A frequent question asked by folks researching the expediting industry is "How do you get your CDL?" I invite licensed expediters - new and old - to to help our expediter wannabee friends by sharing your story here. Ours is below.
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My wife and me had no truck driving experience before getting into expediting. We got the free CDL maunal from the state and studied from it for our written license and license endorsement tests. We wanted to drive a straght truck, so a Class B license would suffice. Class A licenses are required for a tractor/trailer and are more difficult to obtain.
When we passed our written tests, we gained the permit to drive a commercial vehicle, as long as a fully-licensed driver was present too. That meant little to us since we had no access to a truck.
To prepare for our road tests, we rented the largest Budget Rental truck we could find. They don't rent trucks with air brakes but we were able to practice driving it around for a day anyway. We took it to an empty school parking lot and practiced backing, cornering, etc.
An air-brake-equipped truck was required for the road test. We were able to rent that from a company that provides that service. They line their trucks up each morning at the test site and charge people a fee to use them. For the fee you get one hour of practice driving with a trainer and a pre-trip inspection walk through. You also get use of the truck for the test itself.
The trainer hour is not meant to teach you much about driving. It's more about time for you to get a feel for the truck you'll be driving in the test. That hour helps keep the inspector from leaving his or her teeth in the dashboard the first time you step on the brakes.
The rental truck itself was a joy to test in. It was heavy-duty enough to quallify as an air-brake, Class B license vehicle. It was also short, maybe 20 feet long. It had a back window, rear view mirror inside, and a flatbed where the box (van body) would normally be. We both passed our road tests on the first try.
Because we had no truck driving experience, our carrier required us to take a second carrier-approved road test at a facility of their choosing. We had no trouble with that test either.
When we got in our fleet owner's truck for the first time, he spent a few minutes with each of us driving the truck around a mall parking lot. That was the extent of our training from him. Having seen us drive, he figured we could do just fine on our own.
Then we took his truck out on our new grand adventure. That was a Class 8 (Freightliner Century Class), 40 foot straight truck with an auto-shift transmission. The first few days included a few tense moments but we got through. Our first two loads were in Florida, one in downtown Miami. Our third load took us straight into New York City. While there were some white-knuckle moments, we got through OK.
After a couple of weeks we were very comfortable driving our big (to us) truck. We avoided shifting challenges by insisting on an auto-shift transmission. We avoided the required Class A license training and time and expense by committing to a straight truck.
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My wife and me had no truck driving experience before getting into expediting. We got the free CDL maunal from the state and studied from it for our written license and license endorsement tests. We wanted to drive a straght truck, so a Class B license would suffice. Class A licenses are required for a tractor/trailer and are more difficult to obtain.
When we passed our written tests, we gained the permit to drive a commercial vehicle, as long as a fully-licensed driver was present too. That meant little to us since we had no access to a truck.
To prepare for our road tests, we rented the largest Budget Rental truck we could find. They don't rent trucks with air brakes but we were able to practice driving it around for a day anyway. We took it to an empty school parking lot and practiced backing, cornering, etc.
An air-brake-equipped truck was required for the road test. We were able to rent that from a company that provides that service. They line their trucks up each morning at the test site and charge people a fee to use them. For the fee you get one hour of practice driving with a trainer and a pre-trip inspection walk through. You also get use of the truck for the test itself.
The trainer hour is not meant to teach you much about driving. It's more about time for you to get a feel for the truck you'll be driving in the test. That hour helps keep the inspector from leaving his or her teeth in the dashboard the first time you step on the brakes.
The rental truck itself was a joy to test in. It was heavy-duty enough to quallify as an air-brake, Class B license vehicle. It was also short, maybe 20 feet long. It had a back window, rear view mirror inside, and a flatbed where the box (van body) would normally be. We both passed our road tests on the first try.
Because we had no truck driving experience, our carrier required us to take a second carrier-approved road test at a facility of their choosing. We had no trouble with that test either.
When we got in our fleet owner's truck for the first time, he spent a few minutes with each of us driving the truck around a mall parking lot. That was the extent of our training from him. Having seen us drive, he figured we could do just fine on our own.
Then we took his truck out on our new grand adventure. That was a Class 8 (Freightliner Century Class), 40 foot straight truck with an auto-shift transmission. The first few days included a few tense moments but we got through. Our first two loads were in Florida, one in downtown Miami. Our third load took us straight into New York City. While there were some white-knuckle moments, we got through OK.
After a couple of weeks we were very comfortable driving our big (to us) truck. We avoided shifting challenges by insisting on an auto-shift transmission. We avoided the required Class A license training and time and expense by committing to a straight truck.
