UPDATE:
Sorry for the late reply, but a LOT has happened since I posted in here. The company that was going to send me back through school was J.B. Hunt. After doing a phone interview with them, testing for a grant (they were worried about me being on drugs, because several vets had tested positive), and passing a drug test, they turned me down. Initially they said it was because of my work history; I was on a leave of absence from Stateville (it's not Statesville as many mispronounce it), and working two other jobs. J.B. Hunt said that Stateville told them I quit, but when I cleared it up by calling Stateville, J.B. Hunt changed their story, said it was because of a motorcycle accident two years prior that wasn’t my fault (no tickets), and stopped taking my calls.
Instead of getting pissed, I called the folks where I received my grant for a refresher course, and asked was the grant contingent on me getting hired with J.B. Hunt. They said no, the grant was mine, and I went on the hunt to find a refresher course that fit my schedule. No one had a short refresher course, and to make a long story a bit shorter, I wound up taking 160 hours. My instructors told right away that I was going to be bored, but I made the best of it.
I finished the course in July, but didn’t just want to work for anybody. My instructors were encouraging me to work for a former student of theirs who worked for his brother-in-law’s company hauling "dirty water," so I gave him a call. At the time they weren’t hiring, and he told me that if I could wait until the end of the year, he’d see if he could bring me on. In the meantime, one of my instructors left the school and went to work at the same company. We kept in touch and he told that things there were great, and as soon as he knew of an opening, I’d be the first to know.
The company is a national company with a small fleet of trucks. I’ve met all the drivers, and most of us are veterans, including my boss. I’ve also met one of the co-owners, and everybody has been great! They all have said welcome to the family, have said that they treat everyone as family, and hope that I stick around. The first order of business that they had me take care of was setting up my direct deposit, everything else was secondary. If anything is wrong with my truck, it gets handled immediately. I don’t get rushed to complete my work; my boss tells me you’re hourly, so why rush and potentially have an accident, get hurt, or both. My safety is priority number one, always. I started last month, and even though this is my first experience driving tankers, I really like it. The tanks are heavily baffled and I haul mostly non-hazardous waste water from companies that don’t have a waste treatment facility on site. I don’t bump docks, but I do a fair share of backing into driveways, parking spaces, and parking lots with cars. I’m a little rusty at backing around corners, but I’m getting better everyday. I’m home daily and the furthest client we have is a 6 hour turnaround. I get dirty lifting hoses and it gets frustrating at times when the cold freezes up valves, but it’s still a great job.