Originally Posted by pro1driver

your post was quite long, and as a result, i started falling asleep reading it...

I'm sorry for putting you to sleep. Thank you very much for persisting and for deeming it worth the effort to reply.

but from what i was to ascertain, you like driving, SMALLER vehicles...

In spite of [or because of?] the length of my post I do not seem to have made myself understood. I like driving anything. The majority of my experience has been limited to smaller vehicles.

driving a big rig through many of those cities/towns you once did with your car or mini van or SMALL
You have no idea how small.
delivery vehicle, IS NOT THE SAME as driving an 18 wheeler......

Even before I learned to drive a truck, and got my CDL, I was never silly enough to think that one would handle at all like my '91 GEO METRO [which I bought gently used in '93 and drove for nearly 14 years, and still miss]. I do think that safely driving in a variety of urban and rural areas, navigating, meeting delivery deadlines, and combining loads with a variety of deadlines and destinations might be relevant. As might sitting for hours in the vehicle [parked under a tree or in the alley on the shady side of a tall building in the Loop because my air conditioning was broken that summer - didn't mind it in winter so much as the heat worked] waiting to be assigned anything AT ALL to do, when business was slow.

you cannot easily back them up or turn them around. you have "height issues" and "length issues" with big rigs.

I do recall backing, turning, height and length being addressed in my CDL school.

its a whole new ball game with an 18 wheeler. i strongly suggest that you go for a refresher course. IN FACT no company will hire you since you have ZERO experience since you originally got your license.

I agree, for any company to simply turn me loose in a class A vehicle without some kind of refresher course, with this little experience, so long ago, would be scary, stupid, and probably not be stood for by their insurance company and company lawyers.

as for being on the road, you will get worn out real fast. you WILL NOT be stopping at hotels/motels for your sleep/rest. you WILL BE living in that truck...

That was what I understood.

sorry to hear that some people close to you have since died....but i hardly find that reason enough to want to be a truck driver. its either something you want to do because you want to, or its something you DO NOT want to do...life/death situations are not any reason to get into trucking, you would be sorely mistaken.

I didn't get my CDL in '96 BECAUSE I anticipated nearly everyone I cared about leaving my life in '00-'01. I got it because I've wanted to drive for a very long time. Then I unexpectedly had to stay close to home to care for family members. NOW I find that the things which kept me off the road THEN have disappeared, some of them dead.

i would rather personally recommend that you stick with class B driving jobs since you stated that you

So since my past experience is in smaller vehicles I should stick to them. If people only ever did things they had done before where would we all be? in caves?

this way, you'll not get discouraged with driving an 18 wheeler, simply because you "love to drive".......because its a JOB with more responsibility than you could ever imagine........