All Wedge Trailer & Car Haulers

Go get a job with one of those companies to learn the business first. The knowledge you gain will be invaluable. Then you will know the questions AND the correct answers.

 

What he said. You can make a decent living working for United Road but they will make a decent living off of your hard work if you use your own equipment.

Oh and don't even consider trying this without a CDL. It's hard enough to make it anymore so don't limit yourself even more

 

As for the CDL, no laws have changed on that front since the CDL was introduced in the late 80's, just more enforcement officers are noticing pickup trucks and wedges. Most likely you will need a class A, at least if you want to be able to haul enough weight to even think about making money. In a nut shell, any combination over 26,001 pounds with a trailer greater than 10,001 pounds gross weight rating will require a cdl. Example, 15,000 pound gross rating on a F-450 with a Kauffman wedge at 12,000 pound rating will need a class A, regardless of the registered or actual weights. Also you will need apportioned plates, IFTA (fuel tax), NY HUT (if you run NY), USDOT number, MC Number/Authority, Unified Carrier Registration (UCR), drug testing program, and individual state authorities if you do point to point work within any state, especially PA, NY, NM, and many others.

As for the brokers, those are the easy to find bigger ones, and not to sound like an arse, but work is tight right now for all of us carriers so don't expect any of us to give up our preferred vehicle shipper sources, we like to keep them closely guarded. You can also check the bigger used/wholesale brokers like Cars Arrive and Ready Logistics, they have lots of work for smaller carriers with smaller trucks.

 

Brian Is it possible to get a CDL A without going to school? I want to run a ram 3500 and a 4 car wedge

 

I never went to a school. I got my permit and paid a class a driver to ride with me for a month. Paid for hotels food and everything. He was not able to drive anylonger due to a few issues but still held his class a. So he made a decent pay. Not what he would of if he could still drive but anyways. After 30 days I aced the test. Just to answer your question.

 

Yes, anything is possible. You will need a class A driver to ride with you while you learn, and to accompany you to the test site. If you can read and write you should be able to study the book from your DMV, pass the written tests and the book even describes the road/skills tests.

I never went to a school, took my CDL exam back in 92 at a third party test site in Pennsylvania for my class B, then about 8 months later I borrowed a dump truck and trailer and took my A. My younger brother did the test with a borrowed truck and our dad riding with him, from getting his permit until passing the road test was two weeks back in 1994.

 

Thank you for the info. I am sure i can study and pass the test. I am not an idiot. Very intelligent actually. One other question though. For a dually and a wedge do i need an A or a B? and what is the difference?

Thank you

 

I

 

Dually and wedge will be a class A with air brake restriction, and most likely auto trans restriction since it is rare to find a manual trans dually these days. What makes the difference from no cdl at all to the class A is the trailer gross weight mostly.

If you kept your total gross combined weight ratings of the truck and trailer under 26,000 pounds then you will not need a cdl at all but this limits your payload greatly. The key is the weight ratings, not the actual weight or registered weight as many people confuse that.

For a class A you will need a trailer with a gross weight rating greater than 10,001 pounds (most 3 car wedges are 14,000 gvwr or more) and a power unit with a gross vehicle weight rating high enough to make your combined rating over 26,001 pounds. Typical dually is 15-19,500 gvwr so lets say 15,000 truck and 14,000 trailer you are 29k with a trailer over 10,001 and will be a class A.