Driving without cdl?

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

in NC both of my buses are insured and registered as buses for personal use. and i do not have to have air brake endorsements.
i have some friends that run heavy trucking bussinesses that have to have all of that but that is because they are making money from it.
my 60 passenger bus even though converted to 6 seat belts is still tagged and registered as a bus for personal use.
my wifes bus is a 16 passenger and is still registered and insured as a bus but this year the DMV wants it to be inspected and approved as an MH before issuing permanent tags.
so things change.
i can drive my 60 passenger wherever with bus tags issued by them but my shorty has to be re-titled?
thats how much things have channged in 7 years between my 2 bus DMV experience as well as if you dont like the answer you from one DMV office go to another one and try again.
only give the info. they ask and dont volunteer anything that they have not asked for?
i got a school bus i am making an RV try just say i am cutting all the seats out to haul my ATV's for weekend fun or something like that as long as it doesnt involve making money buy using it then you are not a COMMERCE DRIVER.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

in NC both of my buses are insured and registered as buses for personal use. and i do not have to have air brake endorsements.
i have some friends that run heavy trucking bussinesses that have to have all of that but that is because they are making money from it.
my 60 passenger bus even though converted to 6 seat belts is still tagged and registered as a bus for personal use.
my wifes bus is a 16 passenger and is still registered and insured as a bus but this year the DMV wants it to be inspected and approved as an MH before issuing permanent tags.
so things change.
i can drive my 60 passenger wherever with bus tags issued by them but my shorty has to be re-titled?
thats how much things have channged in 7 years between my 2 bus DMV experience as well as if you dont like the answer you from one DMV office go to another one and try again.
only give the info. they ask and dont volunteer anything that they have not asked for?
i got a school bus i am making an RV try just say i am cutting all the seats out to haul my ATV's for weekend fun or something like that as long as it doesnt involve making money buy using it then you are not a COMMERCE DRIVER.

ohio is same way although they state that Commerce involves any commercial,church,charity or other organized event.. thus it is not the $$ that determines CDL, its whether you are offering it as a service.. ie I can pack my bus full of friends and we can all go out for Pizza and its Not Commerce.. but if I was offering "free rides" to and from a car show downtown then technically im "commerce"...



such grey areas!!


and I have ZERO IDEA hoew the likes of "roadie" work which is that uber for packagae delivery.. if a person wit ha truck and trailer bids on a job to take 3 4 wheelers to georgia from ohio is it commerce? as roadie is a wierd grey area in and of itself sort of like uber drivers that dont have to have Livery licenses yet a guy driving a 7 seat limo does (class C CDL)...

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

if you make money while driving then you should be required to have a CDL by the feds but so far they only enforce it on the trucking companies because they are hauling alot of weight so they want them to pay for road and bridge repairs through taxes and license.

[KeyWestPirate]

Our district requires a year, or you pay them back $2500. But, I could go east, west, north or south,, and the district that hired me would gladly pay the $2500.


I enjoy what I do. MOST of the kids are pretty well behaved.

Your "residential streets" is so true. You get people backed up in front of the bus and behind it when the stop arm is out, and with a car at the curb in front of you, nobody goes anywhere. Eventually,, someone figures it out.



Another one is turning right when there simply isn't enough lane. Your nose is inches from someone's car going the opposite way,, and they freeze. You motion them to go ahead, but they can't see around your bus. All they see is this massive wall of yellow I had one lady sit through two light changes . . . . before any of us could go anywhere. And, you're always late already.



Tucson has a lot of Afghani refugees. Tucson must remind them of home. Shalom Aleikam - - - Aleikam Shalom. The girls drop their face veils when they speak to me,, a sign of respect and acknowledgement that I am family.



I had a late route for a while with some homeless kids. They get picked up at 5PM They get more food, some rest, and maybe a bath. I'm particular where the kids get dropped off. I was concerned about the stop for a young Guatemalan brother and sister,, "Where do you live? I don't see any house close by"
"En el monte" (in the weeds).



The middle schoolers are the worst. But they are just rambunctious, and constantly testing. But, respect breeds respect.


High schoolers know the rules: They get into a fight, I just pull the bus over, radio dispatch to call 911, and wait until the cops arrive. Consequences are severe so there is really little of that. Most are on their phones the entire trip, you hardly know that they are there.



Any bus that has special needs has a monitor (unless they don't have enough). Wheelchairs are the easiest, but it's a depressing ride.



Pay should be better, and TUSD loses drivers each year to better paying trucking jobs. It's not hard to beat $18 /hour. You need a Class A to drive anything articulated, and a trailer endorsement, but at the point, with a year's proven history, the list of trucking companies who want you is long. The school district is much more aggressive about drug testing, background checking, and the trucking companies know that.


I got into it for a couple of personal reasons. I am going to help a Nicaraguan friend get to the US and make a claim of asylum next fall. She was a political activist during her university years, and cannot get a job. But it could be worse,, this is what happened to a friend of Yaritza:


https://havanatimes.org/features/you...isoner-guilty/


She will eventually teach for TUSD. That was her dream (teaching). It will take her six months to get her work permit,, and perhaps another six months to complete the teacher certification program.




But,, I found out that I actually enjoyed driving the bus.

And I like having the best part of the day free. I've done by 9AM or 10, USUALLY, and don't have to be back until 1PM I live only 15 minutes away from the yard.



Every day is the same, but every day is different too.

If you hire on at TUSD,, mention my name. I get something,, I think $250

[RamRod4]

Originally Posted by KeyWestPirate

The middle schoolers are the worst. But they are just rambunctious, and constantly testing. But, respect breeds respect.


High schoolers know the rules: They get into a fight, I just pull the bus over, radio dispatch to call 911, and wait until the cops arrive. Consequences are severe so there is really little of that. Most are on their phones the entire trip, you hardly know that they are there.

KeyWest, you’re definitely the cool bus driver we all wanted to have when we were kids.

[HamSkoolie]

WOW Key West


I used to drive bus from time to time in the Marines, having been in Motor T I had licenses for almost anything and licensed bus drivers were hard for aviation commands to come by for getting groups to this and that.
You want a crash course in defensive driving? Make round trips between the Navy Yard in southeast DC to the Capital Mall...... during inauguration week.... hauling 14-18 year olds and their "adult" supervision..... That was CRAZY moving a 40' pusher through bumper to bumper traffic, road blocks, and all the rest.
On the other hand, I had more trouble from the "adults" than the kids. They were Young Marines (boy scouts with an attitude) and a GOOD attitude it was. The "adults" on the other hand.... grumpy, cold, bad moods. I can't imagine a better group of kids.
But I avoided taking a school bus driving job when I retired because I didn't want to go to jail for taking down a kid with a knife or something and then being "the bad guy" because I was "too rough".
Oh well.

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by KeyWestPirate

...Starting this year, on Feb 7 and Feb 22, the feds starting pushing more uniform standards to the states regarding CDL licensing, training, and enforcement of over the road activity....

...States are still allowed exceptions, and rural states have many for ag vehicle drivers. But,, that CDL is only good within that state....

This is because the federal government has no authority to dictate what happens within a state on its roads. ONLY when one crosses state lines IN COMMERCE or AFFECTS INTERSTATE COMMERCE do they have jurisdiction.
But they do have a nifty way of using that "affects" part. For instance, grow grain on your own land, feed it to your own cows, and if the feds have a program that requires you to have a quota they claim jurisdiction under your affect on commerce by not having to go to the farm supply and buy grain that got there in interstate commerce.
It's only going to get worse.


I have a small drone, the fed claim authority to regulate it under the interstate commerce clause. It's under the weight to require registration (for now) but the feds also claim that if I put video from the drone on a monetized youtube channel, even if the video isn't monetized and I make nothing from it, that it's "commercial activity" and requires me to get a commercial UAV license...... yet I can still go out, climb into an ultralight aircraft without any license or even training..... and my pilots license isn't good enough for the UAV flying unless I get an endorsement.


And it's only going to get worse. Because legislators legislate and every piece of legislation takes away someones freedom if not rights. And those legislators are being lobbied by an industry that wants you to have to buy their inferior and over priced products.

So in the next 5-10 years expect much tighter regulation on conversions, probably patterned after some of the european regulations where propane systems require licensed professional instalation, same with electrical. Heck one insurance company here already told us that a wood stove would have to be installed by a professional licensed for mobile installations (of which there are none to my knowledge).

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223

if you make money while driving then you should be required to have a CDL by the feds but so far they only enforce it on the trucking companies because they are hauling alot of weight so they want them to pay for road and bridge repairs through taxes and license.

I disagree.
ONLY if you cross state lines while driving, not the truck you're driving when it was made and shipped across lines, should the feds have anything to say about it.

[Albatross]

Originally Posted by HamSkoolie

I disagree.
ONLY if you cross state lines while driving, not the truck you're driving when it was made and shipped across lines, should the feds have anything to say about it.

I know I'm a bit of a radical when it comes to freedom...
But I am of the opinion that no government should have an opinion or say about what private people do, tote, trail(-er), haul, or operate on the roadways until it causes harm to someone or something.

If you're actually driving--that is to say, for profit, then the locals can have some say. And if you drive across state lines, then the Federal government is allowed to chime in.

I know, it's radical, being a strict constitutionalist, but those words actually mean something, and they should, since they helped us become one of the most powerful on the planet in very short time, and one of the #1 places people try to immigrate to.