Are they giving tickets for pulling 20K lbs of actual weight behind a 3/4 HD or 1 ton (which probably is unsafe), or giving tickets for putting a trailer rated for a max load of 20K lbs behind one of these trucks?
Big Enough Truck?
- Thread starter SouthernX
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Are they giving tickets for pulling 20K lbs of actual weight behind a 3/4 HD or 1 ton (which probably is unsafe), or giving tickets for putting a trailer rated for a max load of 20K lbs behind one of these trucks?
wkpoor
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Got a friend who has business and says all his drivers have to have a CDL with air but they take the test in his Ford 450 with trailer and the dump truck. What about all the farmers who own semi's for there grain. You think they have the proper training or even a CDL for that matter? The whole farmer thing is where there is a huge loop hole from licensing to equipment.
Diamondpilot
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I do not have a CDL and dont claim to know a thing about it but I do know my neighbor has one and works for the phone company. I asked him this question last night and he said he took his test in a pickup pulling a log pole. He then later got a air brake endorsement when he was assigned a bucket truck with air brakes. That was a few years back but he said he was now authorized to drive anything on the road as long as it did not involve Haz-Mat. Seems crazy, but that is the way the law is written. By the way that is here in Indiana.
Chris
Chris
Farmers are exempt from CDL if driving within 150 miles of home farm where registered. In many states they still have to take a road test in the proper vehicle to get a special "non-CDL" license.
You have to put all of this CDL stuff in perspective. A lot of the training and requirements are good but some of the stuff is overboard and some requirements and enforcement are just moneymakers. Remember, around 40 years ago there were no CDL's and we still got by. My father drove heavy trucks and trailers for 50 years and most of that time never had a CDL. The initial push for CDL's came because some drivers were getting multiple licenses in several states. Now we've gone to the other extreme where the driver of a pickup with a gooseneck is supposed to have the same license as a semi driver.
powerstroke444e
Veteran Member
The tickets are 3 seperate tickets
1. for having no cdl and a combined gvw of over 26001lbs
2. for having more weight than you have been plated for. IE 8000 Btruck plates and the truck weighs 12,000 and 5,000 b trailer plates and the trailer weighs 16,000lbs.
3. more weight than the gwv of the truck or trailer is rated for.
Watch out the DOT has been reading the rules and figured out how make a money with them.(and keep you safe).
1. for having no cdl and a combined gvw of over 26001lbs
2. for having more weight than you have been plated for. IE 8000 Btruck plates and the truck weighs 12,000 and 5,000 b trailer plates and the trailer weighs 16,000lbs.
3. more weight than the gwv of the truck or trailer is rated for.
Watch out the DOT has been reading the rules and figured out how make a money with them.(and keep you safe).
FlaDon
Platinum Member
Yep. And those who pass a weigh station or Ag Insp station should also be forewarned. They need the money and will go after a commercial guy who bypasses one. I've seen it more than once in the last 3 months.
As for the CDL testing for a Class A, Florida will require you to test with a vehicle that meets the requirements. No use of a Class B truck to pass the Air Brake part if you have a Class A with an Air Brake restriction. Some of us were exempted from the road test testing back when the CDLs first came out if we had driven a truck of the class size in the past 6 months and our employers were willing to sign off on it. Still had to do the written though. I've had a Chauffeurs/CDL for almost 30 years now.
The tests aren't that hard so I don't know why people won't do them. One set of tickets as above cost more than most would spend on their licenses in their lifetime. My Class B with Air Brakes cost $55 every 6 years as an example. To upgrade to a Class A would require me showing up with a truck and trailer with air brakes on both that meet the class requirements and taking the driving test. Cost would still be $55 unless it was a tank trailer which would also require a Tank endorsement. Which adds another $5 if non Hazmat. The Hazmat would add over $200 to the cost every 4 years. Even if you drove for 40 years, you still wouldn't get to the $3500 that a set of those tickets can cost.
FlaDon
Platinum Member
Back then they were called Chauffeurs Licenses and some of us had them. They were required and those without who got caught faced fines or worse. One of the changes brought under the CDL program was making sure a driver only had one license. No more multiple licenses being used to protect bad drivers who had fines/point/suspensions/revocations on one license from using a second one in another state.
So if you already have a Class B and need to upgrade to a A for a P/U & GN you couldn't use that rig to take the test?
The federal law says you need to take the test in a vehicle representitve of what you will operate.
FlaDon
Platinum Member
You could take it with the pickup but you would gain tha Air Brake restriction. Idea is to keep you out of the semi unless you test in a semi. You could test in a dump truck with air brakes and a trailer with air brakes and still be legal for the semi though. By the time you get something that large, it's about the same lenght as a semi. If you test with the semi, then you would be covered for a pickup and trailer also.
So let me get this straight
Are they then going to restrict your "B" also?
Would make for an odd looking license if you had a standard "B" with a restricted"A"