Gaining My CDL The Cheapest Way

Thanks for the added info guys. Ill take it all into consideration. I was thinking I would get my permit since that is easy enough and hopefully my buddy can get me into where he is working as a crane operator and if I can prove myself as an asset maybe they will help me get my full CDL. As for why the oil field is slow its mostly do do with we basically have too much oil right now. Our cupith flowith overith so production has slowed and the price is really low cause we have no were to put it. At least that's how i understand it. I could be way off base though.

A couple of other things are, we have a Federal regulation against Exporting crude oil because of long time ago shortages I think, so we have to much on hand right now. Second A lot of our oil is Light Sweet crude (Bakan) which is great except it takes a different refinery to process, which we are short of and nobody wants new refineries built near them.

Here's the Kicker, most of our refineries are set up for heavy crude, which we are still importing, go figger ? Our $$$ still going out of the Country while we're swimming in Oil...

Kalin, what exactly do you mean by "legal bribes?" My husband is looking at getting his Class B on his own so he can work before he's qualified for Swift school (tried private school already and it didn't work out.) He, like you, is not from the US and is waiting out his year of having his US license.

Amanda, please ignore that kinda stuff. I should have deleted it altogether.

Let me interpret this for you:

Yes, you can do it like I did it in Chicago few month ago. Find a friend who can teach you how to drive truck+trailer, it took me 10-15 hours, because I had knowledge from before (in Europe).

I was failed 3 times on the skills, not because I can not drive, but because, as the last examiner explained to me, "you have to go to school, pay them, to get the licence"..

Let me interpret that for you. What he would say if he was being honest is:

I drove in Europe so I thought I knew what I was doing. It turns out things are done quite differently here. I thought I could teach myself to drive or take some shortcuts to save time and money but in the end I was embarrassingly bad. I failed the skills test three times, which is nearly unheard of. The examiners even told me I should have gone to school. But finally I managed to make it through. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But now I'm kind of embarrassed that happened so I'm going to claim that you have to bribe people or go to certain schools in order to pass the test. That way hopefully I won't look so bad.

So there you have it.

Amanda, please ignore that kinda stuff. I should have deleted it altogether.

Let me interpret this for you:

Yes, you can do it like I did it in Chicago few month ago. Find a friend who can teach you how to drive truck+trailer, it took me 10-15 hours, because I had knowledge from before (in Europe).

I was failed 3 times on the skills, not because I can not drive, but because, as the last examiner explained to me, "you have to go to school, pay them, to get the licence"..

Let me interpret that for you. What he would say if he was being honest is:

I drove in Europe so I thought I knew what I was doing. It turns out things are done quite differently here. I thought I could teach myself to drive or take some shortcuts to save time and money but in the end I was embarrassingly bad. I failed the skills test three times, which is nearly unheard of. The examiners even told me I should have gone to school. But finally I managed to make it through. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But now I'm kind of embarrassed that happened so I'm going to claim that you have to bribe people or go to certain schools in order to pass the test. That way hopefully I won't look so bad.

So there you have it.

Great answer Brett. Amanda, I was able to get my CDL-A without going to a school. I rented a truck and after about 10 hours of practicing skills, and 2 hours of road I passed my skills and road test. However, no one would hire me because I did not go to a school. The reason ? Liability ! They wouldn't be able to get me insured, most companies want the certificate from a school that you completed CDL school successfully, so their insurance companies will insure you. Thankfully, I found company sponsored traijing,and am going through somewhat of an extended refresher course. But I have to admit, it's pretty fun and I get all the safety training that I didn't otherwise get on my own. Just can't wait to finish and get on a trainers truck to complete my training and go solo :-)

Of course, I am not saying that ALL schools and ALL examiners are "bad guys" :) Just point that not everything out there is flowers and roses.

I rented a truck and got my CDL-A WITHOUT GOING A SCHOOL AND BRIBING ANY EXAMINER. You probably had trouble on the offset and parallel park

Well I signed up with Prime Trucking. I'm heading to MO from FL tonight. This should give me the necessary education and the requirements for most insurance companies. This is just step one of my multi step plan on being a crane operator. If anyone has any good tips on becoming a crane operator I sure would like to hear what they have to say.