In the old days how did truckers took advantage in having more than 1 CDL

There were no computers, databases etc. You told your current state oops lost my DL. They made you another while not being able to cancel your original. You simply claimed residence in the 2nd state and said gimme a license. They asked for a license from where you moved. To keep from retesting you had to give one to get one. Hence why you started with 2 from your home state. FWIW they weren't CDL's then they were chauffers license. No test to get them go down town with your D license lay them on the counter and say up grade me. For a fee they did.
Now they can print you in the car if they think you are shady.

 

Didn't it work that once you had 2 licenses, you would run your log and hours as a driver from one state, and then when it was full, you would switch to the other state and books?
Or was it about getting away from bad driving record by going to a different state?

 

You had a Class A not CDL. CDL did not exist until 1994.

Give a license get a license. Whoops aww Kitty ate my license can I has a replacement PWEASE!? Now you have two. Give one to the next state.Not the cat, the turbo charger got it while doing shop work under the hood.

CDL tied all states together so that foolishness got stopped. I said in the past you could whip out a clean A to hand to bear. Bear makes a call, license comes back clean. he writes ticket. Moving on to the next license.

Government wheels turn real slow back then. But they do turn. If you got into REAL trouble and they discover you had a stack of A's well... you are really in trouble now.

 

All the above. My trainer right out of cdl school had 5 license from 5 different states. The first day I was with him he got 2 speeding tickets in Kansas within 30 minutes and showed a different license each time.
The license didn't matter when it came to running 2 logbooks. When you ran out of hours on one log book, you get the other one out and falsify the hours back 7 days then start with a fresh break and full days driving available. I wouldn't want to do that again; it's really hard on your health and sooner or later catches up with a heart attack or other ailments. I was lucky and never encountered health problems, but some of my friends did and some died. Sometimes wake up in the sleeper thinking the wind is shaking the truck, then realize it's your heart racing from taking so many "stay-awake" pills. In many respects the "good old days" weren't really that good.
Little known fact/secret. When I was in the Navy during Vietnam, the pilots used dextroamphetamine. This was used in all branches, Army, Air Force, & Coast Guard in Vietnam, to stay awake during combat operations. Still using it last I heard. Great for truckers in the "good old days."
Sometimes we would find their stash in the aircraft.

 

and,

driver license had no photo, back then.

I had one from ny, fl, and georgia, all at the same time...........

 

When did photo come in?

I got my license in 82. Only been licensed in Utah. I'm pretty sure it's always had a photo.

 

Yep, still around. Still prescribed. Known as adderall.

I had a prescription up through college, never take them and bank up on em and come finals week you'll find yourself sitting on a stack of cash. Kids would use them to stay up and study for hours/days on end, during finals week the price more than triples.

 

my north Carolina license seemed to always be suspended
good thing I didn't live there

 

In the 70's, when I started trucking, I was just running on a regular license, and the boss said, "you know, you should really have a chauffeur's license". CDL's were years away. So I went to the Wis. DMV, told them I needed a chauffeur's license. The examiner gave me a short written test ( I don't think I even studied for it) said, "have you had a road test of any kind in the last 2 years"? I said, I took my motorcycle road test last year ( back then, they were more concerned with bikers having a special license, than truck driver's, to show you how things have changed) The examiner said, "Good enough, that will be $7 dollars". As mentioned, states did not work together, as they do now, ( which is also why you'd see older trucks with 15 stickers on them from different states for road use and fuel tax) and it was entirely possible to have a P.O. Box somewhere and get a chauffeur's license for that state. After several infractions, with different license's, the courts got wise. I really miss those outlaw times, and in part, why I don't truck today.