Millis requires at least 6 months experience of you get your CDL elsewhere.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Agreed. Check with millis. I’ll be starting potentially August 17, if I can get my cdl permit and dot done by then. If not, I’m looking at Sept 14. My biggest fear/concern is with backing. I’ve tried ( and sucked at) backing a utility trailer and a uh auto trailer with my Ford Expedition a few times, but it never goes how I want it to. I’m confident that with training, I’ll get it figured out. Hopeful, anyway. If I quit my job and then don’t make it through training, I’ll have a whole new set of problems, lol.
Bill will get you fixed right up. Takes work and focus but he is an excellent instructor.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.
With where you live definitely call Millis right away. With covid they've limited class to 3 students and they need bodies. I had 5 students in my class and got tons of backing reps in richfield Wisconsin in the dead of winter with snow and ice everywhere. 3 students would mean even more. You might actually get too many reps and start overthinking.
My biggest fear/concern is with backing. I’ve tried ( and sucked at) backing a utility trailer and a uh auto trailer with my Ford Expedition a few times, but it never goes how I want it to. I’m confident that with training, I’ll get it figured out. Hopeful, anyway.
The shorter the trailer, the quicker it turns. Make smaller movements with your steering wheel in your personal vehicle.
I drove 53' trailers for three years and then pulled 40ft reefer cans (containers) to the port....no backing there. Getting a load to head back to the meat plants, required backing to a door. It took a few weeks to get used to the shorter trailer. After a year I went back to a 53 ft reefer....so much easier to back even when the tandems are sucked in under the trailer.
Laura
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
A refrigerated trailer.
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You’re right! I asked my recruiter a million questions today. :)
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
DOT:
Department Of Transportation
A department of the federal executive branch responsible for the national highways and for railroad and airline safety. It also manages Amtrak, the national railroad system, and the Coast Guard.
State and Federal DOT Officers are responsible for commercial vehicle enforcement. "The truck police" you could call them.