Freedom Haulers: a veteran hiring campaign is a funnel, not a skipped road test

A campaign that widens the funnel

A veteran applicant sits across from the hire desk with a DD-214 and a CDL-A. We will talk. We will still run Clearinghouse and a road test. That is the whole translation of Freedom Haulers for a carrier that actually puts people in trucks.

On July 30, 2026, Transportation Secretary Duffy joined VA Secretary Collins and Acting Labor Secretary Sonderling at a White House event to launch Freedom Haulers: get more veterans into commercial driving, timed around Hire a Vet Day. Federal campaigns can fund training pipelines and awareness. They do not issue you a PRIDEUSA truck number, and Hire a Vet Day is not a hiring deadline on our calendar.

We will interview veterans. We will not skip CDL, Clearinghouse, or miles. A campaign is a funnel. A hire file is a file. Mixing those two up is how you get a person in a 2020+ Volvo who has never backed a 53′ to a dock in Joliet.

If you want the department’s own event language, use the newsroom link under Official sources. If you want a seat, the path is Drive With Us — not a hashtag, and not a portal that promises Lake Bluff will call you first.

How we will treat veteran applicants

Same file as everyone else: CDL-A, experience (2+ years preferred, 1+ considered on some seats), Clearinghouse, and a conversation with safety. Military years that are not CMV miles still count as character. They do not automatically count as 53′ dry-van time.

Military years that are not CMV miles still count as character. They do not automatically count as 53-foot dry-van time.

Pay and equipment are on the job landings — dry van, flatbed, conestoga, owner-operators. Whatever is on the job page is the offer. We do not invent a second bonus from a White House caption, and we do not skip the road test because a campaign asked carriers to hire veterans.

Can you apply without a CDL yet? We hire CDL-A. Finish the license first. Owner-operator veterans use the same OO page as everyone else. If a federal training pipeline later sits behind this campaign, that is a school and a license you still have to finish before orientation — confirm any program details on the agency sites, not on this desk note.

Apply here, not to a hashtag

Drive With Us is the form. Phone +1 (847) 702-8181. We will not ask you to retweet a cabinet event as a condition of orientation, and we will not skip a road test because a campaign used the word veteran.

What we will do is read your CDL, your miles, and your DD-214, and tell you which seat — if any — fits. What we will not do is count non-CMV military years as dry-van time, or invent a bonus that is not on the job page.

Company and owner-operator seats are both open nationwide when the empty and the file fit. Start with the form, or call the same desk that quotes freight. We are a carrier in Lake Bluff, not a federal recruiter — and the hire still has to clear safety before anyone gets keys.