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[TITLE: CHANGING CAREERS TO BECOME A TRUCK OR BUS DRIVER | WHAT TO EXPECT]
Hi there smart drivers. Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to you tonight about
starting a career as a truck or bus driver. yes you can start in a new career
and there's probably a bit of trepidation about starting a new career
some of the steps may be on no one you don't know what to expect you don't know
what you have to do so we're gonna give you a little bit more information about
the path towards becoming a bus or truck driver and starting a career and perhaps
making a bit more money as a professional driver and do you stress
professionally because there are a few more skills that you need to learn in
order to become a bus or truck driver so that's we're going to talk about tonight
there are a few people here already Victor Ramirez is here
Pablo Garcia is here and candy Breeland is here welcome to all the smart drivers
that are here you did see that yesterday I did put up a video for the New York
State CDL manual chapter two which is essentially driving safely that is an
enormous Lea long video it's an hour and 40 minutes and for those of you taking
your CDL license I do go through step by step the information in that chapter and
I the reason the video is an hour forty minutes is because it is a huge chapter
Ayane is getting her CDL license to drive a transit bus there in the state
of New York and she asked me to go through it I didn't realize I didn't
have a look at the chapter before to do it so it is a big a big video okay so
yes Thank You Cory let's get that going here there we go so comments up thanks
Cory and man burr is here hi man burr and what do what Dido what Dido there
you go eight seventy hi there so everybody's here it's all good ivan is
here called her on there we go I've got comments up and you don't see
the extension cord in the back anymore so everybody's here
Ryan Realmuto excellent that is great that
you passed your road test was it Ryan was it your first license for your
passenger vehicle is that what you got your license for so I'm going to
entertain questions here for a few minutes while everybody joins us with
the live stream here and we get going and if you have absolutely any questions
at all please do ask me now a couple of comments just a little bit I was
cleaning that I'm gonna talk about first of all the cold-weather Start vehicle
for winter driving those of you in the Northeast have gotten a bit of cold snap
and that video oddly enough has gotten quite a bit of traffic and a few people
have suggested that yes you need to clean off the roof of your vehicle and I
do I do encourage you to do that to clean off the roof of your vehicle if
there's snow on the roof of your vehicle however you know if I can get smart
drivers just to clear the glass and the lights off their vehicle I think that's
doing a lot more just getting the snow off the roof so what I'm gonna say
instead of if you can't get the snow off the roof there there are a couple of
potential hazards that could happen one the snow could slide off the roof onto
the windshield of your vehicle while you're going down the road and it could
empyrion impede your vision so that's one thing that potentially could happen
if you don't get the snow cleared off at the front of the roof the other thing is
that it blows off the back and it causes an obstruction to other drivers on the
roadway if you're one of the other obstruct one of the other drivers on the
roadway and somebody's got snow blowing off the back of their vehicle just hang
back farther don't be right up behind them you
shouldn't be up behind him anyway so that's one of the other tactics that you
can do in terms of that so Joshua yes started you're excellent that's
great Josh whether you're starting your career with Stevens transport yet
excited don't know what to expect yeah it's gonna be a bit of a learning curve
there in the beginning for you Joshua man burr yes
we're going to talk about all that man burr just hang on here we'll get it
through a few questions we're just going to wait for a few other people to join
us and then we'll get into that about the procedures for that Ryan you are
most welcome we're glad that the information helped you out okay okay a
shimmer you hit the snowbank and took the oil pan shield off no it's not going
to affect anything ash mer but I would suggest that you get it repaired as
quickly as possible okay candy is taking her CDL permit test this week and there
you go and bin is thanks every everything good for CDL in California
yes everything that I'm going to show you today is going to be good for just
about anywhere that you take your CDL license there's gonna be very minor
differences in terms of what I'm going to tell you in terms of in Canada and in
the United States and that's what I'm going to talk about now the other thing
I'm just going to say with the caveat that I'm gonna say too this is at the
end of this presentation I'm gonna try and sell you something related to
getting your CDL license so if you're offended by me trying to sell you
something that's this is probably not the livestream you need to be at now
saying that I am gonna give you a really a lot of information about becoming a
bus or truck driver and the procedure for doing that so last week a few people
took umbrage with the fact that I'm trying to sell you something but you
know the all of the information that I'm giving you here on the YouTube channel
you know you know I got to put bread on the table too so that's why I'm trying
to sell you something so and the courses that I offer quality courses taught by
me and the information that I give you is through not only expertise that I
have in the field of reading a lot of books and having an interest in this
aspect of driver education and traffic safety but also the fact that I have
experience I have been a truck driver I have
been a bus driver I can tell you what it what happens when the wheels hit the
pavement so to speak all right Sam hello Samson is here
Jericho Arroyo Sam is from rookie auto driving school from the Bronx so if you
have any questions about driving in New York City you could talk to Sam as well
Joshua what tips can I give you well let me go through the presentation and then
I'll come back to that just remind me that Joshua and I'll answer those
questions for you okay so let's talk about that so all right
and one of the other things I wanted to ask people is as I am using the
community feed of the new community tab here on YouTube I'm trying to post some
of the stuff in the mastermind group over on smart drive test how many people
are getting comments from the community tab here on YouTube just type smart into
the comments there in that way I'll know whether you're getting it or not because
I think I think a lot of people aren't getting it and we also have the
mastermind group the smart drivers mastermind group over on Facebook and
this morning Victoria posted a really good video that had been on bad drivers
of upstate New York which I don't you know I'm not really crazy about but
anyway the video was really good it was a - it was an intersection with two stop
signs on either side and the vehicle turn in front of the other vehicle
coming through and they were there's a discussion about who had the
right-of-way and what I'm going to remind you about right-of-way at
intersections one person commented erroneously that it was the first person
to arrive the only time its first person to arrive is at a four-way stop if it's
a two-way stop right-of-way is as follows uncontrolled vehicles have the
right-of-way so the vehicles that are going straight through and then straight
through vehicles have the right-of-way overturning vehicles and then the last
thing I'll say about this is that remember the right-of-way is never taken
the right-of-way is always given so in other words if that vehicle is going to
turn in the other vehicle it's going to insist on coming through you have to
give that other vehicle right away otherwise you're gonna end up
in a crash so remember the right-of-way is always given you have to give it up
sometimes in order to get home safely all right Eric thank you for that yes my
kids aren't here tonight so okay so we got pretty much going here we don't have
any questions everybody's ready for the presentation and want to talk about
truck driving and what they need to do to become a truck driver so without
further ado here we go
all right I'm just getting everything set up here and here we go me up there
me down there in the corner just about there just bear with me there we go okay
so truck or bus driver and this is me when I was training I actually did take
all the logo off this truck it was all loaded up before I went through
Photoshop with it and picture of me teaching pre trip inspection to one of
my students and this is mostly gonna be for truck drivers but there will be some
stuff about bus drivers too and for those of you who may be new here or
haven't visited the smart drive test channel before I'm Rick August yes I do
have a PhD in legal history as it relates to policing and as it relates to
policing specifically as it relates to traffic so I just see if I can get the
page down here I get it click on that there we go so I was a truck driver for
the better part of ten years during the 1990s I drove through Canada in the
United States and for a period of some months I drove LTL LT l stands for less
than Freight which essentially means that there's more than three or four
drops on a trailer so I drove LTL into New York City so essentially I drove
down on the weekend did drops on Monday two drops on Tuesday and came back and
then got another load and did that again Thursday Friday and
came back Saturday so I did that for about six months out of Ontario down in
New York City I became a licensed driving instructor in 1998 and I have
been a licensed driving instructor ever since I am still a licensed driving
instructor in the province of British Columbia that was when I first got my
license I was in the problems for Ontario in 2003 I went to the University
of Melbourne I got a doctorate in legal history as it relates to policing and
traffic and in the year before I went to university to pursue my graduate studies
I drove for Greyhound to try and make a bit more money and as well while I was
going to university I worked for a company in the state of Victoria in
Australia called v-line which is essentially a regional bus company so I
drove for them as well part-time so I have quite a bit of experience as both
the driving instructor as a truck driver and a bus driver so if you have any
questions I can field most of those questions for you to get started as a
truck driver okay and as I mentioned at the beginning I did go through the New
York State commercial drivers manual chapter 2 which is driving safely and
this is all of the information you need to do to become a truck or bus driver in
the States and as I said most of that information across the 50 states is
going to be very similar and as well there's just a lot of videos that are
already up on the smart drive test channel and I've made a playlist driving
safely playlist that has all those videos in it you can work your way
through those too and it is there's a lot of information there and in that
chapter because it covers pre trip inspection defensive driving winter
driving driving in hot weather dangerous transportation of dangerous goods there
is a lot of information in that driving safely chapter 2 there so I have a look
at that all right so the first thing we're going to talk about in terms of
becoming a truck or bus driver is finding a job because essentially after
you become a bus or truck driver the end result is is that you want to get a job
now one of the things we talk about in life is ROI return on invest
what is your return on investment and I'm gonna say that for two or three
months maybe even less than three months you're gonna invest about five thousand
between five and ten thousand dollars to get your truck driving license to get
your CDL license and go to truck driving school and for that return on investment
there aren't too many other places that you're going to go and you're going to
invest that kind of money and within three months of working as a truck
driver you're gonna make that money back you're probably gonna make you know if
you run long haul you can make sort of $2,500 to $5,000 a month depending on
what company you're working for what kind of work you're doing there are
different kinds of work and I'm going to talk about that whether you're pulling
vans or whether you're pulling flat deck or whether you're pulling reefers which
is reefers are temperature controlled trailers in the industry so there's
tractor-trailer units is mostly what I'm talking about there is straighttalk work
the straight truck work tends to be more regional or local type work if you're
driving a straight truck or a dump truck or something like that
now just saying that if you drive a dump truck and you put a pup on it as soon as
you put a pup on it which is a trailer behind the dump truck then you're into a
tractor-trailer license because the pup will have air brakes and as soon as you
put an air brake trailer behind the truck it's considered a tractor-trailer
unit so know that as well now the other thing that some students have said to me
or potential truck drivers have said to me in the past before going to truck
driving school is as well can I just get my class three license my straight truck
license and I say to them well if you go to work for a dump truck company you're
not going to be as valuable to them as somebody who has their class 1 or class
a license their tractor trailer license because what that company does is
they've got all these dump trucks and yes they've got a bunch of class 3
drivers but it's easier for them to have all their drivers as class 1 and then
when they're somebody calls in sick or whatnot they don't have to go picking
through the list they don't know Joe can't do it and John can't do it you
know only Ted can do it what they're gonna do is they want to hire just
people who have class 1 license and then if somebody doesn't show up they can
just go down through the list so that's one of the reasons why I would suggest
you to get your tractor-trailer license and the other thing that I'm going to
talk about in terms of a tractor-trailer license in many places here in British
Columbia for example or many states if you get your CDL
license and your tractor-trailer license you get everything if you get
tractor-trailer you get bus coach school bus class for vehicles which is bused
less than 25 passengers here in British Columbia you get everything and there's
other states and jurisdictions look into that so if you get tired of driving a
tractor trailer unit you could go and drive a bus now networking and job
skills this is Bill Walker and if you haven't watched the interviews that I've
done with Bill bill was one of my students three and a half years ago and
Bill was older bill wanted to go up to the Alberta oil fields and work as a
truck driver and make more money so that he could retire because he is now
retired and Bill did that and did it successfully and made a fair bit of
money and Bill came to truck driving school he took the smallest course that
we had which is essentially a 28 hour course he finished that course on
Thursday in the next Tuesday he was in Grand Prairie working as a truck driver
so it is possible now bill also started looking for a job even before he
finished truck driving school and that's what I encourage you to do start looking
for a job before you even finish truck driving school start calling people now
and if you're not comfortable asking for a job or looking for a job start doing
informational interviews where you just say listen I've got a few questions
about becoming a truck driver and I'd be really appreciate your expertise in this
field and just go and talk to them and and see what they have to say so
networking you have to network 70% of the jobs out there are not advertised
but if you start talking to people and start calling people and getting on
Facebook and saying listen I'm looking for a job as a truck driver you're going
to be able to find a job even before you finish truck driving school that way
when you get out of truck driving school you're already employed and you're
hitting the ground running all right and I've already talked about
this about getting it all if you get a truck driving license you're gonna get a
bus license as well and there are lots of driving job opportunities and this is
me some years ago and I still had hair in 2002 when I was working as a bus
driver for Greyhound and this was I was brand new I was I started in March and
this was probably a weekend when I was driving coach I remember coming back and
I was still with the trainer at this point when this picture was taken so one
of the things about being a truck driver is as there's lots of work in terms of
being a truck driver and how to look at this video 8 reasons to consider your
career as a truck truck or bus driver and it will give you some information
about why you might want to become a truck driver one of the things this is a
pride in your job right you like driving truck you're you go to work every day
and there's no truck driver that when there's a kid on the sidewalk and there
huh you know pumping their arm that you're gonna blow that air horn for them
it's just the coolest thing in the world and one of the funny stories that I had
I was coming through Cincinnati and the school bus went by me and I looked over
at the school bus and not one kid in the bus was pumping his arm anyway I was
kind of disappointed when I drove up the road a little bit probably about 10
miles up the road another school bus goes by me and that school bus went by
me and every kid on that bus was pumping their arm I must have helped that air
brake and I know her horn down for like five or 10 minutes not five or 10
minutes maybe thirty seconds a minute and every one of them was just they were
all clapping and cheering they thought it was the greatest thing so there's a
lot of pride in the job one of the other thing is the only unemployed truck
driver is the is the driver that doesn't want to be employed so there is always
work I was never without a job as a truck driver and you know one day I
didn't work for one company because we had a disagreement and the next day I
was working for another company so there's lots of places to work as truck
drivers and there's lots and lots of different kinds of jobs you can work as
a flat deck driver is a dump truck driver you can drive a van you can drive
temperature control units hauling groceries and those types of things
there's different kinds of work and then there's
sorry different kinds of jobs and the different kinds of work you can drive
long-haul you can drive regional where you're gone for one or two days maybe
and then you can drive local work as well
trucking is challenging even all the years that I was in trucking it just
seemed that every day there was some new challenge and there's a couple of
fundamental rules in driving truck one of them was cya and stuff happens so
cover your butt you know always make sure that you got your paperwork filled
out and make sure you talk to dispatch and communicate with these people with
what you're doing and what's going on the other aspect of truck driving and
bus driving that's appealing to a lot of people is that there's a lot of autonomy
in self-direction you don't have somebody looking over
your shoulder you're not standing at a cash register checking out goods you're
not sitting in an office having your boss look over your shoulder you're not
working 9:00 to 5:00 so all this is attractive and for minimal education of
going to high school there's good money in driving truck you can make 50 or 60
thousand dollars when you start there aren't too many jobs that you're going
to start at from the ground making fifty or sixty thousand dollars a year and I
know in the States some of the bigger companies Schneider National JB Hunt
Swift and these other companies yes unfortunately they take a bit of a
beating from the rest of the industry though that's where rookies starting
that sort of thing but you do have to get experience and you need to go to
work for these companies and some of these guys who've been there a couple of
years they're making ninety a hundred thousand dollars a year though I mean
they're working hard but they're making good money so there are some some
benefits but you just got to kind of be in the industry a little bit and figure
out what works for you and what doesn't work for you so to become a boss or
truck driver obviously you need a license and you have to go to truck
driving school and you enroll in truck driving school and as I said truck
driving school is going to cost you anywhere between five and ten thousand
dollars there are in here in Canada there is funding I don't know about in
the States I suspect there is funding there as well because we have government
funding for students to go and get their truck or bus
license here in Canada there's five components five major components that
you're going to be learning sorry five components three major
components and two minor components when you're learning how to drive truck
turning in my mine is the number one unfortunately turning becomes eclipsed
by shifting and on synchromesh transmission now I know that some of you
are gonna say that in the States it's mostly automatics and ten speed
transmission with the bigger fleets and that that is true okay a lot of these
bigger companies are just going to automatics it's just it's it's less
expensive to buy the equipment that it is to train the drivers however if
you're working long haul you're working driving in the mountains or you're
hauling heavy you're hauling you know multiple axle trailers or you're hauling
super beasts here in British Columbia you're gonna be driving a non
synchronous transmission and you have to learn how to drive a non synchronous
transmission I have a look at the video here on the channel on shifting theory
that'll give you some idea what you're up against in terms of learning how to
shift how to drive and shift the non synchronous transmission pre trip
inspection and pre trip inspection is fairly daunting for students however
once you do it three or four times it's just a matter of wash rinse repeat you
just have to learn it and go and get some of those flashcards small index
cards and you know right on the front what you're inspecting inspecting
suspension components and then you're you say I'm the hanger clamps the leaf
springs the hydraulic shock the coil spring the airbag if it's all that's in
quipped whatever is on your vehicle that you're doing you need to put it on the
front and then you know just carry those around with you for the duration of your
truck driving school and then you know when you're waiting for your spouse or
you're standing around doing something we have lots of spare time just have a
look at the flash cards and get it into your head all right and then the last
two minor components are going to truck driving school are backing up and
coupling hooking and unhooking in the semi-trailer and you got to do that
right because if you drop a semi-trailer around the ground oh they get pretty
excited when you do that so that's truck driving school so you've
gone to truck driving school you get your license as I said at the beginning
you need to start looking for a job before you even finish truck driving
school because if you don't start looking for a job what's gonna happen
when you get out is your run up against this you don't have any
experience therefore we're not gonna hire you
well there are companies that will hire you there are companies out there
Schneider National has a Mentor Program Swift has a mentor program here in
Canada bison has a mentor program challenger has a mentor program if you
can get in with these mentor programs and go out with a driver an experienced
veteran driver that's gonna really reduce the learning curve if you go out
by yourself so if you can't find a job beg borrow and steal whatever you can do
to get into the seat of a truck and drive a truck for three to six months
because after you get three to six months experience you can pretty much go
anywhere and get a job the reason that most of these companies put two or three
years experience needed is because of insurance requirements however if you
pester them if you are in their face and you are showing that you are willing to
do what it takes to get the experience to drive the truck eventually they're
gonna they're gonna do that they're gonna give you a job if you show up
every three or four days in their office and say here's my resume I want a job is
there anything available then eventually you're gonna win out that one so be
tenacious continue to be looking for a job and continue to be in people's face
and continue to ask if you don't ask people aren't gonna help you out now one
of the other things you need to do at Turf driving school is you need to take
an airbrake course and you need to be knowledgeable about air brakes now just
the bit of history about air brakes in the 1970s however long ago that was now
what is that fifty years now a couple of dump truck drivers drove their trucks
into the basement of some little old lady's house while she was watching
telly and the bureaucrats got all excited and upset and they started
looking around and decided that commercial driver CDL drivers had to
have an air brake course because it was dangerous well you have to understand
that in the 1970s air brakes were somewhat unreliable they were not dual
systems they had manual slack adjusters on them the drivers had to adjust that
didn't get adjusted so the bureaucrats started looking around for somebody to
an airbrake course and they found these people who are incredibly technical
about air brakes they were almost engineers mechanics and they created
these air brake courses that didn't involve anything with education or how
to teach people and so we got these incredibly technical courses that are
from the viewpoint of a mechanic and unfortunately this has become probably
the most difficult and most technical course that new drivers have to learn
you also have to learn the component of the air brake system is also breaking a
larger vehicle and the forces that impact breaking a larger vehicle and you
have to know a lot of the valves and systems that are involved in the
tractor-trailer unit or the bus unit you have to know what a parking brake valve
is you have to know what a tractor protection valve is you have to know
what a trailer parking brake valve is and all of these valves you need to know
what they are you need to know what a secondary in a primary subsystem are is
so there's a lot of technical information in an air brake course and
hopefully I can illuminate some of this with you because this is what I'm gonna
offer you is an arat course that i have on my website and this will give you the
information that you need to be successful in passing the air brake
component so that's the other thing that you need to do in terms of truck driving
school now the other thing that you need to do and unfortunately truck driving
schools at least here in Canada myself as a driving instructor I can just apply
for a driving school license and I can go and open up a truck driving school I
don't really need to have anything more than the three weeks that I took my
course to become a driving instructor so there the information and the quality of
education that you're going to get at different truck driving schools is going
to vary and some of them are really lacking I talked to a woman a couple of
weeks ago who was at the end of her course at truck driving school she she
couldn't tell me what the weights were on the truck and then this is important
because you cannot be overweight you cannot be overweight on your gross
vehicle weight or your axle weights if you are you're not in compliance and
you're going to get a fine because you're gonna eventually roll over the
scales and that's on you that's not on the company it's on you to make sure the
vehicle is the proper weight and I was somewhat
disappointed that she didn't know that she couldn't answer that question now I
have a look at this video here this is top ten signs that you need to know as a
commercial driver and I do argue that a couple of these signs will in fact save
your life so you need to read road signs at a much higher level than you do as a
passenger vehicle driver as well you need to know Heights and dimensions your
vehicle I already talked about weights you need to know that the height of the
vehicle the maximum height of the vehicle is 13 feet six inches or four
point one five meters here in Canada you need to memorize that because you need
to now need to look at height signs and I talked about the weights of your
vehicle and just a funny story when I used to teach in London and Ontario we
used to have an underpass that was labeled 13 feet 2 inches and I used to
drive down the road with my students in the truck and I'd casually ask him what
the maximum height of their vehicle was is we were driving towards us underpass
and I knew that they could go into the underpass because the brewery the beer
brewery was on the other side of the underpass and their trucks went under
the underpass all the time but the underpass was low enough that the wind
in front of the truck would slam into the top of the trailer and make a really
big *** and of course it didn't help as we were going under the underpass that I
would crouch over in the you know survival airplane position and then I
would scream that's sick we were gonna rip off the top of the truck however it
was a learning lesson for most of my students because most of them after that
never forgot how high the truck was so that was that was me being a little bit
not nasty in terms of education now the other piece of going to work as a truck
or bus driver not so much as a bus driver but more so as a truck driver and
this is going to be more so for long all in regional drivers those guys those
people drivers that are working local are gonna have the same dedicated run
more or less most of the time but dispatch is who you have contact with at
the company and you need to keep in contact with dispatch and the other
thing about dispatches you need to have kind of a cordial relationship with this
batch because they're going to get you loads and they're going to keep you
moving up and down Rodan make you my help to make you money
the role of dispatcher is that they match available drivers and equipment
with available freight if you're in Winnipeg and they have a load in Toronto
Ontario it's not likely that you're gonna get that because that's 24 hours
away there needs to be a reasonable driving distance usually one or two
hours to go and get another load and then bring it back so that's what
dispatch are always trying to do so you need to keep in contact with dispatch
and there's four or five times that you need to call dispatch you need to
contact dispatch minimum every 24 hours you need to contact them one hour from
your destination where you're going to get unloaded because once they know that
you're near your destination you're gonna get unloaded they start looking
for another load for you to match you up and keep you moving you need to contact
them when you're loaded and when you're leaving and you need to have give them
an ETA when you're going to be there and then finally you need to contact them if
anything go sideways right so you need to be in touch with dispatch and the
other time that you need to be in touch with this batch is if something goes
sideways and you don't know what's what to do you need to contact this batch and
put it in their lap and say listen what do I do here right you got into a crash
or something like that or you ding the truck or just you know here's the story
that happened to me as I was in Edmonton and I was coming back to Vancouver and I
was at the yard and they said well we're just gonna throw this small package on
the back of the truck and I was going to pick up a full load of recycled paper
okay whatever it was a small package it wasn't very big and it was a couple
hundred pounds and so anyway I rolled up to the door backed into the door and the
guy comes out you know with a lazy eye and I'm about 250 pounds and about 6
foot 5 and he says oh you can't have that on there I said what do you mean it
can't have that on there it's not gonna fit on anything he says all we get we
bought the whole trailer you know kind of a power trip that we got the whole
trailer so anyway I had to contact dispatch and they're like oh okay well
let me talk to them well he wouldn't budge on it they had to come off the
truck so what they did was they sent out another truck we threw it on his truck
they loaded the truck and we drove four blocks down the road
and we backed up together and we threw it back
on my truck and I pulled it to Vancouver so that's some of the things that can
potentially go wrong when you're driving truck and whatnot
so good luck on your road test if you have any questions about truck driving
or bus driving school or starting your career as a bus or truck driver we'll
just get back here and I'll be more than happy to answer any questions that you
have about starting a career or you know we can okay
all right what is going on oh that's going on okay one sec just bear with me
there we go
okay so conversation beautiful butterfly I am I will I'm nervous about driving a
ten-speed but it won't be about B be safe as well ten speed beautiful
butterfly is fairly straightforward it's just a five-speed transmission with a
high low range which is fairly simple so it's gonna be fairly easy for you so
learn that and pick that up
Rick Johnston no it doesn't and lower your insurance rates you're talking
about Rick you're talking about your insurance rates for your personal
vehicle I've never got a break in that even as a driving instructor I don't get
a break on my insurance rates at least here in Canada anyway all right
candy I started school on the 22nd in Mississippi no it's exciting yes very
exciting that's great candy and candy you're going for your truck driving
license is that right okay Jarvis there we go Jarvis owner/operator
there are benefits to being an owner/operator I'm going to tell you
there's two kinds Jarvis there's two kinds of owner-operators there are truck
drivers with a truck and there are business people who own a truck and run
it as a business and if you're going to be a owner operator and you're going to
be successful you need to know how much money that truck is costing you to
operate so we you know because if you're a truck driver at with the truck there's
a reason they call them brokers they go broke okay because big trucks are
expensive they will run twenty five hundred to three thousand dollars with a
fuel a month through them if you buy a new truck your truck payments going to
be incredible you probably want to start it with a secondhand truck because
you're gonna be able to buy a used truck for fifty or sixty thousand dollars as
opposed to a brand-new truck which in this day and age may run you in the you
know one hundred and thirty one hundred and eighty thousand of dollars depending
on what kind of truck you're buying so you need to really do your homework and
I would really suggest Jarvis that you write a business plan out if you're
gonna start driving as an owner-operator and also get your ducks in a row as
about you know in terms of how you're gonna maintain records and costs and
those types of things so know that in terms of and you also need a very good
accountant who is familiar with laws and regulations as they relate to truck
driving in the deductions and expenses now Jarvis are you in the States or are
you in Canada just let me know that in the comments here
so somebody works for Greyhound that's great
okay so Cory's saying it would appear that people need to go to the community
to have in order to see what's in what's posted there YouTube doesn't appear to
notify subscribers through other means like the Bell to enable perhaps perhaps
there's something in the settings Cory that they need to click in order to get
notifications about the community tab
alright so Cory put up the shifting video and what else we got here Ritchie
did she is from Australia Ritchie ditch where are you in Australia when I was
him sir I was in Melbourne which is cold in the wintertime but it's not it's not
wintertime there now Christine does your CDL license cover
all the states ah yes it does Christine so if you saw Christina just let me see
if I get the question correctly what you're asking me is so for example if
you got your CDL license in Utah you could drive in one of the other states
in the US is that what you're asking me just clarify that for me if you would
okay
okay
Lu add low ahead you got your passenger vehicle license that's the test you're
going for this week is that correct just let me know that in the comments there
okay
so as I was saying you get funding and beautiful butterfly said that she got a
funding for truck driving school so that's really great a shimmer yes CDL
drivers are definitely held up to higher standards because one of the other
points about being a truck driver or a bus driver that it didn't talk about is
that CDL drivers are the only section of society that have their own police force
in the states it's the DoD the Department of Transport in Ontario it's
the MTO the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario the MTO here in British
Columbia it's the CBSE Commercial Vehicle Safety and enforcement and if
you get pulled into a scale they're going to weigh the vehicle they're also
going to do a preliminary check of the vehicle to make sure all your lights are
working load security you've got a flat deck trailer and you've got Freight on
it it's got to be secure and it's not falling off and there's no apparent
damage break anything broken that they can visually see or those types of
things and sometimes if you get pulled in the other thing that they're going to
do is they're going to check all of your paperwork and when you get pulled into a
scale and they say come inside when that light goes on and that you need to come
into the weigh scale what you need to do is you need to bring in your driver's
license you need to bring in the registration insurance for the truck you
need to bring in all your bills of lading if you're required to run a
logbook you need to bring in your logbook sheets if you're hauling
dangerous goods you need to bring in the paperwork for the transportation of
dangerous goods and I'm just trying to think if I forgot anything else I think
that's most of the paperwork that you need to bring in for the for the truck
and paperwork and again go ahead over to the website smart drive test comm slash
checklist and get your weigh scale checklist there it's a list of paperwork
that you need to bring in to the scale because if you bring all your paperwork
in to the scale in one hit it's less likely that you're going to get a fine
or a ticket so make sure you head over there and get that as well regi DG is
from western sydney excellent hello there inside
it's actually tomorrow in Sydney I do know that for sure
Rick thank you so much Rick that's really great okay ash tumor New Jersey
is one of the hardest states to get your CDL why do you think that is Ashmore
that it's hard to get your CDL license in the state of New Jersey just let me
know that okay yes funding if you can get funding it
certainly makes it a lot easier that's for sure
Ridge EDG are you a truck driver they're in Sydney is that what you're doing over
there Australia or a truckie as they call him there okay um so Christine I
was just gonna ask if you in fact had answered that question that I asked you
back okay Lou ad which road test are you going for did you say that didn't you
tell me which one no okay
okay so nobody seems to have any questions here about truck driving or
bus driving yeah if you can get funding it's going to make your journey through
truck driving school a lot easier and for sure because it is a big cost it's
you know three to five thousand dollars maybe even ten thousand dollars if
you've taken one of the bigger courses and you know like I said if you're
driving if you're learning - I have a non synchronous transmission it can be
fairly arduous and fairly daunting because you got to match the road speed
the gear and the engine speed those three things have to line up in order to
drive a non synchronous transmission Lu add know what I'm asking you Louet is
driver's licenses it for a passenger vehicle like is it for a regular car or
is it a commercial license that you're going for say yes it is a slow night
it's been kind of a slow day - I don't know what everybody's doing
so yeah not too many people are asking me questions and those types of things
but anyway we're doing well here we're getting on it might have been that
big video that they were trying to digest from yesterday they're still
simulating all of that information
beautiful butterfly is there a way to remember the pre-trip inspection yes
there is beautiful butterfly go and get some of those small index cards those
3x5 index cards and then write the names of the major components on the front so
for example air compressor and say I need to check the air compressors lines
and hoses secure not damaged not leaking because the air compressor has oil in it
and so it's not leaking that you just physically check in it's a visual check
on the side of the truck and then when you're testing to see if it's working
when you go in the cab of the truck and you start the motor up you've got to
pump the air pressure down to 45 pounds let the air pressure come up to 50 and
then 50 to 90 within three minutes out of high idle that's how you test the air
compressor is in fact working and so you can write that compressor on the front
of the card and then turn on the back of the car
right the details and carry those things around for you and that will help you to
memorize the pre-trip inspection now just know that yes it looks a bit
daunting originally but once you do it half a dozen times it's just repetition
after that and the monitor for the pre-trip inspection is secure not
damaged not leaking all right and there's a pre-trip inspection
fundamentals video here Cory might be able to find it for you that will give
you some information as well the other thing is is that make sure you break the
truck into sections the vehicle into sections because if you break it into
sections then its top to bottom left to right and that will help you to memorize
the pre-trip inspection all right oh okay Christine know if you move to
another state you don't have to take the CDL test again you simply just transfer
your license to whichever state that you're going to okay so Louie ed is
going first car license excellent good luck on that
okay so loo add if you're taking your test and there's going to be snow have a
look at the taking your road test in the wintertime here I've done a video on
taking your road test in the winter time and that'll help you out and that'll
show you some of the things actually if there's snow on the road loo ad it's
gonna be a little bit easier to take your test because it's not as exact as
when there isn't snow and you can see the road markings and those types of
things all right so just know that as well
Ritchie did yes they do yes there are a lot of immigrants in Australia a lot
more than what people would think and that's because of your geographical
proximity to Asia and whatnot so you know there's a lot of people there a
shimmer because most of the examiner's in New Jersey don't have a CV CDL well
I'll let you in on a little secret a shimmer most of the driving examiner's
in most places do not have a commercial driving license most of them in here in
British Columbia and in Ontario do not hold a commercial driver's license and
if they do they have minimal experience they haven't driven a truck or a bus
they're simply bigger those people that marked a checklist and that's all they
do so know that as well okay it's not just
New Jersey it's other places as well okay 2:55 oki'll i start my training on
23rd i also made sure to go to a public college instead of a private one because
i heard they're more prestigious among companies hiring is that true that sort
of depends a little bit one of the places that you might find that
information okie Lee is look on Google reviews and see what the review is in
those types of things but I'm sure that you're going to get a higher caliber
because you're going to a college and whatnot so that'll probably help you oh
for sure Christine yes an American CDL can drive in Canada now know that there
are different logbook roles hours of rules compliance in Canada but for the
most part it's yeah you can drive international in Canada in the US with
your CDL license I like I said I had a Canadian license and I drove in the
States all the time now that's a good point and the point that I'll make about
that is is that if you're hauling into Christine you can only haul Freight into
Canada deliver the freight in Canada and then pick up another load and go back to
the states that load has to go back to the states you can't drive into British
Columbia pick up a load drive to Ontario deliver the load and then tear and then
go back to the States and it's the same for Canadians going into the US I
couldn't drive a truck into Los Angeles drop a load and Los Angeles go to Nevada
get a load in Nevada drive to New York drop the load in New York and come back
to Canada that's called inter stating and it is
highly illegal and you don't want to get caught doing that so know that that if
you're driving into Canada you bring a load into Canada and you take a load
back to the States that's the only way you can do it you can't do it otherwise
okay so but saying that Christine you could drive into British Columbia pick
up a drop your load in British Columbia pick up another load in British Columbia
and drive through Canada to say New York not that you would because it's a lot
easier going on the interstates in the US but that's one of the other things
that you can do all right excellent you are most welcome butterfly Tommy
computer hi I'm from Oshawa hi Tommy it's a bit late there it's what is it
gets getting on 10 o'clock there and that's great I'm glad you're enjoying
the videos and what teedo eat 70 what are you asking me in terms of a college
degree how do how can I move up if I have a college degree what is what is
where are you trying to move up to is what I'm trying to ask you just let me
know that okay
so driving examiner's now here's another thing that I'm just gonna say on that
point about driving examiner's and taking a test with a CDL for CDL license
most of the driving centers where you're going to take a license for a CDL
license in my experience there are only one or two test routes out of the DMV in
the United States and here in Canada most of the test centers where you're
going to take your test only have one or two routes so know that in terms of
taking a CDL license for example in the city of Kelowna there's only one route
for class 1 class 8 vehicles in Victoria there's only one route and there's a
couple of variations on that but know that as well okay that when you take
your test most of the time when you're with the driving school they're going to
be driving on the driving route so don't get too freaked out about that then know
that when you go and do your test you're gonna be you know you're gonna be on the
test route oh okay oh yes what other certificates so you can haul dangerous
goods if you haul dangerous goods you need to have a tdg certificate you need
to have other courses and certificates I would strongly suggest that you get a
logbook course because you have to comply to hours of service regulations
if you can take a theory course on weights and Heights and signs how to
chain up any information that you can get because there is a lot of
information about truck driving now a crane certificate if you're going to
specifically go and work for a company that has crane trucks then yes you need
a crane certificate then I would suggest you do that but there's a lot of
information but oki'll one of the things that I would
suggest that you figure out first as you sort of need to figure out you know what
you want to do in terms of what times what kind of work you want to do
that's Sebastian what advice would you give to someone trying to encourage
their supervisor not to quit on a goal of starting a career as a truck or truck
driver well Sebastian one of the things you can
do is is that you can only show them the door you can't actually do the work for
them if they decide that they don't want to go on and be a truck driver there
unfortunately there isn't anything you're going to do I mean you can point
out some of the benefits of doing that but you know you can only do what you
can do you can't I mean I was talking to a friend of mine about that today you
can only show them the door they have to walk through it so yeah okay thank you
candy for that okay so like I said I'm gonna try and sell you something I'm
gonna try and sell you an airbrake course so here we go we're gonna we're
gonna have a look at that and then we'll wrap it up here I'll answer any more
questions that you might have okay
bear with me here I'm having technical challenges with the old computer
Oh
you can hear me groaning about the computer here there we go
that's why
all right so past your CDL air brakes is a course that I have on my website and
the it is in four modules and as I said as to get your CDL license one of the
components that you're going to have to do is your CDL air brakes and it is the
most challenging and most technical course that you have to do because there
are a lot of numbers that you have to remember you have to know all of the
valves and systems in the air brake system and it can be challenging for
students and most of you are going to take a 16 hour 20 hour course in order
to be able to pass your CDL air brakes now I have a course available on my
website these are the four lessons the first one takes basic air brake
components Airlines compressors brake chambers push rods slack adjusters and
teaches you about those and has review questions lesson two is an air brake pre
trip inspection how to do the pre trip inspection on the air brake system how
to check they make sure that the brakes are in adjustment what you have to do in
the cab it's all step by step and gives you the information that you need to do
lesson three is using air brakes how you brake large commercial vehicles and one
of the things you don't do in a large commercial vehicle is pump the brakes
because it has air and the air evacuates from the system after you use the brakes
so don't pump the brakes lesson 4 is combination vehicles any truck designed
to pull trailers will have a tractor protection system on it and it's exactly
what it says tractor protection system it protects the tractors air supply in
the event of an air loss so that you still have brakes if you're going down
the road so this is the four lessons and essentially each lesson is about three
hours so it's about a 12-hour course that you can finish up one of the other
things included in the course is the air brake toolkit there is a glossary in the
course that will give you all the technical terms you know quick release
valve air brake chamber what the air brake chamber does airlines attract
protection valve the tractor protection system they name the two the same thing
just to confuse you and it tells you what the in-cab brake checks are it
tells you how to do the adjustment of a manual slack adjuster in for some places
like here in British Columbia if you don't know how to adjust the manual
slack adjuster it's an automatic phase on an airbrake pre-trip inspection test
so teach you how to do that as well and there are videos to explain all of this
information the pre-trip inspection checklist it gives you detailed
inspection of the components of the air brake system and a list of air brake
valves this is one of the most confusing things for students relay valves
emergency release valves quick release valves it gives you all of this
information for a list of brake valves and tells you what each one of these
things does in the tool kit as well you will have to do a theory test for the
practice air brakes and all these questions I have written every one of
these questions I didn't take them from somewhere else I wrote these so that you
have the specific questions that you are going to be asked on an air brake test
and as I said this is a four year old air brake course and and these courses
have not been updated in four years so they still ask some questions about
manual slack adjusters but you're never going to find a manual slack adjuster on
a modern air brake system and air brake systems are bullet proof they're not
going to fail but unfortunately they still ask you questions about four year
old air brake questions so I give you the specific questions that you're going
to be asked on a theory exam and as I said I've been teaching air brakes for
almost twenty years and I know my stuff so at the end of the course there is a
final test and it's on basic components pre trip inspection downhill braking air
brake subsystems and auxilary components there's two tests because there are some
jurisdictions where if you're just doing a dump truck or a straight truck you
don't have to do trailers but most of you will do trailers and the you want to
take the quiz about semi trailers included and you'll get a certificate at
the end of the course so all of this adds up to one hundred and fifty dollars
for the course if you go and do an air brake course physically out of school
they're going to charge you about one hundred fifty bucks
the glossary is about forty bucks the tool kits 100 bucks and the practice
driving test questions are another thirty dollars for a total of three
hundred and twenty dollars and as well a bonus in the course is
that I give you a CDL practice question this is about inter stating weights
logbook questions and this information is there as well and as well there's CDL
air brakes supplemental information that is included in the course that's another
$85 plus the 320 for the course which is a total value of four hundred and five
dollars for the air brake course there's a lot of really good information in the
course that will guarantee that you pass your road test and the course is a
hundred percent guaranteed if you finish the course and you don't pass your air
brake component of your CDL license within eight weeks I'll refund your
money 100% so today for those of you watching on the live feed if you head
over to the website the regular court cost of this course is $85 but I will
sell it to you today for fifty nine dollars and fifty cents and as well for
those of you who sign up tonight for the course I will also include the logbook
course if you send me an email Rick at smart drive test comm all and you tell
me whether you're in the States or in Canada I will include the logbook course
as well and give you that information about how to fill out a logbook and be
in compliance with hours of service regulations and how to manage your
fatigue when you're driving as a commercial license so as I said that's
available on the website for fifty nine dollars and fifty cents so head over to
there and sign up for that course and you just go to the smart drive test
column and right at the top there's a link to the air brake course and you can
get it for $59 and fifty cents and all that great stuff is included in that
course so that's what I have to offer and as well you have total access to me
and any questions you have I'll be more than happy to help you with those
and just come back here
there we go so just head over there and do that all right okay and if you
haven't subscribed to the channel all right
already do that and if you want to give it a thumbs up and hit the thumbs up
button as well and I think I'm going to end it there because there aren't too
many people that have any more questions and if you do have any questions by all
means leave me a comment I'm more than happy to help you out with that I'm more
than happy to help you with anything that you're doing in terms of getting a
license or pursuing your career is a truck or bus driver and help you out
with all of that information as well so
Reggie digi Sebastian you are most welcome Reggie ditch I'm actually in
Canada I'm not in the United States but by all means make sure you come to
Canada too because it's really great here it's a lot like going to Australia
it's really awesome so by all means do that and if again leave me a comment on
the channel be more happy to get back to you with questions that you might have
again consider taking the airbrake course and I'll be more happy to help
you out okay oki'll son Corey already has five self-driving trucks working at
the oil field where do you see self-driving cars in the industry oki'll
self-driving vehicles are coming there's no doubt about it but it's going to be a
while they still have drivers at the wheel and what's gonna happen okay all
my opinion on this is is right now there are a lot of support staff in place with
these self-driving vehicles when they start clawing back or bringing reducing
the number of support staff in place and one of these vehicles gets into a crash
that's when self-driving vehicles are going that is going to really see the
reduction of self-driving vehicles right now it's all great but when that happens
when there's a crash and they start reducing the number of support staff
then that's going to be the difficult time for autonomous vehicles
candy how long does it usually take to get your CDL permit as as far as time
goes when you're actually taking the test at DMV Oh candy it's usually about
two two and a half hours to take your test at the DMV when you're doing a
tractor-trailer license because your pre-trip inspection is 45 minutes and
then realize you got to go for a drive that's about a half an hour and then the
hook and unhook could take you another half an hour and then there's a backing
up component depending on where you're taking your license so it can be about
two two and a half hours Nathan I got my air brakes on my class 7n yes you did
you can get your air brakes with any license any class of license there's no
restriction in terms of getting that on a CDL license okay
Ashburn well you need a driver's license with self-driving cars
I don't know ash summer that's time will tell we'll see what happens all right so
we're going to wind up there and leave it there if any as I said if you have
any questions leave me a comment drop me an email Rick at smart drive test calm
morn happy happy Oh congratulations to all the smart drivers that got their
license in the last week that's really great and that's really awesome and
thanks for letting us know as well and good luck to all of those taking the
road test coming up and those pursuing a CDL career that's really awesome and I'm
really wish you all the best and all the luck and luck with that
so good luck on your road test and remember pick the best answer not
necessarily the right answer have a great night bye now