Review of Orange County CDL Truck Rental, LLC (California)

First, here is the setup for this review. I have had a Class B CDL since the early 90’s; however, I only drove Transit buses for about 5 years, and decided to transition to Computer Programming because of the low pay driving buses. Although I wasn’t driving commercially, I still maintained my CDL even though it was a pain doing the medical certification every 2 years; after going through the trouble of getting the CDL, I didn’t want to just throw it away – just in case I needed it in the future.
Now that I’m fed up with office politics, I decided to upgrade my Class B CDL to a Class A with all the endorsements with the intention of getting on a Frac crew. I know that I could get on a Frac crew with a Class B CDL, but I wanted to improve my chances by upgrading to a Class A – besides I had a ‘64’ restriction on my Class B which limited me to Class B vehicles with automatic transmission; the sad thing about that is that I learned to drive on a manual transmission, and I have been driving a manual transmission pick-up truck since the mid 80’s. The only way to remove that restriction was to do a DMV driving test; so I figured that if I had to do a driving test, then I might as well upgrade to a Class A in the process. I searched the inter-web for months looking for a reasonably priced driving school that could help me get a Class A CDL – I didn’t want to be indebted to an OTR company trucking school, and I didn’t want to pay several thousands to upgrade my license; the most I wanted to spend was maybe a couple thousand dollars.
That’s when I found Orange County CDL Truck Rental, LLC on the internet a couple months ago; I filled out an online contact request, and the owner Chris called me back within an hour. He explained his services and quoted me a ridiculous price that was well inside the ball-park I had set – his price was so ridiculous that I will not repeat it here; I know I made out like a bandit, and I’m still not sure how he made any money on me with the amount of time that he spent with me. Here is the deal with Orange County CDL Truck Rental, LLC from what I can gather. It a company that Chris recently created to provide CDL Class A and Class B training and Truck rental – you can use his truck to take the DMV Pre-Trip, Skills Test and Driving Test. A few years ago, Chris was in the same place I was a few months ago – he wanted to upgrade his Class B to a Class A, but he didn’t want to spend a lot of money; he just wanted a truck that he could practice with and take to the DMV for his driving test. He could not find anything reasonable in the Orange County (California) area. After going through the expense and aggravation of finally upgrading to a Class A, he decided to create a company to provide the services that he couldn’t find when he needed it – as the saying goes, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’.
Chris is the coolest dude ever, and he is very concerned about customer service; I made some ridiculous requests, after he quoted me a ridiculously affordable price for his services, and he still complied with my requests good-naturedly. He provided me with information to help get my Class A CDL permit, although I have to admit that all I really needed was the practice tests on the Truckers Report site. Thanks to Truckers Report, I was able to get a Class A CDL permit with ALL the endorsements. Whatever you need to help you get your Class A CDL, Chris will help you, and he will do it with a smile – his customer service is second to none. If you need a truck to practice for your DMV Class A Pre-Trip and Driving Tests, Chris can provide that at a very reasonable hourly rate; if you need a truck to take your DMV tests, Chris can provide that for a very reasonable price too.
After training with Chris for a few hours, I used his truck to take my DMV test yesterday (10/06/2014), and I am now the proud owner of a freshly-minted California Class A CDL with all the endorsements. Of course I’m not letting that get to my head, because I realize that what I know about driving big rigs can fit on the head of a pin, with room to build a 3-bedroom apartment. I know that my big rig training has just begun, and there is a long road ahead.