesses, and opened a portable building business. Lol, my sister is high maintenance and expensive to keep. He needed someone with a CDL-A to haul and deliver the buildings so he set my nephew up with a 3 year guaranteed contract, leased a hotshot setup for him and assisted in him getting his own operating authority and incorporating. He said if he didn't care for it, hed go back OTR.. and if he liked it, they'd renew his contract. He has another year to decide on this first round. Anywho he ran coast to coast with Stevens and always got 3k+ miles/week.

Will be checking Steven's out too, thanks

I have a friend who ran Marten dedicated from FL GA and SC and back. i dont recall the weekly pay but IMO it was a nice figure. She only drove days cause she hates night driving and had pretty much a set schedule. Give them a call.

Does anyone know if Marten does CDL schooling??

Michael, I got on here too late to jump on your servantood comment. I'm glad you took the corrective posts in a good way.

Your 25 years of experience means you will ace all the backing training (where you can help the really new students). But too much has changed since you last drove. F'rinstance, most new drivers don't know what ICC means.

Also two examples i know from personal experience, to show you are in good company. A Swift Mentor instructor had to take 6 months off to care for a sick family member. Returning to Swift, he had to take the training course again. (Sure, he blew through the whole thing in a week, but he had to get that ticket punched.)

Also, a guy who spent 11 years in the Army managing a motor pool had to take the class. But I wish I could have videoed his pre-trip inspection - it was a thing of beauty to watch him perform it with military precision. But still 4 weeks in the academy.

Suck it up, Bro, the CDL course will get you updated and should otherwise be a breeze. Many people don't mind sticking with the first company for the year to pay it back. I started with Swift, and stayed for four years, with no complaints.

Michael, I don't know your age or physical condition. At 50,I was tired of being in pain every day to make a buck. When looking into trucking, I had zero interest in flatbed, and didn't know those boxes being pulled down the road had any difference. On this site I found the difference between refer and dry van. I ended up going to CFI for paid training and haven't looked back. I am now a finisher with them and make more money with no pain. I love pulling dry van. As far as OTR driving goes, I wouldn't leave CFI.

With all that said if you are still "crazy" enough to go flatbeding, then go to a company like Prime. They have an excellent training program and a flatbed division. Yes, I respect flatbedders for their "craziness", they are doing something totally cool that I have no desire to do.

I had a couple of people come through the CDL school I was at who were renewing a CDL. They had a lot to learn and were more frustrated then us newbies. Best of luck to you.