Profile For Dave T.

No edit button? Double post it is 😂 just found this page after a google search. They require a 16 hour class now that can also be done online.

Class info here

A guy I work with started CDL school the other week. He works at the railyard where our tankers get loaded everyday so he’s already had some experience. He wants to get into hauling fuel tankers like we do so he’s going to school. I told him he should go ahead and get his endorsements while he’s on his permit like I did which saved me a bunch of money. That was 14 years ago. He said he was studying for the tanker & double/triple tests but for the hazmat, he’d have to take a separate class at the driving school. Apparently when they changed the regulations back in February about needing to go through a CDL school (or training through a provider on their list), they also changed the rules for the hazmat stuff. You still have to go through the old process (background check, fingerprints and computer test) but now you also have to take this class. I haven’t been able to find much info on it for some reason but here’s a screenshot from a site that had some info:

Link to website from screenshot

Had anyone else heard anything about this? I mentioned it in another thread where someone was asking for info on becoming a new driver but I figured I’d put it out front here for the whole class.

So, to make sure I understand. Even if the company only does flatbed single trailers who trains me, If I study and take the tests for my permit for multiples and tanker, I'll still get those endorsements on my CDL without having to do anything on my final test?

Yes, all you do is take the tests on the computer at the DMV.

Does this work for hazardous materials too?

Yes, that's correct. It's only a computer test.

The endorsement tests are only on the computer, you won’t need any equipment to pre trip and test on. However, just recently, atleast in the state of VA, you now have to take a hazmat course through a certified driving school (from what I understand) to be able to get your endorsement now. For those of us who already have it, to re-new all we have to do is take the computer test as usual.

Cool! Yeah, I picked up a load earlier this morning from the Home Depot DC about a Mile away.

I'd rather be back in Hagerstown than my current delivery location in Secaucus, NJ.

I’d rather be anywhere than setting foot in the state of NJ 😂

I’m not sure about companies that offer training but one thing I’ve told people who are wanting to get into the field is to try and get any endorsements you want while you’re on your learners permit. If you go and take the tests for the doubles/triples and tanker before you get your license, it’ll save you some money since they’ll already be on your license when you take your final test. I got my tanker and doubles/triples on my learners permit and didn’t have to pay anything for them.

I'm currently at the Pilot in Hagerstown, MD. The one where they try to kill out of shape drivers by making them walk up a two storey flight of stairs from the pumps to the store.

Whenever I'm here I recall that this was the first truck stop I actually slept at. I was with my trainer at USXpress at the time. I had a nice, easy straight back into a parking spot. Who else remembers the first truck stop they slept at?

Hey, that’s my home town! I climbed those steps many, many times. That’s one of the places my driving instructor took us to practice backing up when I was in driving school which wasn’t to long after that opened. The AC&T across the road has the best fried chicken too. They’ve just opened a brand new rudders truck stop down 81 in WV off exit 16 west that people probably don’t know about yet. I’m living 200 miles south in Roanoke now.

If they paid me to do it full time and paid for all the supplies, I’d probably be the company detailer. I can’t stand that our tanks have acid streaks and the trucks aren’t kept in a cleaner state. I spent 12 hours off the clock this past weekend polishing the wheels out and waxing the cab of my Anthem. We have a crew that comes in every weekend and washes them but they do a **** job and they look just as bad after they wash them. We only have 10 trucks so it wouldn’t be trying to keep up with a whole fleet.

When I used to jockey, it happened at least once a week where I’d have a driver come in to drop a trailer and forget to put the legs down. They’d expect me to fix it… even had one guy drop his loaded trailer and try to leave the yard without fixing it. I’d have them crank it up high enough where I could get under it then have them crank the legs down. For some reason, our outside carrier drivers would crank the **** out of them and leave them higher than they needed to be which resulted in many, many jumped 5th wheels. I always told my guys to leave the legs about 1.5-2 inches off the ground when dropping one to prevent that. Where I’m at now I have a dedicated trailer so we don’t run into it very often but our trailers (tankers) have manual legs without cranks. Drop one of these and you’re waiting on a wrecker.

Driving a dump bucket, you’ll always have a job somewhere. I hauled milling machines for a while and a lot of the companies we worked with to mill and fill the asphalt had a fleet of private contractors who hauled the millings along with their company drivers. Those guys worked circles around the company drivers because they were getting paid by the ton and their trucks weren’t governed. With that being said, if you wanted to O/O a dump bucket, there are opportunities to do so. If you’d rather be a company driver, there’s lots of jobs for that too but you’re subject to their hours and jobs which can really suck. The ones I see every day are hauling road salt. It comes in by rail and is hauled by the dirt dummies (my term for dump truck drivers) to the salt domes. You’ll make more money as an owner operator just like in OTR work but you’ll be able to work the hours you want to work and haul what you want to haul. That also comes with the expense of owning your own truck too. There are OTR dump drivers too but they’re hauling all kinds of stuff. One came into the rail yard the other week and dumped a load of scrap metal that looked like parts of a train.

Dave T.,

That's really fascinating, to me !!!!

I learned AutoCAD back in the day, too. Attempted to, would be a better word. Even with my strong math & physics skills, I never really got the '3D' of it all. Stuff like this, is what you did ?!?!?

Yes, I mainly used AUTOCAD to do all of my drafting until Solidworks came out. I spent countless hours behind the yoke with my pencil and paper with all my measuring instruments taking extremely detailed sketches drawing the different instruments. I had to crawl all over those planes and even walked the wings a few times on the big planes or lying on my back under them working upside down 😂. A lot of the time the mechanics, the sheet metal guys and the electricians would just build something from scratch to make it work and then I’d have to go and basically reverse engineer it and turn it into detailed drawings on the computer. It was all hush hush kinda stuff so I can’t go into details but it was pretty awesome stuff.

It’s completely different for me; If I drive more than 100 miles, it’s been a long tiring day. My furthest stop is only 8 miles one way but I might make that trip 6 times a day with an hour or more to load and 20 minutes to 1.5hr to unload. Traffic is a big factor too. Even with that little bit of driving, I’ve still been working 11.5 hr days which is nothing compared to OTR. When I used to drive OTR, I’d try and push to get that 600 miles in a day but back then, my truck was governed at 63mph. That was a huge safety risk since all the highways are 70 around here. I’ll never forget the time they sent me to Phoenix in my 63mph truck. Those guys would holler at me on the radio to get on the shoulder with my 4 ways on if I was going to drive that slow on I-40… little did they know I had my foot to the floor. I was still able to hit 3k miles a week consistently though.

Those condo sleepers are getting outa control 😂

Even with FMLA, it’s still not a guarantee that you’ll still have a job when your ready to go back to work. I lost my job after having a big time surgery on my leg. I hit the 12 week mark and they cut me loose. It ended up being a year and a half before I could get back to work though due to complications from the surgery. They offered my job back as a new hire but I was more interested in the seniority, pay rate and vacation time. The job was a major factor in needing the surgery so I decided not to go back. The worst part was losing my insurance in the middle of the recovery process and I had to fork a lot of money out to pay for COBRA. Always have a backup plan if things go south.

So I used to work for Dedicated Logistics Inc which in short is DLI. We called it Driving for Less Income. Management hated that one. We had swift as one of our outside carriers so when they came in, we knew we were dealing with drivers from Stevie Wonder’s Institute For Truckers. Most of the time they’d end up hitting something and they say “Sorry, Will Insurance Fix That?” 😂 We can’t forget that TMC is the Trucker Marine Corps.

I’m really enjoying the Anthem I’m driving now. So much so that I’m planning on spending a whole weekend off the clock to polish it up like a new penny. But, I’m with the others on this one. I know what those guys are making and how much time and work they put in at UPS. I’d stick with them for the money alone. I know they have changed their facial hair policy but what has kept me away from them is my beard 😂 I’ve spent way to much time and effort to shave it off for a stupid job. My driving instructor way back when I was in school always told us that a truck is a truck is a truck. They all drive and make money, they just look a little different.

Our company has a few empty Anthem daycabs right now and we’re in need of drivers. They’re 2019 models with less than 100k miles on them too. Gotta saddle up at a suicide jockey though 😂

Was it a scratch on the side of the truck or the driver? How could it be a fatal if it was only the truck? Did the driver have a medical emergency as a result? I think the cops would have mentioned that but unless you physically hit the driver him/her self… 🤷🏻‍♂️

Cool pic, Dave T. ~ is that your yard?

Yes, it’s a very small family owned company with about 10 trucks…all but one are Macks.

Well, here it is. The pups run at sun up 😂

Took this yesterday morning when I got to work. The pups run at sunup.

For some reason my picture won’t show up? Super Noob here 😂

Took this yesterday morning when I got to work. The pups run at sunup.