CDL Testing On Hold Because Of Covid

Greetings My trucking school in SoCal informed us a couple days ago that the California DMV is shutting down in-vehicle testing as of last Friday because of the latest COVID surge. Don’t know when they will re-open. My class was supposed to test the upcoming Friday. So close yet so far away. Instead, the school is paying for us to go to a trucking school in Phoenix to test because they have their own DMV on premises and their governor hasn’t shut them down like ours has. So, we’re all driving over, staying in a hotel and the next day late in the afternoon doing some classroom time (we have to know their way of teaching) and then doing our pre-trip/air brake/in-cab/skills/on the road testing at night! Our school has assured us that it’s a lot easier testing over there (40’ trailers instead of 48’ in a 53’ parallel box, no 90 degree dock backing test, 15 minute road test) and they would only send their worst students there to get them passed. So I’m fine with that solution but the only unknown is when will OUR DMV reopen so we can get our California class A license finalized. I thought about just getting my class A as a Arizona license but I have no physical address over there to present to their DMV. Several trucking companies I applied to keep calling asking about the hold up but I just explain they’ll have to wait. I’m hoping the vaccine will start making things better once millions of people get it but with Christmas/New Years coming I’m sure there will be another surge of hospitalizations in the prior weeks after.

I’m glad they have a solution. Just remember that smaller trailers will maneuver a little more quickly NDA can get away from you if you aren’t careful. No biggie though. Good luck!

I'm curious what school that is in Phoenix, Baron, do you know...is it called "Phoenix" or "Southwest" or "Roadmaster"?

It was called “Phoenix Truck Driving Institute”

I'm curious what school that is in Phoenix, Baron, do you know...is it called "Phoenix" or "Southwest" or "Roadmaster"?

Hi Baron T.

That photo looks like the training yard I checked out in Lakeside/Santee. At the one I checked out United & Western truck schools were sharing the same yard. Assuming you went to United, how was the training there, crowded?

I called Yuma Truck Driving School. They said $3995 (about the same as Western & United I would have thought AZ might have been a bit cheaper than CA) for the 160 hour class A and said they could transfer it from AZ to CA DMV for pick up at El Centro or any of the DMVs in San Diego, no problem. I do take that with a grain of salt. I might have to put in more leg work than they led me to believe. It looked like they had a large paved training yard on Google Earth.