Commercial Drivers License, or more commonly known as CDL, is what we need to obtain employment driving a commercial vehicle. A commercial vehicle is a truck, tractor and trailer, or a bus, with a gross vehicle weight of 26,000 pounds or more. To get a job driving one of these commercial vehicles, you must have a CDL. I have a CDL, but I’m not a professional driver, I’m a mechanic. I need my CDL to test drive the big rigs I repair.
Obtaining a CDL can be time consuming and expensive depending on you. If you don’t have any experience driving a truck or bus you must get some kind of training. You don’t have to go to a school if you know someone who already has a truck, and may be willing to teach you how to drive it. Some companies will also let you “gain experience” by apprenticeship, teaming up with another more experienced driver, but you really need to already have your CDL. Still other companies will even pay to have you go to a driving school, but there’s a catch, you will probably have to sign a contract to drive for them for a certain number of years.
There are over 80 items that you must check on your truck before you go out on the road. This is called the pre-trip inspection or the “walk around”. You must check these items to ensure safety, not only for you, but for the motorists around you. You don’t need anything accidentally falling off of your truck while you are going down the road, or when you are trying to stop you find out your brakes are out of adjustment. You don’t need to be a mechanic to test your truck, but you’ll probably need one if you find something wrong, and the best time to find something wrong is during the walk around.
So you ask: How do I know what to check? Well the answer is you must get a good study guide. Your local license branch has some free material that tells you the basics of what to check, but you may not know all of the terms. Items like “slack adjuster”, “brake chamber”, and “tie rod ends” are just a few of the things that need to be looked at on your walk around. If you get a good study guide, these terms will be easily learned. This “walk around” is also part of your TEST to obtain a CDL.
Ah yes, the dreaded test.
Your test consists of two parts. The general knowledge ("the written test") and the driving test. Everything on the written test will be used during the driving test. Also on the test is an air brake pressure and leak check. Air brake fundamentals are not difficult to understand with the proper training. The written test is not free, and you’ll have to take it at the license branch. If you fail the test, you can take it over and over until you pass with only a one time payment, but then, you have to go back to the license branch. We all know how much fun you’ll have there, so you’ll want to make sure you pass your written test the first time.
When you pass the written test, you will get a permit to drive a commercial vehicle with a CDL licensed driver riding with you in the passenger seat. Once you get some driving experience, practice backing up and parking, then go and take your driving test.
The driving test is divided into four parts. Mess up any one of these parts and you’re done taking the test.
First is the walk around (pre-trip inspection), second is the air brake check, third are backing and docking, and finally the road test. You will “walk around” your truck pointing out various items to check before you take to the road. You will tell the CDL tester what you are looking at and why you are checking it. Next you will test the truck air brake system. Start the engine, build air pressure, (time how long it takes and see if your truck is within specs), work the brake dash valves to check for air leaks, hold the brakes on to check for pressure leaks by reading your air pressure gauge. The pre-trip and air brake parts can be learned easily with a little bit of study and a good memory.
If your truck passes the air brake test and it has to or your test is over, you will start the next segment. Backing up in a straight line, backing up in a serpentine (an “s” like a snake) around cones, parallel parking (yes, just like a car only with a trailer behind you), pulling forward and stopping within a specified distance from a cone, and docking are all done in the CDL test area lot. To get this done, it takes practice in a real truck, but you can do it. Then when you pass that segment, the CDL tester will ride with you on a test drive. This usually consists of getting in some stop and go traffic, safely entering an on ramp to the highway, driving on the highway for a while, safely switching lanes etc., safely exiting the highway, and back to the lot. Guys will screw up by not using their turn signals, or stopping too close to another vehicle. These are things that you should already know being a regular licensed driver. Tips about what the tester is looking for when you are driving are also in the study guide.
Driving tests can cost from $100 up depending on if you use your own truck or have to use the ones available at the test site, which will cost you more, so you want to be sure you know what you are doing. The fee is paid ahead of time, is usually non-refundable, and if you fail, you will have to pay again to take another driving test.
