gettin my hazmat next month...

I decided to finally go get mine the other day. I studied for the test and it wasn't that bad. Waiting on my background check to show Im not kin to Osama Bin Laden and Im good to go. I was told it usually takes 4 weeks to get your license and then they mail it to you. I paid $111.00 total for mine but I went ahead and got my tanker endorsement while I was there as well.

 

if you have your haz mat it makes getting a pasport really quick

 

if you can find a good tanker company to take you, it would be to your benefit tanker companies(in my experience) dont abuse the drivers as bad as most companies try to these days. I am sitting in a company paid motel room laid over in chicago and will be paid 200 dollars for the hassle...

 

You can find Hazmat and other endorsement study questions on eBay... and for about ten bucks you'll have the exact same questions they ask at the DMV . 30 minutes of going over the same questions they will ask at the DMV and you will EASILY pass any test. I was finished with Hazmat and Tanker test at the DMV in less than 15 minutes ... and several minutes of that time was spent waiting on the next question to show on the screen.

That's the easy part and the more you know the safer you will be... but remember the MAIN thing about driving is to keep the rubber side down ...and that demands that you always pay attention and REST if you get tired. I think I read somewhere that driver fatigue is the cause of over 80% of all serious trucking accidents. Within a few years the DOT will monitor all commercial vehicles through GPS -- then logbooks will be a thing of the past. Illegal driving will be very difficult to get away with and will be severly punished. Google "onboard recorders" for more info.

 

Well... took my CDL tests, took 6 days to get my HazMat letter, took a little driving test and now I've got a hourly driving job with plenty of overtime...

Bravo

 

Took me 5 days to get my Hazmat endorsement, that includes the saturday and sunday. After I took the test and passed I kept checking the endorsements on my license by going on the state drivers license lookup...once it said "x" on there instead of "N" I went down to the DMV and told them I lost my license and needed a duplicate.....10 minutes later and $10 I walked out with the Hazmat...........................man I kinda feel like a genious LOL

I needed it for the new job I got so I was in a hurry to get mine

 

The good thing about having a haz-mat endorsement on record is that you have more opportunity for employment at a wider range of companies.Other endorsements also provide you with more job opportunities.Many shippers, even in todays slow economic times,supply products via the trucking industry on a constant basis regardless of the economy.Tanker endorsement is good also.They haul many products that are recession proof.I have friends that haul milk,water and other product's that are not listed as haz-mat.Some have just tanker,others have both tanker and haz-mat.The test for haz-mat is pretty simple.I believe when I took mine it was about 30 questions.I missed 2.If you have a problem or fear of taking tests,do what I do,go to DMV with the manuel and read it over and over prior to taking your test.It may take an hour to study but the answers will be fresh in your mind come test time.Just because your job title says "truck driver" don't limit yourself.Trucking is not limited,the economy doesn't move until we do it.Good luck.

 

I ended up taking my hazmat test twice. I passed it in March and didn't have the extra $100 to pay for the fingerprinting until six months later. When I finally got my approval letter from the FBI the local DPS office said I had to retest!

This made no sense because they had a copy of my passed exam but said that it had been too long ago?? There is no law or policy that says your test is only good for so long. None that I know of anyways. I #####ed for awhile then just went back a couple days later and got an 80 whew!!!

 

the hazmat quiz at the DMV is a joke. there aren't that many questions on there. it mostly asks the same ones over and over.

 

I took - and passed - 6 of the 7 CDL tests in Colorado this past Wednesday. Finished in about 20 minutes. Hazmat wasn't quite a joke - no repeated questions and one or two questions required careful parsing, but it wasn't all that hard, either.

I've not done the fingerprinting etc, but that should not be an issue (I know what's in my past - including my past background checks)

Fortunately, here in Colorado, the background is a bit less expensive: 89.25.

When I finally get the CDL, I'll have CDL-A, doubles/triples, tank, and hazmat.

Am I actually interested or impressed? not really. The idea was, and is, to open my employment options. If I can't get on with a good national company, I have a better chance at a local. Who knows, maybe I'll LIKE hauling (pick one) and go for more of it. But I'm not going to decide without at least trying it.

Nobody else in my class opted for the extra endorsements.. I think it's a mistake, but.. that's me

oh - the test I didn't take? Passenger/Busses. Driven a bus before.. know that is NOT in my future.