Help From Those Knowledgeable In California CDL Testing Procedures
Topic 19219 | Page 1
I don't think you have any worries. I have my cdl through the Redding office 2 1/2 years ago. I received my permit and endorsements before I started school. The school scheduled me at the dmv for first appointment. It happened to be 6 weeks away. It gave me plenty of time to work on pretrip and skills. Each office is different. I would call the office where you are scheduled to test and confirm. Then you know for sure. The unknown is stressful enough. Good luck.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
I was told at the Arleta DMV you have to wait 2 weeks after you received your permit before you can test, but can add endorsements anytime, even the day before, or day of your skills test. If you really want to know, call the Commercial Licensing Section in Sacramento, they are the ones who the local offices call when they have questions. The number is 916 657 5771, press 1 for english, then 5 to be transferred to the Commercial Licensing Section. I had some issues with getting the right Office to process my tests for my Class A CLP , I have a Class B CDL already and only certain DMV Offices can process my application, they knew what the issue was, and were able to explain why, and verified they had my HME Clearance from TSA. You can get your HME Clearance in Cali before you take the HazMat Test, it is electronically transmitted to DMV from TSA, it only shows up to the DMV folks, and when you test it hem shows up on your license as an endorsement.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
CLP:
Commercial Learner's Permit
Before getting their CDL, commercial drivers will receive their commercial learner's permit (CLP) upon passing the written portion of the CDL exam. They will not have to retake the written exam to get their CDL.
Thanks ChosenOne! That's the way we understood it from the DMV as well, that we can take endorsement tests the day before the driving test if we wanted. We'll call tomorrow though just to be sure. Regarding the HME clearance, I asked the same lady from our school, prior to having even started school, if we should just go ahead and get that process started so it would be ready upon taking our hazmat tests and receiving our CDL's. She told us to wait till we took the hazmat test. Low and behold we took our hazmat tests today and passed and now will be heading into San Jose next week for the HME. As I understand it that can take a long time to process so our hazmat endorsement will likely be held off till well after we're in company training just because of the HME. I love this school in the sense that I feel they're truly teaching us to drive rather than just pass the CDL exam, I'm beginning to have my doubts about their administrative end however!
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
A tip, if you are going to get a TWIC , do not ap[ply for your TWIC at the same time. Go and get your HME clearance first. Once your HME is approved, you can go online and add TWIC without visiting an office, they will use your picture from your HME, and you will get a $20 discount on the TWIC. They will mail your TWIC to your house. If you get your TWIC first, wait until cleared and apply for your HME, the discount is only $19, ever dollars counts. Keep your receipts, both are tax deductible.
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
I don't think you have any worries. I have my cdl through the Redding office 2 1/2 years ago. I received my permit and endorsements before I started school. The school scheduled me at the dmv for first appointment. It happened to be 6 weeks away. It gave me plenty of time to work on pretrip and skills. Each office is different. I would call the office where you are scheduled to test and confirm. Then you know for sure. The unknown is stressful enough. Good luck.
What school or company did you go through. I'm live in Chico CA and am looking for a good company that would pay for my training
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.
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My wife and I received our permits here in California, are currently in CDL school, and received a date of May 4th for our DMV driving exam. Apparently there is a California requirement that you may not take the driving exam within two weeks of obtaining your permit (that date has already passed for us and our scheduled date is well beyond 2 weeks from receiving our permits). Today we went in and both took, and passed, our Hazmat endorsement exams. The office lady from our school just phoned us, slightly freaking out, to caution us that another student (presumably from one of their other schooling locations) went in and took an endorsement test and it pushed his date out another two weeks. This did NOT happen to us today and our earliest date in which the driving test is allowed was unaffected. In fact the lady at the DMV even made it a point to state that we needed to do our other endorsements (we're going in for doubles/triples and tankers next week) before our driving test or there would be a charge to add them after receiving our CDL.
So, my questions are: Has anyone ever had the DMV cancel and reschedule their driving test based upon the dates they took their endorsement tests while being a permit holder? Anyone familiar with any such situation in which you had to wait two weeks from taking the endorsement tests rather than the permit tests?
(We will be calling the DMV tomorrow to insure this is not actually an issue as I'm relatively sure the office lady has absolutely no idea what she's talking about. My wife is freaking a bit though as the DMV is currently closed and, if we were forced to reschedule, appointments are booked way out and it could throw us off by a month.)
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
HAZMAT:
Hazardous Materials
Explosive, flammable, poisonous or otherwise potentially dangerous cargo. Large amounts of especially hazardous cargo are required to be placarded under HAZMAT regulations
Doubles:
Refers to pulling two trailers at the same time, otherwise known as "pups" or "pup trailers" because they're only about 28 feet long. However there are some states that allow doubles that are each 48 feet in length.
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.DMV:
Department of Motor Vehicles, Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The state agency that handles everything related to your driver's licences, including testing, issuance, transfers, and revocation.