Could this be a problem??

Let's be honest, nobody needs a cdl school.

If you can put together 4 consecutive days of not peeing on yourself then you are competent enough to drive a truck. Everything else is ornamental at best.

Cosmetologists have more training than truckers and cops and cosmetologists have no business getting training outside of little brothers/sisters and barbie dolls.

So... cut the bs and put those cdl's back in the cracker jack boxes where they should be.

 

My experience was a little different.

I had been driving farm trucks since I was tall enough to reach the clutch (8-9 years old) and army trucks after for a few years (and dad used to bring me to work with him when he worked on weekends). My father was a driver his whole life. Only worked at 1 company his entire life. He would have shot me if I got my CDL while he was alive. He died when I was 25.

I went to a vo tech. 9 month course. VA paid for school and paid me to go to school. I was making more going to school than I would have made actually driving, so I stayed the whole 9 months. I had my CDL after 3 weeks. The next 8 months was actually driving around town and sometimes a food bank run around the upper midwest (running food from farms to food banks). And backing up. LOTS of backing up. Competition rodeo style backing up.

The vast majority of students left after they got their CDLs, but I actually stayed. Glad I did, frankly. Back when I started driving (early 80s), people understood the (unwritten) rules of the road. We helped each other. We looked out for each other (generally). Smoky and the Bandit days. Us against them. Most of the new drivers coming in to the life had at least SOME experience with it. A relative was a driver, or they grew up driving farm trucks. Something along them lines.

Then, Im thinking somewhere around 2000 that all changed. Probably because trains were used less and less, but the demand for drivers skyrocketed. They started cranking out drivers like cattle going into a slaughterhouse. They didnt understand fully the traditions or those "unwritten" rules. And when the demand for drivers exceeded the number of Americans that were willing to do it, the "imports" started. And they had no idea what so ever the traditions that we had in the old days. And the general public attitude toward trucks in general have been declining since. Once "Knights of the hi-way" we are looked at as the world would be better off if we didnt exist (they have no idea how much they really depend on us).

With the "driver shortage" (and make no mistake, there really IS a driver shortage - speaking in terms of quality drivers) more and more of our loads started moving by rail again. It IS more efficient, IF the loads do not have to be somewhere by a certain date and/or are not perishable. Right now, today, because of all the "imports" rates are in the tank. Supply and demand. If someone is willing to take $1 a mile, why pay $3?

This is turning into an off-topic rant, so I will leave it here.

 

There certainly are. I was told my a lady at the DPS office that I'd have to go through ELDT in order to add the passenger endorsement to the CDL I've held for 25 years.

I'd say it's both. The quantity thing is a given, but I've noticed a substantial drop in the quality of drivers as well. In the last 10 years or so things have become commonplace that would've been unacceptable back when I started in the early 2000s.

 

It's 30 minute video with the same multiple guess questions that are on the test. I'd hardly call that a significant increase in regulations.

 

Then please send me a link, because when I asked the lady for a list of approved training providers she said I'd have to enroll in the local community college's CDL program (as if I had never completed a CDL school) and that I couldn't be grandfathered despite the fact that I completed CDL school and have held my hazmat endorsement (which also requires ELDT to add to an existing CDL) since well before the ELDT mandate went into effect.

 

https://www.eldt.com/pricing

For the skills testing you'll need a bus and an appointment with a tester, but those requirements haven't changed since the introduction of the CDL in 1992.

 

@Knightcrawler
Belated sincere condolences on the loss of your father. I too lost my father when I was young, about 3 months shy of turning 25, back in 1981. This year will be 44 years.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

The absolute sheer driving force of our national economy - without truck drivers, our entire national economy would come to an absolute standstill - if not outright be dead.

Over the mountains, through the woods, into the valleys, coast to coast, from sea to shining sea - truck drivers can and do go anywhere and everywhere, every day, every night, all year round.

 

Thank you. I appreciate it.

 

My dad died Mar 28, 1982.

My mother died Mar 20, 2002.

My brother died Apr 3, 2022.

All within a 2 week span exactly 20 years apart. I have an older sister, so I figure I will die somewhere around the end of March in 2062...

 

@Knightcrawler
Also, belated condolences on the loss of both your mother and brother. It's BOTH AMAZING & EERIE as to how the numbers work from time to time:
1) When I was born, (born 10/1/1956), my mother's age was 35 years 4months 1 day.
2) When my mother passed away, (9/30/2007), it was 35 years 4 months 1 day after her mother, (my maternal grandmother), passed away on 5/29/1972.
3) When my grandmother passed away, my mother's age was 50 years 11 months 29 days. (my mother was born 5/31/1921).
4) When my mother passed away, my age was 50 years 11 months 29 days, (one day before I turned 51). The following day, (10/1/2007), when I turned 51, my 2 sisters & I buried our mother. I was one of the pall bearers. Needless to say, birthdays have never been quite the same for me.

NOTE:
In Reference To My Sister:
1) When our mother passed away back in 2007, her age was 86.
2) Over the next 13 years, (from 2008 to 2020), my sister lost her father-in-law, mother-in-law, & step father-in-law. Each of these 3 people had one thing in common: They were each age 86 when they passed away. Needless to say, my sister has gotten very "superstitious" about number 86.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

The absolute sheer driving force of our national economy - without truck drivers, our entire national economy would come to an absolute standstill - if not outright be dead.

Over the mountains, through the woods, into the valleys, coast to coast, from sea to shining sea - truck drivers can and do go anywhere and everywhere, every day, every night, all year round.