Profile For Joe E.

Hi. There is no reason to need all 3 lanes. My test course uses the same type here, but 2 lanes, not 3. Hug the left white line before the curve as early as possible. The further away from the curb the tandems are before you even enter the curve, the better. Turn slightly into the middle lane watching the mirrors.

Think of it as "dragging the tandems" away from the curb. Then tandems are your pivot point. When they pivot around the curb, you will be safe to come back into the oane. Once u see the tandems are following about a foot away from the curb, you should be able to turn back into the right lane, preventing the tandems for jumping the curb.

Crossing the double solid yellow line into oncoming traffic is an automatic fail in my state.

I was confused by you saying you should have followed the red line cause I teach it to follow the blue that you posted.

I'm just repeating what the proctor told me. I can see using just the one lane over to the left myself, but he was probably talking about in all of his crazy experiences as a proctor.

Thanks for the tips!

West Seneca course.

The red line is just an illustration for pulling left. The blue line was just made by me to try to show how to take the curve. This curve goes well under 90 degrees so I think it does need to drag the tandems away from the curb as you say.

Fired off that last reply quickly since they just finished loading me.

Here's the street view looking at the problematic turn.

What is it with your test that's causing you to fail? Are you hitting the curb? Getting too many points?

With the turn you shared I don't believe you would need to use oncoming traffics lanes at all. If you take that turn as wide as possible you'll be safe. Keep an eye on your tandems as they round the curve and go wider if you need to. You'll get points if you swing too wide to the point some car tries to squeeze by on the right though so watch your tandems. Other than this turn how is the rest of your test route you have trouble with?

Out of curiosity did your school take you on the route before testing? My school the final week the 4 of us alternated driving the route so we had it down.

The proctor said he has seen people move over all 3 lanes to avoid hitting the curb. I did hug the left line and still hit the curb 3 times.

I really wish my school took us through this route but for some reason it is 1.5 hours away from the school.

The rest of the course is ok. The first right turn is tough because it’s a two lane road and there isn’t a lot of extra pavement to make sure the tandems clear the curb. But I got it ok.

What about the course completion certificate for the mandated ELDT?

I have one. If I need a specific format I will get it from the school. I believe it is on my record with the DMV already. I never had to produce it myself when testing with the school.

Unfortunately, your plight is not that uncommon. In my neck of the woods (Washington state) there are several truck schools where approximately HALF the students earn their CDL in the first two tries.

With the school I went to they are

You know who has the trucks, the insurance and the ability to help you pass your CDL drive test? Truck schools. Call the schools in your area, explain your situation and see who is willing to help you out. It's not cheap. The going rate for a truck either to get additional practice with or to take the DMV test is $800+ PER DAY! It's up to you to decide if you're close enough to passing that it would make more sense to start over at another school or bite the bullet and pay for a truck.

I did find a school nearby that is willing to help for $750! I will be doing that. Thank you for the advice!

I priced out renting a truck from Ryder and trailer and paying a driver $50 an hour - unknowns were insurance and fuel, but it added up to about the same amount.

I have my own company so Ryder was willing to talk to me. They like experienced businesses doing rentals.

Here is the turn I screwed up. I should have taken the red arrow, but didn’t. Next time.

P.S. I have the training completed. So if it's not in their system it would be a minor paperwork hassle to make sure it is. But since I'm a return customer with NY DMV, they should know this.

I'm just finishing up school, trying to get the CDL, and my advice would be - take a look at the CDL test, and learn each section of it. The school might not teach to the test, but I sure wish mine had!

Oh and practice right hand turns... they are a pain! But you will get it.

Hi, I don't know how unusual my situation is but it sure feels lonely. l maxed out on the number of times my school was willing to help me test. I failed the road test portion of the CDL Exam. I'm willing to pay to have a truck and trailer and driver help me just take the exam one more time. My school did NOT prepare me well for the exam and I had to learn backing on my own during prep time, and the same for outside inspection. Driving they gave me plenty of and I have the inside inspection down - but I got caught on a very difficult banana turn. A very common mistake in the drivers test I took. Anyhow if anyone has any suggestions on how I can finish this portion of the test, I'd appreciate it. I'm not particularly looking for criticism, just advice on finishing the road test.