Is it true CDL examiners at DMV don't have a CDL themselves?

Yes as an examiner you'd know perfectly well it is illegal to drive a vehicle you are unlicensed to drive. Although I though if you have a person with you with a learner permit then the observer must hold an open license for that particular vehicle type? Which is probably why they should only allow an examiner with a CDL licence to conduct the test hey but that makes perfect sense huh and we all know that when it comes to common sense some government institutions seem to lack it just a tad.

 

The people that make DOT rules/regulations don’t have a CDL either.

 

Often government regulations make little to no sense. Take for example the exemption from having a CDL if you are a fire fighter or police officer, emergency response technician etc. They can operate large commercial vehicles to and from an active emergency but in many states that same operator, who can race to an emergency, is not legal to drive that apparatus in a parade or to the garage for repairs. Going a step further, the driver that moves that fire truck from the manufacturer to the dealer or fire station must be a fully qualified CDL driver but the fire fighter does not. I'm not picking on the emergency responders at all just pointing out the irony of government regulations especially this one.

As for the OP, yes a state employee, even fully qualified with a CDL, is never going to drive a vehicle back to a test site or need to do anything other than tell the permit holder being tested to stop and set the brakes. A third party examiner like myself that is a fully licensed CDL driver and drives almost daily, we would be qualified and maybe tempted but the regulations simply don't allow for it.

 

You may not like it, but not every DMV person has a CDL. This is not changing anytime soon. Further, I don't see a shred of evidence calling this system into question from a safety standpoint. If anything it's been the 3rd party testing that has been a problem over the last 30+ years, NOT DMV testers that work for the state.

 

The CDL tester here didn’t have one, until he had a dude that couldn’t drive, made him stop the truck and she couldn’t drive it back, i only know cause I was called to bring it back to the CDL testing site.
at least they didn’t charge me $150 to drive it back.
No money paid to me either though, just a thanks, off handedly at that.

She has her license now, but if she didn’t, i still won’t go get it again, that’s why they have wreckers, pay them $500 for a hookup.

 

Was that in Jackson? If so then she must have been the same gal who administered my test. When you go to take your test there you have to have a licensed CDL holder drive the truck to the testing site, as well as someone with a car who can drive the CDL holder to the truck and the tester back to the test site if you fail. That's how it's done. Mostly only schools go to that testing site. I don't know if it's any different at other Georgia testing sites, but I doubt it.