TRUCKMOVERS Questions

My wife and i wanted to get the passenger on our CDL..let us know if you manage to get a school bus, we never could figure out how to borrow one.

 

I haven't figured that out yet. Maybe I should get a job driving a school bus for the school district here in San Antonio. I don't know if Quality Drive Away can help. I might be able to take a road test in Laredo, TX. I have 90 days to get it done or start all over.

 

I did rent a truck with instructor for a few hours in 2011 when I got my cdl back but it wasn't cheap. That was from a local truck driving schol and a semi tractor trailer though.
rent

 

I got a job driving a school bus just to get the passenger endorsement, then drove for 3 months until I got hired by the city transit authority. At the time, the city would not hire without the endorsement, even though I already had a Class A. I drove city bus for 3 years and would still be there if my back had held up, it was a Teamsters shop and we were making $22+ per hour with plenty of OT if you were willing to work split shifts and weekends. Sometimes you got forced to work OT but as you get seniority you don't get forced as much. For me it was much better to sleep in my own bed than in a sleeper, plus the split shifts were good to give my back a break. Beware the school bus, the kids can be a real problem and they don't discipline the way they used to when we went to school. Good luck!

 

Sharpshooter, we had no intention of ever driving a school bus with kids in it. We got offered a Very good paying job offer in Alaska that required the P endorsement on our CDL. We made some calls and discovered its difficult if not impossible to rent a bus for the test.

 

I may have shot myself in the foot so to speak. Since I got a new DOT physical Truckmovers required me to add it to my CDL. But since I already applied for the P and School Bus endorsements but had not completed the road test DPS refused to add the new Medical Card. I had to either cancel the application for the endorsements or complete the road test to do the update. So since I want to complete the hiring process ASAP I cancelled the application. I believe I will have to pay the $22 again and retake the "written" portion of the testing. So after Truckmovers verified that my new DOT medical card had been updated on my CDL they went ahead and sent me back to the clinic for the drug screen. So, maybe Monday or Tuesday I will be able to complete the hiring process online with Truckmovers.com so they can send me my first dispatch. They also said I may go do a few runs with a trainer first.

Also, I still have an appointment to be in Laredo on Tuesday October 27 and Wednesday October 28 for orientation with Quality Drive Away. They said that I may be able to get my first dispatch on Wednesday.

So, I'm not sure where to begin. What types of vehicles will be offered and what length of hauls. Should I be prepared to take some airplane flights in the near future?

 

Yeah, I didn't want to drive the school bus either, but it was the only way to get the endorsement and I wasn't working elsewhere at the time. It wasn't that bad. Of course, you could always just do it for a day or two and then quit, they can't take the endorsement away from you. People try and quit driving school bus all the time.

 

Be cautious with Truckmovers and Driveway, they really leave you on your own out there and expenses can pile up in a hurry, especially if you are left with empty fuel tanks. Make sure you don't fill up because you won't be reimbursed for any extra fuel you leave in the tank.

I looked into it and was a day away from my first run, but the more I found out about how it worked the more it felt like I was going to get screwed big time. At the very least, don't think you will make any more than you will driving at any other job, and for a lot more hassle and time wasted getting to your next load - time for which you are not paid (but maybe no worse than sitting at a dock waiting to unload or sitting empty waiting for dispatch). Good luck!

 

Thank you for the information. I just got cleared for dispatch this morning. So I am almost officially a contractor with Truckmovers now. I have orientation in Laredo, Tx at 8:00 a.m. with Quality Drive Away.

 

Reading what you said, apparently you didn't work with Truckmovers, since Quality Drive Away does not do orientation for Truckmovers. They are two different companies.