DMV Road Test Experience

I wanted to share my road test experience with you guys and see if yall had similar situations. I tested on a 07 Volvo day-cab with an 8 speed tranny and a short trailer. I blew past my pre-trip and I had to do a pull up on the curve back, but other than that everything was going smooth. Then came time for the road test. We tested in a commuter parking lot right off of I-95 in Woodbridge, Virginia. Its about 15 miles from DC. As soon as we left the parking lot I realized that the speedometer on the truck was not working properly and that it was stuck at 15 mph. I remembered the instructors at school tell us not to mention anything wrong with the truck because the examiner would shut the truck down for the day and nobody would get to test that day. So, as far as I was concerned, the speedometer was working perfectly, that is until the examiner said to me "I don't think the speedometer is working". I just looked straight and didn't say a word to him, hoping that he would leave it at that. He brought it back up about 4 minutes later and said "You are in 6th gear, but you are only going 15 mph?", I looked at him and gave the dash a good couple of taps and to my relief the speedometer went up to about 35 mph. I said " Nah, it was just sticking a little bit but it's working fine now". He wrote something down on the Ipad that he had and we kept on trucking.

We came up on a red light, so I slowed down and came to a stop about 3 cars back. Light turns green and I started back up from 2nd gear. Now, in VA for whatever reason they do not allow you to shift while in an intersection and they do not want you going through yellow lights, I understand the reasoning for the second half. I hit 3rd gear before going past the white line, and as soon as I went past it the light turned yellow. The truck is only doing 15 mph tops in 3rd gear and now I can not shift. The examiner starts yelling "Whoah, Whoah, Whoah", to which I responded " I already had crossed the white line when the light turned therefore I couldn't stop or I would of been blocking the intersection, and I can not go any faster because you people wont let me shift until the truck is out of the intersection". I know the light turned red before the truck was out of the intersection, so I basically ran a red light. Again, he wrote something down on his Ipad and we kept trucking.

I was freaking out as we were pulling back into the commuter parking lot because after "running" a red light and the problem with the speedometer, I was almost 100% that the examiner was going to say " I'll will see you next time". He had been having guys come into the lot from the front, which is nice and wide and there is no chance you can hit a curb unless you try. He told me to go in the back way, it was really tight with about 4 90-degree turn and rows of cars on either side of the truck. I just took it nice and easy and made sure to make nice wide turns. To my surprise, after parking the truck he said "I was impressed with the way you drive and specially after making it look so easy to come around the back way. Most new guys have to pull up and back up to make those turns. I will go ahead and write up your certificate that you can take to DMV".

At this point I jumped out of the truck and started skipping around like a little school girl, but I did not care, I had gotten my CDL and that was all that matter to me. I though about maybe doing a backflip but then I figure fat people and backflips don't mix.

Anyways, this is my crazy road test experience.

Ozzy

Nice update Ozzy but you did not run the red light, as long as the front of the vehicle crosses the stop bar(white line) you have entered the intersection lawfully. Good job, Chilly

That is what I figured. Our instructors however, told us that our vehicle is supposed to be fully out of the intersection before the red light comes on. Either way I wasn't about to stop past the white line and take a automatic failure, I figured I take my chances and it worked.

In Arkansas you have to be through the intersection before the light turns red. If you can't clear the intersection before the red light you can get a ticket.

In pa we have a law that is called point of no return its where if ya cannot come to a complete safe stop without leaving 50 ft of black mark,place hand on horn be ready to blow it and continue .but don't race a yellow light to do this.it is a slim zone ya have to be right on top of the light for it to pass through court.BC if ya watch a light and learn the smith system or also known as 5 keys of driving,it clearly teaches ya to watch a light if ur coming upon a light that has been green awhile its called a stale grenn and will change soon.

Rebel,

In VA the point of no return isn't a law. As far as the stale green lights, I know all about them. My problem was that I had just started going and was only in 3rd gear when I crossed the white line. The green light was only green for about 10 seconds at most, and we were on a major avenue (Not sure why it turned yellow so quick). Guy is right about the ticket, in VA if any part of your vehicle is still in the intersection and the light turns red you can get a ticket for running a red light.

Good work sir the main thing is you got your cdl A license and did you mention something to the school about the speedometer?

Thank you. Yeah, I let the school know. They actually have know about it for about 3-4 weeks and one of the instructors tried to fix it but he told the school that the truck needs a new gauge cluster. I guess the school is a little cheap and don't want to pay for a new one.