Aspiring Truckers: How to Get "6 Months of Experience"

Aspiring Truckers: How to Get “6 Months of Experience”

All the good jobs require a minimum of 6 months of experience. But, you are right out of truck driving school. What do you do?

Get a bad job.

More accurately, get any job that you can get. Entry level jobs aren’t the best, but until you get some experience, you won’t have a shot at a good job.

For the majority of drivers with a brand-new CDL, their first job is going to be driving Over The Road (OTR, also known as “Long Haul”). There are always openings in OTR work. OTR jobs are the easiest to find. Odds are, while you are still in driving school, a recruiter from one or two OTR companies will stop by to hand out business cards and recruiting brochures. If you have a friend or relative at a good company, you might be able to “fast track” this contact into a job offer.

The key to having a long and successful driving career is having a clear idea of what sort of driving you want to do. If you want to drive a cement mixer, you should focus on the sort of jobs that can lead you there. If you want to work in the oil fields, you would focus on different kinds of jobs. Find people that have the sort of job you want, and ask questions.

Make some plans! Get started!

Notes:

  • This blog expands on another of our CDL blogs, titled “What CDL Jobs Pay the Most?”. That blog provides a much broader overview of a driver’s career path.

  • Anyone wishing to learn more about the job hunting process should read Dan Miller’s sentinel book, 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing For the New Normal. Mr. Miller’s book explains what employers are looking for in employees; and how the hiring process actually works. It demystifies the job hunting process.

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