Drivers who have no house, apartment, car, or family: how much money have you saved?

Nick,

Looks like you have until September: http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverLicense/domicileReq.htm

A PO will not work any longer. You will need to use a family for friend's address or rent a room or something.

 

That sure is the truth.

 

I passed several portions of the written today, going to a DPS office in small town 30+ miles away, I had all the forms already done in black ink to the extent I could determine what is needed and had half-an-inch of documents to support using PO Box as mailing address with proof of actual physical residence where I actually do that ~ plus made statement to officer on the matter of my concerns

None of it was needed ! The supporting documents were not even observed, most of the forms had a separate mailing address place already on the form in which I placed my PO Box ~ all of those were worked by the officer and used as-is like I had them

your link states: "Peace officers using alternative addresses must still prove Texas domicile, even though their driver licenses may show alternative addresses. They must show that their mailing addresses meet Texas domicile requirements."

37 Texas Administrative Code § 16.15 Proof of Domicile does not state what the DPS "online" statement reads, thus is an arbitrary ruling by someone who wrote a web-page, thus is in my opinion not the work of persons licensed to practice before the bench of law.

Sec. 522.0226. Texas Commercial Driver's License Act states:
.....

(b) Unless an exception exists under state or federal law, an applicant may receive delivery of a commercial driver's license at a post office box address only if the applicant has provided the department the physical address where the applicant resides.

(c) The department may require the applicant to provide documentation that the department determines necessary to verify the validity of the physical address provided under Subsection (b).

....

I met the test provided by that wording, the officer accepted my work, maybe one of the law-schools has a sign-on bonus or something ~ I once instructed a board-certified attorney in the area of expertise in which the attorney was board certified

I think the written questions have been written by someone who is not certified though should be.

Verbosity of the post is in my opinion appropriate to the responsibility upon which our work is dependent

 

If I had no home, no family, and no expenses I'd be dead broke.

 

Nick,

A couple of things on your post.

1. The link I posted clearly states in the first paragraph that these new standards do not go into effect until September 4, 2012. If you just recently got your CDL, these standards would not apply to you since it is not yet September.

2. http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TN/htm/TN.522.htm
I read that law (Sec. 522.0226) from the webpage above after seeing it in your post. That section of the law went into effect in 2009 but it still may be the current law (from what I can tell, it is).

However, it clearly states that you can only use a PO Box if you provide the department a physical address where you reside. Also, if you look at subsection C in your post above, the department may require you to prove that is your physical address and they are doing that starting in September using the documents posted on the DPS website.

3. Lastly, I called DPS headquarters here in Austin yesterday to confirm all this. I spoke with a Paralegal there whose job was working on these new regs going into effect in September (I am in sales for a living, I know how to get to the person I need to talk to). She confirmed everything I have posted above. You can still get your CDL mailed to a PO Box and use that PO Box on your CDL if you like, but you will still have to confirm you have a physical address in order to get the license.

I think there may be some confusion between us because you stated in your post that you used your PO Box as a mailing address but you still have a physical address. I am simply stating that a PO Box alone will not work any longer. A driver cannot use a mail forwarding service or a UPS Store as their physical address any longer as they would have been able to in the past.

Cheers!

 

Ok, so you have no objects that you own and you just drive. What do you plan on doing later? You will need somewhere to stay (unless you die in cab) you will need some kind of transport (unless you die in cab) and sooner or later, you will need to talk to a human (unless you die in cab) Then, once you save all those bucks, who gets them? One day, you will stop at the Flying J, barely be able to bend your knee to fuel the beast and question, why you never took a cruise or spent a week in Floridia to dip the feet in the water. Now how good was that savings plan?

 

There is no confusion beyond working the details to get to this clarity, it is the depth of work needed to get past what my signature has as it's central thesis. Your detailed workup is vastly appreciated and is a clear alignment with what I was saying now that the details are here for those who need them and are willing to do the work relevant to the burden. Few, if any, will go beyond what some web-page says and I have as well a written letter in the mail already to DPS in Austin on the matter of wording used in the written questions.

We shall see if there is significant effort ~ your workup - as well as mine - are now here for anyone who wishes to get past flinging a few electronic devices in the cab. Speaking of which I went to a CEFCO / Shell yesterday to post a note in the truckers' tv watching area and there were several acres of new trucks .... it seemed like all of them were in the cab, though most of them probably playing games rather than doing this level of work I will assume that you grasp how a $340 an hour professional can save $3.400 of wasted time.

I made up a stack of supporting documents for this issue and the officer doing admin on my written test attempt accepted my work without actually examining the supporting documentation(s).

In any event, it is a relief to work with someone who can work at this level. A web-page is useful for sales, we have an exception here to have sales person willing to investigate to this correctness.

Thank you [!]

Nick

 

Hlaf the drivers in this industry would likely be sleeping under a
highway overpass if it weren't fer the truckin biz.
Proof again that any warm body will do.
Maybe recruiter head hunters should start canvassing local homeless
shelters and city parks looking for potential drivers instead.

 

I myself am still on the fence but my plan would be to take time off just like any other driver after staying out for a while. The only difference is I would use those days off as vacation time. I could rent a car or fly somewhere and spend a few days. The beauty of not having living expenses is I could do those things and still save a good amount to retire early.

Also, who says one has to do this for the rest of their life? They could do it for a while and then leave to do something else having plenty of resources to go back to school, get a place to live, a car etc.

I agree with you that people need to live their lives and enjoy it before retirement. If you save all you life and wait to enjoy it till you retire, you will miss out on a lot imo

 

O.K., lets hear from all starter company drivers that rent cars , buy plane tickets , and have resources to go back to school , buy a car , etc . If there was money to do that in trucking the CDL mills would go broke because OTR companies would have about 70% less turnover .