Old Man Leaves Six-Figure Salary To Begin Training As A Trucker- Psychiatric Evaluation Pending

According to this website, I have been lurking on here for nearly 8 years! Where does the time go? I remember when I was a young man of 19-years-o***e, sitting with my wife and a couple of friends after dinner. My friend was an owner-operator and offered to take me under his wing and teach me to be a professional truck driver. We had just had our first (of what would eventually be seven) babies, and despite every fiber of my being wanting to jump at the opportunity, I knew it would not be a good fit for what we hoped would be a large family with lots of kids. I said no. I have been fascinated with heavy equipment, tractors, trucks, and everything in-between since I was a kid growing up on a dairy farm in Ontario. I couldn't care less about livestock, but I loved the smell of diesel. I have been driving tractors and various farm implements since I was 8-years-old. It is only natural that I would gravitate towards tractor-trailers. I have driven dump trucks part-time in Canada, hauling agricultural products on my days off from my real job. I loved every minute of it. But, those tractor-trailers keep calling my name.

I eventually joined the police department in the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, and embarked on a law enforcement career. After 9-years of duty in Southern Ontario, my family relocated to Central Virginia, where my wife's family was located. I worked for the next 15-years in law enforcement in Virginia. After nearly 25-years total in the law enforcement arena, I made a drastic change and became a Technical Trainer for a large communication company, serving police, fire, and military customers with our digital communication system. That has been my job for the past 10-years. Not a day has gone by, that I haven't wondered what would have happened all those years ago if I had taken up my friend on his offer to drive trucks.

Well, that's all ancient history. Here we are in June 2022 and I'm 57-years old. My sweetheart and I are celebrating our 38th anniversary today and we have raised five of our seven boys. The last two boys are 16 and 18. Everyone, including our soon-to-be eighteen grandchildren, are healthy and happy...and life is good.

Except for one little issue. I still can't get the truck driving out of my mind. I'm just a sentimental old fool I guess. Who would consider hiring an old guy with zero experience? Would there be any interest out there? We shall soon see as I quit my very well-paying job yesterday. I can't really explain how all of this transpired, but it probably has something to do with my best friend dropping dead unexpectedly a couple of months ago at the age of 59. When we last met for breakfast he talked of all of his dreams for retirement. He was a very successful businessman, a multi-millionaire who hated what his life had become. He had raised his children and had dreams and plans for a long and happy retirement after slaving away for nearly 40-years building his business which he had grown to despise.

Life has a way of changing your perspective on things. I had planned to ride out my remaining years in a very stressful, low-level management position making good money and being absolutely miserable. But, the money was good. My blood pressure was high, my spirits were low, and I do not like the person that I've become. Yesterday, I did something I've wanted to do every day for the past 14-months. I gave my 2-week notice and signed up at the local Community College to get my CDL! My classes start on June 21. In thanks for all of the fantastic information that I have gleaned from others, I'll start my diary here and we'll see what happens.

It's time to stop lurking on the sidelines. I feel more excited than I have in years...and of course, that could just be the beginning stages of dementia. Let the adventure begin!

My personal thanks to Brett and all of the administrators of this website, who have stoked the dream for all of these years. I have watched (and read) from the sidelines for nearly 8-years now, so I guess it's finally time to step up and see where this adventure will lead...if anywhere.

Hi Steve! Welcome to Trucking Truth. The training diaries aren’t frequented nearly as much as the general discussions category. If you repost this there you’ll get much more responses.

Hi Steve! Welcome to Trucking Truth. The training diaries aren’t frequented nearly as much as the general discussions category. If you repost this there you’ll get much more responses.

Howdy, Steve!!

Welcome (back!) to TT !!

Yeah, I can 'see' if I can contact a mod to 'move' it; easier said than done. Really would be awesome if you could copy & paste in the general, and then just leave THIS one here, so when you get 'settled in' w/ a company, updates would follow!

Some good 'starter' reading, if you haven't already:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road CDL Training Program
• CDL Practice Tests

And, alas: Apply For Paid CDL Training

It's NOT dementia, it's motivation and the forwarding of an unfulfilled dream !!!

Glad to see you following your heart & soul!

~ Anne ~

Thanks for the suggestion. I will copy it into the General Discussion Forum.

I initially intended to take the company-paid training route. I investigated every one of the paid-training links here on TT and carefully weighed the pros/cons of each. I decided to submit my application to the following: Roehl, Schneider, TMC, Swift, Knight, and Maverick. I also applied to the company-sponsored training from Cypress (Jacksonville, FL).

Before I go through the responses and my eventual decision, here are my application details: 57 years old, zero CDL driving experience, clean driving record, no criminal history, excellent credit, excellent health, and already in possession of my CDL Permit and a 2-year DOT Medical Card. Here is a summary of the responses I received:

Roehl-very quick and responsive, with an offer to join their training class in Wisconsin within a couple of weeks. My recruiter was very friendly and professional, answered all of my questions, and understood when I said I was weighing my options and would get back to them. Offer was for dry van OTR.

Swift-very quick and responsive initially and I was very interested because their training is in Richmond, VA, not far from where I live. However, after extending a conditional offer to join their class, the recruiter ghosted me and refused to return my calls, emails, etc. I took that as a "not interested". I called them and emailed them at least ten times but after the initial positive exchanges, they went completely silent.

TMC- No response, despite repeated attempts to contact my assigned recruiter. He didn't return calls or emails. I called the general recruiting line multiple times over several weeks and every time was routed to "Mike", but Mike never picked up and didn't call me back. I am very interested in flatbed and tanker, so TMC was definitely of interest to me. I took this lack of response as a "not interested".

Cypress- very responsive, very professional, and very helpful. They are 100% flatbed and they showed great interest initially. I went through the process and had a great experience with them. However, in the end, they very professionally and politely said that they could not extend me an offer for training at this time. I thanked them for their very professional and respectful process, and I have a very high opinion of the way Cypress runs their recruiting operation.

Schneider-My interest in Schneider is in their tanker division as my ultimate goal once I get enough experience, is to join a local company that hauls either fuel or flatbed. There are multiple great options in those areas here in Central VA. Schneider discontinued their in-house training, so they said they could pay for me to attend a class at one of the schools they are affiliated with. I advised that if I were to go the local school route, I would prefer to just pay for it myself and avoid a contract. They were very professional, informative, and asked me to please contact them when I had my CDL in hand and they would be very interested in hiring me.

Knight- Their recruiter immediately sent me an email, and asked me to call by phone. I did call Tyler about six times over a two-week period and all I received were endless spam emails from Tyler advertising their various opportunities. I texted Tyler, phoned their general recruiting line, emailed Tyler, and phoned Tyler, but to this day I'm not really sure that Tyler is a real person. It's possible he is a bot that simply sends endless spam about Knight. I abandoned my efforts with Knight and blocked Tyler, lest he fill up my email with endless Knight propaganda.

That leaves Maverick. Maverick was near the very top of my favorites list because they are flatbed and seem to have a very good reputation for training. They were very responsive, very professional, and always answered my calls/emails. My recruiter, Jeff Bone, was very friendly, and patiently answered the dozens of questions that I sent his way. After working my way through the process, Maverick extended me an offer to join their class in Little Rock on June 11, 2022. I carefully pondered my decision and had a slight reluctance at the thought of a 27-month contract and the $8,000.00 contract amount. Don't misunderstand me. I've paid far more, for far less training and support than Maverick extends to their students. They pay for food, lodging, and transportation to the class, about $600 to cover expenses during your first couple of weeks while you go through the CDL training. Before I committed, I decided I would do one final check of the local options. That's when I discovered Central Virginia Community College. I'll explain their program in another post as I've hit the limit on this one.

Here is how I ended up choosing Central Virginia Community College, in Lynchburg, VA for training. My class starts June 21, 2022, on the CVCC campus. They partner with Ancora Corporate Training which provides the instructors, equipment, etc. I will keep a day-by-day diary in the "CDL Training Diaries" here on TT.

I had initially checked out CVCC 4-years ago when I almost pulled the trigger on this adventure. At that time, I received a great offer to go back to my corporate job as a Technical Trainer and I opted for the "safe" known, instead of the scary "unknown" of CDL training/driving. I actually had an offer to join TMC 4-years ago to get my CDL but decided to turn it down to return to the corporate (safe) rat race. Perhaps this decision resulted in the lack of interest I received from TMC this time around? I wouldn't blame them. Getting back to CVCC, when I checked 4-years ago, you had to take the training in Roanoke or Charlottesville, which is not that big of a deal as they are only a little over an hour's drive from my location. I used to commute over about 70-mins each way, every day as a police officer in Toronto, so that wasn't really a deal-breaker, just a bit inconvenient.

This time around I called CVCC and they said that as of March 22, they are offering CDL Training on-site here on the Lynchburg campus. I submitted a simple application online which was managed by Ancora. They quickly sent me a start date of June 21, 2022. The course is 4 weeks, 160 hours and the price is $4500. Now, here's the amazing part. Because CDL Drivers are in great demand, Virginia's Workforce Development gives you an instant $3000 grant which reduces the class fee to $1500. There is nothing to do in order to qualify for the grant, just sign up for the class! Then, my CVCC admission counselor asked what county I live in? I replied "Campbell County." "Great!," she replied, "you get another $750 grant from the Tobacco Compensation Fund because you live in a tobacco-producing county." So, my fee to pay the class in full was $750.00. My admissions counselor also signed me up for the VA Ready Program which will pay me $1000 if I successfully complete the program in the 4-week period. Because this $1000 has nothing to do with tuition reimbursement but is rather a single payment for completing an in-demand training program, any company that offers tuition reimbursement will still see my out-of-pocket as $750 which should be repaid. I should note that as part of your fee for the class, Ancora covers the DOT Physical and DOT Drug Test (urine).

I hope this clearly explains the reason I chose CVCC/Ancora for my CDL training. Virginia is certainly making it easy and inexpensive to get your CDL!

Great updates, good sir.

I've replied (proportionately) tp the thread, in 'General.' Dropped a few more options for you.

Wish you the best! Keep updating the CVCC training here, if you can.

(Exciting, isn't it ?)

~ Anne ~

First Week Complete- Ancora Corporate CDL Training through Central Virginia Community College:

This was a short week as Monday was the new Federal Holiday (Juneteenth). Our schedule is 7 am-5:30 pm each day. This is a new program operated by Ancora Corporate Training at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, VA. The school started in March of this year and while it is not yet a well-oiled machine, I was very happy with my first week. Having been a professional trainer for both law enforcement and communication networking in my previous life, I was very interested to see how this training would progress. Overall, I'm very happy with my first week.

They have two trucks (both automatics) which means all students will have an automatic restriction on their CDL. The trucks are older and unfortunately one of the trucks has been in the shop for the past couple of weeks, dropping the available trucks to one. Hopefully, the second truck will be repaired next week when we go out on the range. If a student desires an unrestricted license, CDS Training in Roanoke provides CDL training in manual transmission trucks through the Virginia Western Community College. I'm okay with an automatic restriction, as my career plan is much different than someone starting in their 20s or 30s. If I were at a different stage in my career, I probably would opt for the unrestricted license.

The three instructors (two women and one man) are all ex-drivers and have extensive training experience with other companies. They are all very casual, friendly, and approachable. They are willingly sharing their experiences, both good and bad. This week was all in the classroom, with the exception of a couple of hours on the range. The training materials provided are all from J.J.Keller and Associates.

We had our first recruiter on Thursday from TMC. Since I am very interested in flatbed, I was all ears. The differentiator with TMC seems to be their percentage pay plan (although you can ask for cpm if you desire that), and their Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Since TMC is owned by the employees, each one receives a yearly distribution related to the profits of the company. The proceeds of this account are fully vested after 6 years. TMC's percentage pay is estimated to work out to somewhere between 50 and 60 cpm. Several students expressed their opinion that this was pretty low. This attitude surprised me as I don't know too many jobs that I have worked that provided that kind of compensation to brand new people with no experience. I thought it was a pretty good rate for a rookie driver. There are numerous ways to increase your percentage which rewards drivers who go to extra effort. I asked the recruiter if they have APUs , which is very important to me as a Canadian...who hates heat. I have no issue with sweating when I work, but I'm a true believer that you need to be cool to sleep well. The recruiter said they do have APUs, but this doesn't seem to be the case with many of the drivers who write in forums or record on YouTube. Perhaps the new trucks are being ordered with APUs. The TMC website says they have bunk heaters but makes no mention of APUs. If anyone knows for sure, I'd appreciate confirmation one way or the other.

This week was lots of videos and prep for the Pre-Trip Inspection which seems to have most of our class pretty concerned. Our class is made up of nine people, six men, and three women. Being senior to the rest of the students in the class, I've had the opportunity to observe the younger generation in action. As a professional technical trainer in my previous job, I've learned to read students pretty accurately. In our class, I would say that about 30% of the class are less than serious about this undertaking. Perhaps it is just the classroom that has them bored and uninterested, but I suspect this attitude will carry over onto the driving range. It could be that with all the grant programs and subsidies currently in place, we students don't have as much "skin in the game" as we would if we had all paid the full $4500.00 tuition. Time will tell, but I have been impressed with how the instructors have dealt with some students who have been disrespectful and less than attentive.

The instructors have made it clear that they are teaching directly to the Virginia Dept. of Motor Vehicles CDL test. They have repeatedly told us that we will truly learn trucking over our first years with our first company. At first, I was a bit taken aback by this statement as I typically am not fond of teaching just to pass a test. I find that I tend to forget much of what I learn if my goal is simply to pass a test. However, with 1/4 of the entire class behind me, I can see that there is no way that they can adequately prepare us for every contingency. It is a 4-week, 160-hour sprint to the exam and I will check-in at the end of week 2 with another update.

Overall, thus far, I'm very impressed with the instructors, the training materials, the facilities, and with the operation of a brand new school that is only a couple of months old. I have no doubt that in the future, they will iron out the wrinkles, get more equipment, and expand their course offerings. They indicated that the next course they hope to add is the HAZMAT Training Course.

Pre-trip Inspection:

A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.

Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

HAZMAT:

Hazardous Materials

Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations

CPM:

Cents Per Mile

Drivers are often paid by the mile and it's given in cents per mile, or cpm.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Great read, Steve!

So far, so good, eh?

You might want to look over this pretrip, as you get to that stage of the game:

• Pre-Trip Inspection Study Guide
• Daniel's Pre-Trip Inspection
• Pre-Trip Inspection Checklist
• Pre-Trip Inspection Practice Questions

I'm really not recalling if TMC has APU's or not; it couldn't help to look at some diaries.

Solo, who just went 'office' again, had an EXCELLENT TMC diary, if you want to dig it up.

Another flatbed (training!) company not (yet) on here, is Keim : Keim TS.

Best to you; following!

~ Anne ~

Pre-trip Inspection:

A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.

Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APU's:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Great read, Steve!

So far, so good, eh?

You might want to look over this pretrip, as you get to that stage of the game:

• Pre-Trip Inspection Study Guide
• Daniel's Pre-Trip Inspection
• Pre-Trip Inspection Checklist
• Pre-Trip Inspection Practice Questions

I'm really not recalling if TMC has APU's or not; it couldn't help to look at some diaries.

Solo, who just went 'office' again, had an EXCELLENT TMC diary, if you want to dig it up.

Another flatbed (training!) company not (yet) on here, is Keim : Keim TS.

Best to you; following!

~ Anne ~

Thanks for the helpful resources Anne. I'll definitely take a look at those. In most of the threads I've read here and elsewhere, I've seen several comments that TMC does not have APUs , but Maverick has EPUs. I've also read that TMC (at least a couple of years ago) does not have a "no-idle" policy, although it can affect your fuel economy score which impacts your percentage for pay. I suspect lots of companies who formerly didn't care about idling will now be considering adding policy to limit that as much as possible. Based on what we learned of a truck's fuel economy this week, we were told a truck takes one gallon of diesel to idle for 1-hr. That definitely gets expensive with fuel costs the way there are now.

Pre-trip Inspection:

A pre-trip inspection is a thorough inspection of the truck completed before driving for the first time each day.

Federal and state laws require that drivers inspect their vehicles. Federal and state inspectors also may inspect your vehicles. If they judge a vehicle to be unsafe, they will put it “out of service” until it is repaired.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APUs:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APU's:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

EPU:

Electric Auxiliary Power Units

Electric APUs have started gaining acceptance. These electric APUs use battery packs instead of the diesel engine on traditional APUs as a source of power. The APU's battery pack is charged when the truck is in motion. When the truck is idle, the stored energy in the battery pack is then used to power an air conditioner, heater, and other devices

Epus:

Electric Auxiliary Power Units

Electric APUs have started gaining acceptance. These electric APUs use battery packs instead of the diesel engine on traditional APUs as a source of power. The APU's battery pack is charged when the truck is in motion. When the truck is idle, the stored energy in the battery pack is then used to power an air conditioner, heater, and other devices