CDL driving test, truck borrow, and instruction hire (for cash)

You need more than to practice driving. The pretrip part of the exam is the hardest, you have a lot to memorize for that......

 

Illinois will fail you for mispronouncing a word/nomenclature during the pre-trip test. For example, using the word "air pressure guage" instead of "air pressure indicator."
They failed one driver for taking too long to pre-trip.
Failed another for being too fast doing the pre-trip.
These were drivers with experience that already had CDL's and were just trying to change them over to Illinois from other states.
I recommend contacting a CDL school, if for no other reason than to ask questions and get some pointers as to what their students have faced.

 

This is a good example on how the system is messed up. I know we all say we don't need more regulations but in this case from school to testing all the way through the Driver Trainer I believe there is a need for regulations and standardizations of these items. There should be thorough regulations monitored by the FMCSA that includes another endorsement on the CDL for Driver Trainer. Companies may believe the cost would be prohibitive in the begging, but the way they analyze every dime, they would see how it would save money in the long run by producing good drivers from the start. Anybody that's been in this business knows how fast they are pushing new drivers through the system to get them in a truck. The larger the company the less they need experienced drivers. They can replace them at a better cost than training them. It's scary to think how drivers will be 20 years down the road in the start of their career. It's no fault of the person that wants to drive, it's the company that can only see the bottom line.

 

I wish I had a nickel for every student who told me all they needed to learn was to shift and back.

 

It all depends on who you get and the day they are having, when I did my examination for my class A in 2001(Illinois) it was easy peasy. On a side note the tractor I had was filthy and the examiner was female I think she just wanted out of that nasty funk!!!!LOL...