Hipa will protect you from that experience but you will be hair tested and that will go back 6 months. you can be drug tested at any time by your employer or any law enforcement officer once you get your cdl. you will be tested after any accident or work related injury and at the start of employment you will also be subject to random drug testing so you better be sure you are quitting. this can be dangerous work.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
My School pulled our background (the one the most companies use) and our vehicle reports so that we knew what *most* companies we applied to would be seeing so that we would know what to disclose. Don't want to lie about anything but no need to volunteer any information either.
As to the hair follicle vs. UA test, there is a thread here that might be of some assistance-but that's down the road-after school anyway. Keep staying clean. Most companies only go back 90 days for the follicle test anyway.
You've come to the right spot for help.
Good Luck.
Cross posted with Michael and I just want to echo what he said-you need to be clean regardless of what test is used. :)
I'm aware I need to be clean. As much time and effort as I will be putting into this career and as much as I feel its a good fit for me. I wouldn't want to take the risk of losing all of that because I got high with my buddies on my time off. I don't agree with it. I can get ****faced the night before and drive in the morning, but get high a month ago? You're fired and can't find another job as a cdl driver with any company worth driving for. It sucks, but I'm willing to give up my ability to get high in favor of a solid career I enjoy. So I will be quitting for good.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
I have a few unrelated questions as well.
There's a local vocational school (they offer high school vocational classes as well as adult classes, its the same place I took my 5-hour course). They offer a cdl class. It costs $2000 for cdl b, and $3900 for cdl a. The course is 150 hours for cdl a, and includes 50 hours of class, 50 hours observing, and 50 hours driving. The class takes 5 weeks start to finish. And from what I gather, when you get out you will be ready to take your road test (if they don't provide that as well, I didn't ask). I can get $2000 of the cost funded, guaranteed. The other $1900 I'm not sure about, but I feel like it wouldn't be too hard to find funding. They don't accept pell grants or any other grant though, unless the person I spoke to was ill-informed about that aspect.
So is it worth avoiding the potential nightmare and setting yourself up for failure that signing up with an on the road company that will train you is? Will I have trouble finding a job after completing the course privately (the school isn't a nationally recognized name by any means, I doubt they're even recognized in the closest major city)?
I have also only been driving about a year, fairly heavily. My driving record is totally spotless. But I still feel like a year of driving is inexperienced, and I'm sure the companies I want to hire me will too. So will that hinder my ability to get hired? I'll assume it will have some effect, at best I'll have to accept a little lower pay for a year or two. At the same time this could be a benefit. I know a lot of schools/trainers/instructors hate "experienced" drivers because they've picked up lots of bad habits over the years that are difficult to break. So naturally after driving for only a year, I'll have few of these bad habits. But I'll also be ill prepared to deal with some scenarios a seasoned driver will know how to handle. I do have winter driving and bad conditions down though. I live in NY. The first time I drove I couldn't see more than 5-10 feet in front of the car because it was snowing so badly (it was dusting when I started, closer to home I got the worse it got). I had to drive 15-20mph on a 55mph rural highway the whole way home with my hazards on. And that was at the start of winter, so I got tons of driving experience in winter right from the start. That's probably what saved me from the accident, I learned early how to feel my vehicles traction and judge my stopping ability. I also learned quickly to plan ahead and constantly scan the road and the edges of the road/tree line, because deer don't give a rats ass if its snowing like mad and your tires are just barely gripping the road, in fact they seem to love playing in traffic the most when these conditions are present. I generally see pedestrians and am considering what they're planning on doing well before I need to think about reacting. And I'm always checking the wheels of vehicles at intersections for movement as I go through. I feel like I am pretty good at driving and doing it safely. But the company I want to hire me won't necessarily know that.
I've been in one accident about 9 months ago. No police report was filed because the owner of the vehicle I was driving didn't want to call the police even though I did. I wasn't at fault, I was pulling out of a parallel parking spot and had checked about 10 times to make sure I was clear as this was the first time I'd pulled out of a parallel parking spot. Just as I got on the road and started pulling away a car appeared next to me in the median engine revving more than it should and her speed much faster than mine, I hit my brakes and stopped, and she pulled over into the front left quarter of the car I was driving. She had pulled out of a driveway behind me, accelerating way too fast, not paying attention to the road but instead talking to her grandkids looking at them through her rear view. I had checked this spot and there was a building blocking her from my view. I asked if she was turning or going straight, she said she was going straight. Well I don't know any case where you use the median to go straight so that is a dead giveaway she was at fault. The damage was minimal due to the low speed, and nobody was hurt. The owner of the car I was driving had to cover their damage on their own insurance due to the lack of a police report though. So I don't know if I was listed as at fault, or if there's even really a record of the accident. Any information on this and what impact it has on my ability to get a career as a cdl driver is welcome.
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Operating While Intoxicated
I did give a statement to the insurance company detailing the accident. So they most certainly do have a record of the accident. But will a company hiring me have a record of this? Is this something I should list on an application? Who would legally be considered at fault if my insurance had to cover it? The insurance company basically refused to fight the other drivers insurance company without a police report. They didn't necessarily say I was at fault, just that they weren't willing to go after the other insurance company without a police report, and too much time had passed for me to file a report.
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I'm 24. I didn't get my permit or drive for the first time until I was 23 because my father lost his license drinking and driving habitually and never had a vehicle or license to teach me to drive with. I've loved driving since I started, and I consider myself pretty good at it. I'm very aware of my surroundings (both driving and in general), and I handle panic scenarios very well. Prime example, I was driving in slippery conditions a couple weeks ago in a car I'm not very familiar with (Chevy Monte Carlo), that doesn't handle winter weather well, and I'm pretty sure doesn't have winter tires on it. The snow is melted here but we got a dusting that day and somehow it made for very slippery conditions. I was driving in a 30mph at 20mph. A blazer in front of me (with much better traction) stopped abruptly to make a left turn with no turn signal. I applied my brakes softly and gradually, and the tires locked up. I immediately felt and heard them lock up, let off the brake, regained traction, and repeated. Again they locked up, I repeated the process. No matter what I did, I couldn't gain traction and I was quickly hurtling at the blazer in front of me. There was a guardrail to the right of me, and oncoming traffic to the left. I quickly realized I was trapped, and probably going to crash, so I started looking for the best way to minimize risk. I moved over towards the guardrail as much as possible. My plan was to use the guardrail to slow me down as grinding along a guardrail is a much better option than slamming into a blazer. At the last moment I slammed on the brakes and kept the car close to the guardrail. I stopped literally an inch from the blazer, without damaging anything. In hind sight, less speed and more space would have prevented this whole thing. Lesson learned. But I feel I handled the scenario well. I stayed calm (even though my heart was pounding through my chest), I kept control of the car, and my actions turned what looked like a guaranteed accident into a near miss. I was also about 5 car lengths from the blazer in front of me before the ordeal started, which had a massive impact on my ability to save the situation. I'm always keeping way more than enough space between my car and the car in front of me, and this is why. And I've picked these good habits up after only a year of driving.
I enjoy racing games (the more realistic the better), I have played euro truck simulator 2 for quite a few hours, I love driving. I've never drove a standard, but I don't feel like it will be something I'll have too much trouble picking up. I'm pretty good with muscle memory and timing/coordination.
So I've decided trucking is something I want to try out. Here is the problem. I've smoked weed fairly heavily since I was 15. I'm fine with quitting for a career in cdl. Partially I've grown out of it, and partially I love driving enough to make quitting well worth it. Save me the speech about "weed has no place in this industry" etc etc. I don't smoke and drive, I wait a good 3-5 hours since last time smoking before driving, if I even drive again that day (generally when I smoke I'm in for the night, I don't like doing **** high). I don't drink, and I certainly don't drink and drive. I'm constantly getting on my friends case for drinking and driving and offering to drive for them as I'm usually sober, and love to drive anyway. Other than weed I've taken pain killers recreationally on occasion.
So I take my road test next month and I want to get my cdl shortly after. I plan on quitting weed a couple months before I go for my cdl permit. I'm not sure about private school or sponsored yet. Once I quit I'm done. I have accepted that weed is no longer a part of my life until maybe after I've retired if it looks appealing then.
About 3-4 months ago I applied for temporary assistance, I was with a psycho woman at the time who called social services after an argument and told them I was a drug addict to try and spite me. So they sent me to a local addiction recovery counseling center. I failed for marijuana. I never completed the program as I got denied for temporary assistance. I've never failed or refused a drug test for work, never failed or refused a sobriety test. I have no points on my permit. I've never even been pulled over.
I'm researching a cdl and seeing a lot of mention of drug history. I'm aware urine can be cleaned in 30-45 days. But hair lasts 3 years (I think). I can clean my urine, but not my hair.
So my question is, is this something I should mention on an application? Can they find out about the failed urine sample at the addiction recovery center? Will they turn me down because of this?
When I ask if I should mention it I don't ask morally, I ask in terms of if I don't mention it, will they find out? I'm certain any mention of marijuana in the past few years will get you denied. So no, I don't plan on mentioning it because it won't effect my driving, as I won't be smoking it.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles: