Profile For Stomper4x4

Hah fair enough Rick!

I haven't been driving a commercial vehicle so I'm good on that count. I just hope I can get my CDL turned back on with little trouble rather than have to start from scratch.

And thanks for the tip Matt, I'll look into that.

Lyght, I've always found that backing a long trailer is much easier than a short one. When I was new I'd prefer to back a 53 over a pup any day. So at trucking school I hooked to the pups a lot.

To the OP, ask your truck school instructor or your driver trainer to teach you about "Timing the lights" as my teacher put it. Basically it amounts to learning to recognise what a light will do long before you get there. For instance, if a green light is going stale (been green a while) then anticipate it changing yellow and just start slowing down. And when heading towards a light that's red, slow down way early and drive up to it slowly, the idea being that you never actually come to a stop. The key is patience, and not worrying about the guy behind you. You're in a truck, they aren't. Not your job to rush around for their sake.

I drove back in the 90's and now that the kids are grown I'm looking to hit the road again. If it were that horrible I wouldn't be going back. It gets in your blood!

I do have a suggestion about school choice. If you go to a local school, ask them if they have employment agreements with any carriers. I know the truck school in my town gets you conditional offers before you even sign up for the school. Meaning that if you pass everything and get your license, you have a job waiting. When I went to school back in the day, you got your license and just mailed out a pile of applications. Also companies used to come to the school and recruit. I remember Werner being there, the guy went on about how pretty their trucks were the whole time hehe.

I teamed with my wife at the time so we chose a company that offered teams a condo FLD, this was back when most companies stuck teams in cabovers (no thanks).

In my research I've never seen any indication that a truck shut off when HOS was reached. I'm also not sure about "bad" companies. Rather, I think it's about finding a good fit. Yeah you might have to stick out a less than ideal situation for the first year, but then again we all know guys who love their jobs with Swift etc.

The reality is long hours and things being inconsistent. In the old paper log days it was common to be asked to do the impossible (after they told you not to in orientation) so creative logging was the norm. And some companies would run you around NY and NJ a while if you didn't do what they asked. I'm not sure this is possible with elogs, so that might be a positive for elogs rather than a negative. I do think no split logging sucks though. Anyway, if you can handle the unpredictable schedule that's a big thing.

I think DOT has gotten tougher it seems, and fines and liability are a real thing. You're going to have to think safety first and stand up for yourself. No one cares about your safety more than you do. You have to care about yours as well as the motoring public. The risk is too high to let a company make you go over your limits. But that being said, working long hours is the norm, no 8 hour days here :)

Best of luck!

FMCSA Regs regarding medical certs, are "supposed to be uniform" throughout all states as of 2016.

Your CDL will be "downgraded" to an regular operators license upon expiration of your DOT Med Cert.

For the state of Florida - you can log into the DMV and upload a scan of your new Med Card to their Commercial Drivers site and "self certify". At least in my case, after a couple of days I got an email telling me my self-certification was accepted. Keeps me from having to go into a DMV office and present my med card.

If you let your license downgrade, you must TURN IT IN for a regular operators - but can re-instate your CDL upon presentation of a current DOT Med Card.

I'm not sure HOW LONG you can leave it downgraded, without having to re-test to get your CDL back. Most DMV's are pretty vague about that (as is the FMCSA site).

VERY IMPORTANT to keep your med card current, and on file with your states DMV.

Rick

That's what I was looking for! I hope CA works the same as FL. So I'll just run over to DMV with my med card and ask for the right form or have mine reinstated, whatever they do. I've kept my CDL current and always got a med card when I had to renew but kind of fudged it a bit when my license wasn't up for renewal.

Thanks everyone, and thanks Sue, you were right on track also.

There is a local/regional outfit down the road from me that has sleeper trucks and day cabs. They say on their website that they occasionally take new students with a permit or license so I'm going to go and talk to them and see what they can do for me.

Thanks again all!

Thanks guys!

I'm specifically asking about this that came into effect in 2013 it looks like.

I never did this. It used to be the medical examiner would give me a long form, I turned that in, and done.

This is something new. I never did this.

http://www.hireright.com/blog/2013/12/deadline-fast-approaching-cdl-holders-must-self-certify-their-driving-status/

Hey gang,

I used to drive back in the 90's, OTR vans, reefers, and a bit of flats. Now that the kids are grown I'm thinking about getting back out on the road.

So I was chatting with an old driving buddy a bit ago and he asked me if I've done the medical card certifying thing. I had no idea what he was talking about (I've kept my CDL all these years).

I looked it up and apparently a few years back they made a law changing something with medical cards and that we have to send in a form of some sort, and if we didn't our class A was removed from our license.

I never got a letter or any kind of notification, which seems kind of shady....

Has anyone heard if it's a matter of going in and doing that form and get my class A turned back on or am I screwed?

Thanks!