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I'm 75 and have been retired for 10 years. I have a Class A with all the endorsements and I keep it all up except hazmat. Hazmat changes all the time and it's easy to pick up again if the need should arise. I figure that if the economy should go bust, I can always pick up a driving job of some kind, even if it's driving school bus...speaking of hazmat.

Here in PA you can get a physical card exemption while keeping your CDL if you are not driving a commercial vehicle for profit.

Pa has a thing where you can have your license listed as inactive.
I still have a cdl, still on the card, but I'm listed as inactive and I have to present
a current physical, then I'm reactivated.

Gave up my Hazmat a couple cycles ago,

$100 plus for the background checks and fingerprinting, having to retest every renewal. Getting a new endorsement is exactly the same, except a $5 permit fee before you test. That was an easy one!


You can't just test for cdl anymore.
You have to have a certain number of hours under a certified trainer.
Another racket pushed by the schools and mega carriers.
A boy driving dad's dump truck, had ridden with dad for years.
Dad can't teach him the job, then let him prove himself to the tester.
Nope. That kid gotta pay Da Man Da Money.
Even if that Nitwit had a whole year driving an automatic for
Johnnie (B Swft) Schneider.
And Dad was a cigar chewing two sticker for 30 years.



Sorry japlover, somehow I missed your post.




Pretty sure the certified trainer thing is nationwide.

Find a junior college / community college that offers CDL classes.

Cheaper alternative..

You just moved to Arkansas and already lost your job? Is that what I’m gathering?

Might have moved to AR after he lost his job?

Still, seems strange, eh?

Naw man, I’m pretty sure I recall a round of furious threads about rental uhauls, moving to arkansas, I was following along and cheering for him.
It was all about home prices this and that

Maybe it was someone else

Same dude, but I think the home price thing and cost of living in CA/OR or wherever he was made him consider AR.

Might have had a job or was looking for one in the AR wine areas? Maybe that kind of fell through.

Too much to keep track of.

Too many inane slingshot threads and the like.

It’s not a lot to keep track of, unless your brain is half styrofoam from watching spaghetti westerns for 40 years

Them autos are the only way to fly when unloading into the gomaco concrete machine or a transfer dumping AC into the asphalt paver….. waaaaay less piles on the ground lol.

Might be more like hashish and beer induced dementia.

Wrong. I get a military pension with health and in 2 years I will draw a teaching pension with health. Just sayin...

MAC, are teachers not unionized in your area?
Outside private schools (and I'm honestly not sure about them) most, if not all, the schools are unionized around here.

Couple of points:

If you want to keep your CDL but not do the physical every couple of years, most states allow your to switch your CDL to "intra state exempt", which does not need a med card. I did that for years to keep mine active.

As far as experience, that's strictly insurance driven. Local jobs, mines, construction, and agriculture, as examples, don't have the typical commercial trucking insurance, so can be more flexible on bringing on someone who is has been inactive. Our insurance will not even allow me to hire someone with less that 2 years experience in similar equipment.

Finally, there is NO requirement for a CPAP in the law. Not even an official guideline. The whole "sleep study" gimmick was pushed by one of the members on the advisory council -- who happened to own a bunch of sleep clinics. SOME examiners are following the suggestions and send people for sleep studies. SOME use common sense. Don't go to the wrong examiner. There is NO legal requirement for examiners to insist on CPAP use.

It was him I remember they had a lab and was going to stuff it in the car the uhual was towing because mother didn’t want it riding with her. We all asked why didn’t he let Fido just ride with him in the U-Haul.

Both of my sons are driving. The youngest went to CDL course at the local college and just finished driving his year in the NE US and is driving for a good company now out of Dallas. The other went to driving school locally and is delivering crushed limestone from a local quarry to get his years experience in. The first year driving jobs don't pay like an experienced driver here.

Work 16-20 hours a day for a few months driving during harvest season and take the rest of the year off. You can find some excellent places to whitetail hunt also.

What's harvested in your area?




Have at least a few year to retirement, buy I've been looking for THAT gig.
The one that might let a guy bail out early and earn enough to pay the insurance bill.

Several truck drivers I know here in Arkansas are crying the blues. Claiming that their loads have been reduced and their miles have dropped. Not sure how widespread the issue is or what segments are the most impacted.

Is Midwest Distribution in Ft. Scott Kansas still in business? Back when I was a driver for a small company in California, they had a "lease-purchase" deal for rookie drivers. They would "sell" a newly licensed commercial driver a new tractor and work his butt off until the truck was almost, but not quite paid off. Then he would get ghosted, get behind on payments, and the truck would get repo'ed and added to the company fleet. "Rinse and repeat".

They got the nickname "Dollar down- - - -dollar a week trucking"!