How is it that SWIFT manages to wreck so many trucks?

In some states, that's the only way you can be tested for a CDL.

The on site third party tester was removed from the program and students must have a permit from their home states. These are the changes made due to that "raid" and all the stuff that followed.

 

My sincere apologies.

KH

 

No apology needed.

 

Everybody getting a CDL in Michigan will take the entire CDL practical test from a third-party tester, all of whom are approved by the Michigan Secretary of State. The State hasn't road-tested CDL applicants for years. Many other states do, too.

 

Unlike the great state of Illinois where it's a government employee who doesn't even have to have a CDL, they ave just been "trained" on what to look for. Guess its a step up for us compared to the 90's when when the most important qualification you could have was a fat enough wallet to pay that state employee for the CDL. All that changed though when some mexican that barely spoke English killed a school bus full of kids or something like that. The news got ahold of that one and we have an ex-governer in jail over it.

Guess the point is there are moron drivers out there in all types of vehicles and with all sorts of companies. As a professional your job is to pretty much assume that everyone around you will do the dumbest thing possible at the worst possible time and adjust for it.

As far as Fedex I have no idea what is up with those guys but yeah the seem to be in way too much of a hurry most of the time, always tailgating and changing lanes back too soon, barely keeping it in their lane. I just try to stay out of their way.

 

And I think Illinois is one of those states that accepts nobody else's CDL so an applicant has to retake the written tests plus the road tests. Is that right?

 

You got it, move to IL and you are retesting on everything, written, pti, backing and road test. Only test that was even a little tricky was the 45 because they give you very little room, and if you even break plane of the cones you fail automatically. Of course I was much greener then probably would seem easy now compared to some of these truck stops. PTI was a joke, took 5 minutes and road test was about 8 miles, all on surface streets. Do have to give some credit because they did work in a few tricky situations on the road test even though it was short.

 

It was a pain in the petunia!