Roehl's CDL School

I live in MN also and here's how it worked approximately 2 years ago; it's likely not changed since then.

You take your road test in Marshfield near the end of the 2nd week in the school. Assuming you pass, then the next morning you go to the local DMV office in Marshfield, pay the fees, and convert your current class-D Minnesota license to a class-A Wisconsin CDL, supplying the temporary address of the place you're staying in Marshfield while attending school. (Roehl will supply you with a sheet of paper vouching for the temporary address, this is mainly a formality.) You tell the DMV in Marshfield that you want the Wisconsin CDL mailed not to the temporary address of the hotel, but to Roehl's headquarters office in Marshfield instead. (The DMV office in Marshfield, is, of course, very familiar with this drill.) You then take the paperwork that says you have a temporary Wisconsin CDL, back to Minnesota with you after you've finished school.

When you get back to MN, you go to your local DMV office and show them the temporary Wisconsin CDL paperwork, and use that to transfer the Wisconsin CDL to a Minnesota CDL after paying a fee. It is also at this time that you would also take any endorsement tests that you want on your Minnesota CDL (tanker, hazmat, etc.) since it will cost you more if you add them later (you'd have to pay another fee to get a duplicate MN license with the new endorsements if you waited until later). You walk out of the DMV office with a new set of paperwork showing that you now have a temporary Minnesota CDL (with endorsements that you added if desired).

In the meantime, your Wisconsin CDL card (with the temporary address of the Marshfield hotel) has shown up at Roehl's offices in Marshfield, where it will most likely just be shredded because you've obtained a Minnesota CDL in the meantime. Your permanent Minnesota CDL shows up in the mail at your home a couple weeks later.

The recruiter at Roehl who works with students attending their CDL school explained this to me ahead of time and it worked exactly like she had said.

 

I did the school in January as a MN resident and the post above is spot on about it. Only downside to out of state is if you fail the CDL test you have to pay to get a WI Class D license since you can only test once as an out of state testee in WI. Had a classmate have to do that.

 

The Roehl training is still valid and they will let you keep training there with you paying for the hotel room. You have to get your MN license again anyway after the school since passing the CDL test means you get a WI Class A. License wise the only difference between passing and failing is that you pay extra to get your auto license switched over first.

 

You asked what happens if you fail the road test the first time. Again, based on my experience from 2 years ago, you take the road test on the Thursday of your 2nd week at the school. After that, the 3rd week of the school is dedicated to further polishing your driving skills (you go out on some day trips and do some close-quarters city driving in the Wausau area) and learning some Roehl-specific things, such as more in-depth on the Roehl Way of Protective Driving. During that 3rd week, if you didn't pass the road test the previous week, you have another chance to retake the road test again on the Thursday of the 3rd week. (You're still in the same hotel room, since you're still "in school" the 3rd week even if you did pass the road test on the first try during the 2nd week.) When I took my road test on the Thursday of the 2nd week, there were 1 or 2 people from the previous class (who were then near the end of their 3rd week) who were retaking their road tests that same day. (For what it's worth, all six of us in my class passed our road tests the first time.)

This is all assuming they are still running a three-week course, which crazyk can perhaps confirm. Like crazyk said, if you don't pass the test on the 2nd try, I do recall that you can stay longer at your own hotel room expense and test again if needed. (If I recall correctly, there are additional Wisconsin DOT fees that apply if you have to retake the road test a 3rd time.)

 

OK...I just went back and re-read crazyk's thread "RDTC Jan 2015 Experiences" and it looks like they now do the road test on the Wednesday of the third week. (I'd posted above that it was the Thursday of the 2nd week but that is apparently no longer the case. My apologies.) So it looks like if you do not pass the road test the first time, you would need to stay in the hotel at least a few extra days (at extra cost) in order to stay around to retake the road test.

 

Wednesday of the 4th week I'm here now