E Restriction! Have to test again with a manual, in Florida?

Talk to your school and see if they will make it right.. Going to be a pain to retest

August 2016

 

One basic thing need teaching to ALL prospective students looking to learn trucking school.

Road test in a manual truck or get that restriction. It goes without saying.

It's a relatively new thing that happened to all states not too long ago. Very not welcome to those affected by it.

 

I don't think your school intentionally mislead you. There was a misunderstanding with Florida, they were late to adopt the 2015 regulation that required the auto only restriction. Many schools mistakenly believed Florida was going to get grandfathered in on tests administered between 2015 and whenever they adopted the regulation, however FMCSA disagreed.

As a former CDL third party tester and current compliance consultant I have been asked this question often since the restriction came into place, usually right after someone receives a retest notice from their state. Sucks, but Florida was out of compliance with the Federal regulations. At least they are giving you some time to retest rather than immediately placing the E restriction on your CDL.

It is worth a shot asking if they will give you the retest for free since they assured you the restriction would not happen.

 

Yea my school somewhat lied too...told me they have a specific location that trains on manuals. Then turned around and told me it was no longer available. Wish i would have known I'd be getting a restriction. Man i pictured myself crusin shifting gears in something that had a little exhaust growl and turbo noises come to find out i end up in a automatic cascadia. Not the worst but what a big difference.

 

What I find weird, is two different trucks used in testing. At least when I tested I simply walked around doing the pre trip, hopped in and did the skills. Once that was done, didn't even turn the truck off, we hit the road for the test.

 

I have a friend who just got a cdl last week with a manual shift pickup truck and a wedge trailer.
He tells me his only restriction is no air brakes.
There’s a heck of a difference between a six speed fully synchronized pick up trans and an 18 sped non synchronized trans.
But no according to his CDL...

 

I agree. That’s how it went for me as well...

With that being said my school had two automatics with shorter pup trailers. Some guys preferred doing the road test in those over the large sleeper cabs with 48s...

This was almost two years ago now in Florida. I believe the school mentioned there would be no restriction.