Comments By MissIncognito

Hello, In school and on lunch right now... We are driving today, something I am doing fairly well at. My scare was wet roads, empty trailer, and a sneaky red light....2 of them. The first one I was able to catch it and did my stab breaking. The second one practically didn't make it....and my trailer sliding and my instructor just saying no no no. He told us he's not a believer in panic stops.... So some advice please, on either to run it, down shift? Just stab break?

Try Christian healthcare ministry, it's like a co-op and perfect for larger families.

Thank you for breaking it down. Just thinking that tour bus driver might be paid fit one day when I'm an older lady LOL!

Missincognito, from your update, you may now have two separate questions here.

So, here are two answers:

1) To get a P endorsement, you'll need to pass the written test you've mentioned, PLUS you'll need to pass a driving test using a passenger vehicle.

2) If you get a Class A CDL, you'll also be able to drive class B vehicles.

HOWEVER, if you get the Class A CDL using a semi-truck for the driving test, and if as is common you get the P endorsement by driving a Class B or C vehicle for the driving test, you'll have a restriction on your license saying "no Class A passenger vehicles", or it might just have the code "M". (A Class A passenger vehicle is typically an articulated bus...maybe there are some others I'm not thinking of at the moment.)

I guess what I'm asking is for the skills test part would I have to drive a bus (example: tour bus) in order to complete the endorsement requirements? I know someone with only a school bus endorsement and they said it was a class B license. Currently working on my obtaining my endorsements and wondering if I have a class A license would the skills test for that superceed the other?

I understand with school bus endorsment you have to take and pass the written test and do the skills test with the bus itself. Am I reading the passenger endorsement the same way? Or if I complete my CDL A and the passenger endorsement test will it be enough?

I guess what I'm asking is for the skills test part would I have to drive a bus (example: tour bus) in order to complete the endorsement requirements? I know someone with only a school bus endorsement and they said it was a class B license. Currently working on my obtaining my endorsements and wondering if I have a class A license would the skills test for that superceed the other?

I understand with school bus endorsment you have to take and pass the written test and do the skills test with the bus itself. Am I reading the passenger endorsement the same way? Or if I complete my CDL A and the passenger endorsement test will it be enough?

I understand with school bus endorsment you have to take and pass the written test and do the skills test with the bus itself. Am I reading the passenger endorsement the same way? Or if I complete my CDL A and the passenger endorsement test will it be enough?

I actually thought about that, Audible came to mind. Mostly I'm looking for personal achievement, a real sense of customer service, and getting away from a glass ceiling.

Driving doesn't mean you can't keep thinking. You might explain to your interlocutors that while driving you can listen to books and lectures. You can also have a voice-activated recorder handy and write as you drive. If anything, it's an opportunity to get away from the lure of computers and the distraction of phone calls, and focus on your thoughts. (This assumes, of course, that such activities would be of interest to you.) That time to do nothing but think can produce amazing results. Dr. Kary Mullis, for example, was seeking a way to detect mutations in human genes. Only when he was driving his Honda down a long and winding road in Mendocino County did the idea for PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) occur to him. In his case, knowledge, a problem to solve, and space to think led to a Nobel Prize. Just sayin'.

That is exactly the postings I was referring to. It amazed me with the diversity.

A lot of us have degrees, some of us have multiple degrees. You will find truckers an extremely diverse group of people.

I went to college, was in business for thirty years, and then started working as a trucker. I've met so many people out here who chose this lifestyle as a second career. I still remember a former lawyer, and a former dentist that I met in a truck stop cafe. Our Moderator "Errol" has a most unusual degree, and he was a former teacher.

Brett's Mom wanted to die when he told her he wanted to be a trucker! He had a great mind and was capable of doing a lot of different things.

You really should check out this thread. It's a fascinating show of What we did before becoming Truckers.

I am receiving quite a bit of flack from others who think that I am too smart to want to obtain my CDL and look at trucking as a new career field. When I start to explain why I would consider this, I am shutdown by head shaking and told to use my degrees to look for something else. I have read on here about others who have moved on from other prominent careers and seem to be happy with their decisions. I absolutely know I am ready for a change. Has anyone else dealt with this?

Could you give more detail please.

Be a tanker driver? Not advised at all.

Can you be a rookie and do this?

So as I stated in a previous post after several months of doing flatbed with Prime I realized and made the decision that flatbed just was not for me. I simply am not cut out for it. So I made the move over to our tanker division about a month and a half ago. So after doing the tanker for a little bit now I wanted to stop in and give a quick update and review of our tanker division.

We haul 100% foodgrade products such as different kinds of oils, chocolate, cocoa butter, lots of different things. This means we drive smooth bore tanks so the surge is very real. I had to adjust to being able to shift with the timing of the surge to minimize the impact I felt with each shift and have learned to stop and start very smoothly. I take a lot more caution now and I am the guy you will see taking the exit ramps at 10mph haha. We do run a lot of Northeast and very seldom get west even though I have already had loads to Kansas and Texas. Our primary area though is a big triangle from Newark Nj, Savannah Ga, and Chicago Il. This is where you will spend the majority of your time in this division.

One of my concerns switching over was not being able to run as many miles as I did with flatbed because I had heard our tanker drivers only average 2000-2200 miles a week. However my last few weeks have been 2469, 2897, 3105, and 2655 so the miles and the freight are definitely here so I am not sure what kind of problems the other drivers have been having that I talked to before switching over were having. I am actually making more money than I did in flatbed so that makes really happy. I have a super amazing FM who keeps me loaded and running and I am almost always pre-planned on other loads way before I get empty on my current one.

Here in tanker we do have a little more down time and a little more waiting at shipper and receivers than I did in flatbed however it hasn't been anything too excessive. My longest wait time to get loaded was 8 hours at a cocoa processor in Delaware but the people were super friendly and explained they had an issue inside with equipment that slowed them down and the detention pay I got plus the nap i took was a nice little bonus to that wait. Also we go into some very tight places. Everywhere I have been so far with the exception on one customer has been pretty tight so it is definitely refining my close quarter maneuvering and my backing skills for sure.

I am honestly very happy with my decision to move to the tanker side and I have really fell in love with this. I really do not ever seeing myself doing anything other than tanker. If anyone has any questions about this division here I will be more than glad to help and answer what i can.