If you plan to stop driving for awhile do not make the same mistake I did!

I let my hazmat go maybe a year ago. Wasnt driving and they wanted me to do the whole nine yards all over to renew it. Had it for 10 years. Decided I was done jumping thru hazmat hoops.

 

I retired in October 2021 and still have my CDL in California. I went to the DMV to switch it back to a Class C only, but the DMV employee admitted to me that the state is trying to discourage drivers from doing that because they claim there is a driver shortage. They also said if I want to go back to class C that I'll need to take the written, driving and eye exam again. Rather than go through all that, I decided to just keep my CDL inactive until in renews in a couple years and jump through the state's hoops then.

 

Have you tried driving schools or local colleges? I rented the truck/trailer from a college for $350 and the examiner met there to administer the test.

 

Yeah it is a super big headache and lesson learned. But wow does it sting; I just got laid off from my work from home job. And thought "Hey I am ready to hit the road again anyway" and then learned this. And now panicking on what to do next. Waiting to hear back from my unemployment claim first. Then either working while going to trucking school, or ship off. But I would rather work while I go to school. Going a month without pay is going to kill me with bills.

And also, I tried seeing if I could just retest with a schools truck and instructor and they will not. I honestly don't think I could pass the pretrip inspection test at the moment anyway. But I could of just studied for that. I know how to do a pretrip, but I forget the name of all the parts. Was my biggest worry when I first got my CDL. memorizing all the lines.

 

They take your entire CDL? Yeah I could see if they wanted you to test for specifically hazmat endorsement if you haven't been driving. But taking peoples CDL's just seems insane to me. You could go and drive drunk and keep your CDL, just suspended. They claim their is a driver shortage. But then making people that want to drive again jump through hoops. Maybe I could see if you haven't driven in 10 years at all. But yeah, just seems insane to me. I didn't forget how to drive in a year.

 

No, still have CDL. Just dropped hazmat.

 

For about $500, could you briefly "move" to another state which isn't nearly so insane, and go straight to the written test and the road exam?

You got any aunts or uncles or cousins whom you could live with for a few weeks in a different state?

I like the $500 version a heckuva lot better than the $5000 version.