Back In The Drivers Seat, Or Am I?
Posted on Mar 03, 2009 - 11:59pm by Tim Wylder in Trucking
Well It has been a good long time since I have posted here. A lot has gone on since I was last seen here. I’ll Make it short for you. I Moved to another state. It took almost a year to accomplish but We did it. I have a dilemma though. My CDL Expires at the end of this month and I just found out that I have to take all the tests over again, including the driving tests. I am more than a little bit upset about this as the state of Alabama would not be making me go through this had I stayed there. But since I moved to Illinois, they don’t trust my Alabama license enough to just give me one in their state. maybe it has something to do with an ex governor here selling CDL’s in the past?
Did I mention that I am unemployed at the moment and looking for a job here. Guess what? The local license office does not supply the ole big rig for the driving test! How do I get the test done without the truck? Did I move to a foreign country or just to another state? It should not be this difficult for truckers to move from one state to another. I guess if I was still over the road It wouldn’t be a problem as I would have the job already and therefore the truck for the test. I had a job lined up but now thanks to the economy it has dried up for now. Is the open road calling me again? Not really but if nothing pans out soon I may have to bite the bullet and deal with it for a bit.
By the way, if anyone is coming through the St. Louis metro area in about two weeks and ain’t scared of me using their rig for the test let me know.
Any and all suggestions are more than welcome as I am pulling my hair out trying to figure this out and still get around to studying for the dad blamed test. Should I just get a regular job and let the CDL go ?
Stay safe out there and keep America moving.
RSS feed for comments on this post | Trackback URI
We're on Twitter!
Hi Tim – I’m a career consultant in the TD industry and I can honestly say I’ve never seen such a high ratio of truckers to jobs. It’s a tough time out there but what you’re going through takes it too a whole new dimension. Funny thing is though, I had a grad out of Trucking School in the Normal, IL area and they gave him the same routine – this is not highly unusual for Illinois for some reason. I’ll put your blog posts through my outlets and hopefully someone will come up with a truck for you to use. Good luck and God Bless out there.
Wow, I wonder how many other states do that? Indiana only requires you to retake the written test – no driving test that I am aware of!
Hope you find work soon
Can’t help you much with the truck, but I am glad to see you back on the intertubes again.
Thank everyone for the comments and support. I had to wait to go to the DMV until today as it is a branch office here and it is only open on Wednesday and Thursday. I got more bad news, not only do I have to take all the tests again including the road test, but there are only a hand full of sites in my area that do the road test and they will only handle a small trailer. I don’t get it? What is the problem with getting a CDL here? I was told by a company that I want to work for that one of their guys went to Effingham to take the driving test and he barely passed with a 40 foot trailer because the lot was so small. Let me get this straight ok, Effingham A city loaded with truck stops cant handle a 40 foot trailer at their CDL license facility? Did I just move to Mexico? I may just get a job farming and let the CDL go for now.
Did I just say that?
Be glad to help you with the tractor if I can Tim, if we can make our schedules match. I’ve also got a friend that might be available as well as my brother who pulls a 45′ tanker.
Sounds almost like Mexico. Down here, we have a three month backup just for the drivers to take the medicals and drug tests to renew their LFC’s.
CANACAR recently started a push to petition the government to allow private labs to be certified to give the D&A tests, as well as the physicals and psychological parts of the process.
Thanks Porter, I guess I need to add an update here. I have been really excited so I forgot about my post here. I got a job not 7 miles from my new homestead! I will run a couple weeks on my Bama License then use my truck to take the test again. Thank you every one for your support in this matter. I will be working for a small refrigerated freight company that runs primarily the mid west out of the St. Louis are and back. Should be home every weekend. I really didn’t want to be back on the road but every door that I opened got closed in my face with the old ” Sorry we are not hiring at this time.” But hey, I got a job! In a dark economic time like this I need to be thankful.
YAY!!! Glad to hear you found a job
Good luck with it!!!