Class B CDL, never do it to start your career

in my area B drivers for LTL make almost as much as A drivers.

 

I understand what the op is saying. For me it was a little different. Got my class B cuz that's what I could get at the time locally. I hauled propane for a couple of years, loved it and then got my class A from the company I was hauling propane for in a straight truck. They trained me, I started at .34 mile (this was 16 years ago), passed the test and then started hauling gas, diesel and oil for them with a tri axle trailer. This is in the NH/VT area. Good $.

Anyway, now many years later I haul wood chips to Canada make good money and am only sleeping in my truck 2 or 3 nights a week.

Just wanted to share my experience. I was blessed to be able to work for a company that helped me get my class A.

 

what I cant figure out with these two guys how come their employers insurance accepted them with class B but not class A?

 

I find that many, if not all, of your points are valid. If anyone has the ability to test out for the Class A license even though you're going to drive a Class B vehicle, do so. Once you have the class you have it. It's not a use it or lose it deal.

The reason I quoted just the one point though is because this is especially true, and in my travels, I've seen the DOT target straight truck more than trailers. The reason being is that many of the straight trucks are owned by pet food, beverage, vending, construction suppliers, etc and so forth. Most are small operations with a handful of trucks at best, and as such, often times, maintenance on these vehicles is spotty at best. The DOT knows this, and looks harder at them. I-80 in the New Jersey Delaware Water Gap is a good example. Almost every time I drive through there, the DOT has one or more pulled into the scalehouse while the trailers are given the bypass.

 

Ya sounds like the employer lied from start to finish which happens alot with like construction garbage collectors that sort of hauling.Never trust any of them.

 

This type of work they go on a day By day basis.Those guys could advance like said with Pepsi,coke,beer ect.But they probably have stricter insurance companies also.

 

I have a Class A of course. But I have a P endorsement with a C restriction. I can only drive a bus with 15 passengers or less. It is for the Church bus but it throws them into a dizzy fit at the DMV.

 

Like there are companies that have mixed fleets like Smith Dairy or actually a lot of dairies have mixed fleets, where I work in Canada not so much the US but in Canada GFS in Toronto area they have mixed fleets, because in down town Toronto and Toronto area 10 wheelers are pretty popular almost every company has them and there's a reason for them, and actually I've been seeing more and more 10 wheeler's, but like a legit company like GFS or Smith Dairy your pay isn't going to be based on the vehicle, if they load a 30 foot B' train trailer with 700 cases or load a 28' 10 wheeler with 700 cases your pay will be the same.

However most companies that have mixed fleets usually want you to have a CDL A because like dairies they not all the time, but they assign equipment by routes if a route is all big grocery stores then it's a tractor trailer, but if a route is all c-stores or schools and old folks homes and it's all only a handful of stacks then it's a straight truck. Now Smith Dairy has tractor trailers, but they also have straight trucks, but the bigger 10 wheel kind 26-28' long they don't have a lot of pup trailers, because of there straight truck fleet, but I've never seen them advertise Class B drivers.

I've talked to Class B guys and what a lot of them have said to me is what ever place they are currently working for or did work for was going to send them out of town if the up graded and in order not to get sent out of town they just didn't up grade.

I would agree though it's not going to help you do any better if you want to drive trucks get the full fledged license and go from there, be able to drive everything, because you might work at a place that has everything.