HAZMAT? How many of you have it.

Like a lot of new drivers I thought getting the HAZMAT endorsement would #1 Help me get hired and #2 may keep me running when others are sitting and waiting on a load.

I found after getting hired that both of these notions are a bit false.

First, before I explain let me ask. How many new drivers also think/thought that and who is getting paid what for HAZMAT?

 

Used to have HAZMAT on my license dating back to when I first got my CDL. Did the whole background check and fingerprint deal the last time around in order to keep it. This time, though, it just pi$$ed me off. If I had done anything which would have made me ineligible for the endorsement since the LAST time they took my fingerprints or ran their silly little background check, I'd still be behind bars...so what's the point of THIS check? My fingerprints haven't changed. I'm not sitting in jail. Why do I have to pay more of my hard earned money to keep the endorsement?

Then I got to thinking about the loads I've hauled in the last few years where it was required...mostly contaminated dirt loads into a hazardous waste dump where you had to wear a paper monkey suit and respirator when you went back to dump...and I have no interest in hauling those loads.

So, I let it drop. I did get asked by dispatch about it a couple weeks later, though...I guess they had some loads that required both hazmat and tank endorsements, so it would have had me pulling a liquid tank for a few days....but I wasn't left sitting at home with nothing to do just because I didn't have it. I kept working, and life goes on.

Until the pay justifies the hassle, or the government eases up bit so that the unnecessary hassle goes away, I have no interest in getting the endorsement back on my license.

 

Hazmat driver,

Hazmat in my opinion all depends on location. In my area, which is in the oil patch, it's almost required...even by none hazmat companies. I was a week out of CDL class and had I had a hazmat job pending i got my endorsement. I was behind the wheel of my own truck about 4-5wks later...typing this all out from inside my truck on location from an IPad. Now with that said, the wife is looking to move to Dallas. So I've been looking for jobs in the DFW area which there doesn't seem to be many hazmat jobs.

Anyhow, if you ask me, I would get all the endorsements you can...including hazmat. You just never know and it takes a long time to receive a hazmat endorsement.

 

I will be keeping the endorsement, but I just sent in a note to safety that I am no longer a HAZMAT driver. It pays a paltry penny a mile and has I think actually cost me miles. At least at USX it seems that the H load are all crap that take forever. The last one for instance put me over the edge. A two day 50 mile run. The one before that was a three day 300 mile multistop. Just isn't worth it. I figure that while I'm tied up with these I'm missing longer runs. But I do get what your saying about having as many Endorsements as possible.

 

I have it but it's useless for me.

 

I have it. Opens up to more loads by having it and don't have to sit around also gets paid extra to haul it

 

I'll get it just because. I'm the kind of person that wants every endorsement possible on his license. Taking my skills test for class M (motorcycle) tomorrow. My goal is to be able to drive anything on wheels. Maybe a nascar license too? lol

 

i have it and recommend my students to get it as well. when there are loads to move and all that there is, is hazmat, what are drivers going to do without the endorsement, sit till the cows come home waiting on a load that may NOT materialize..??

then those very same drivers biotch and gripe they ain't making no money, and bail...

then too, i haven't really seen any increase in pay either. most companies will ask if you have the endorsement, or that YOU NEED IT as a requirement to work for them.

so for what the price of the background check, and written test, it's good to have, rather than to be sitting at the truck stop counter, and griping how one is not making any money.....

 

I've got all the endorsements as well. The HazMat has gotten me some good long loads, and some short ones, less than 150 miles. I feel it just makes ya more versatile. I don't mind it. I got short and long loads with regular freight, so I guess it's a toss up for miles in my case.

 

I plan on getting my hazmat, but I'm going to wait until I get hired. It's doesn't costs a whole lot, but the companies I've been looking at have paying for it as a perk (usually withing 60 days of hire). Also not getting my passport for the same reason. If the company will pay for it, I'll let them.

-Steven