Steering a heavy combination vehicle through the center of a town or city is part of the training and practical driving test to become a professional big rig driver. Paying close attention to pedestrians, cyclists, moving or parked vehicles (any kind you can think of), buildings and street furniture while trucking, in other words.
The learner driver is sitting behind the wheel of a Volvo FH 4×2 box truck, towing a Netam-Fruehauf tandem axle trailer. Town center is near, things are about to get more challenging.
Heading in the exact same direction, spotted 15 minutes later. Same driving school, yet an other type of big rig. A Volvo FH 4×2 tractor with a Schmitz tridem axle semi-trailer, a bit more complicated to maneuver through town -when cornering- than the truck and trailer.
By the way, I’d say it’s about time for some precision mowing underneath and around the bench.
Almost home again I caught a man who must have passed the truck driver’s test. He’s standing there alright, filling up the fuel tank of his 2020 Ginaf X6 5249 dump truck. The number 5249 explained: five axles in total, two of them are drive axles, 49 metric tons GVWR (108,000 lbs, legally). The starting point for this Ginaf was a factory DAF CF 8×4 chassis-cab, powered by the 12.9 liter MX-13 engine.
For driving a heavy straight truck, like the big yellow taxi dump truck, as so called C driver’s license will do. For a combination vehicle, a CE license is required. But that’s only the practical side, as serious additional schooling and re-schooling (every five years) are mandatory too. And then we’re not even talking transporting dangerous goods.
Can only imagine what it must be to pilot one of these vehicles anywhere! Two things come to mind. When I was younger, drivers of trucks like these were always extremely careful and courteous. In recent years pressures to get deliveries on time have put too much stress. Like everything else, every one is in a hurry, causing less safety. That brings me to my second issue. The need for speed has caused a disregard for courtesy and safety by drivers of any kind of vehicle. DO NOT understand what the big rush is all about!😎9
It is my understanding that (in the US, at least) experienced drivers have been retiring in droves because of age or health, and that qualified replacements are in short supply. Part of it is demographics (generations after the baby boomers are smaller in numbers) and because too many people who might be interested in driving can’t pass drug tests or lack clean driving/criminal records.
My daughter-in-law’s father drives a big rig and told me that he can earn an $8k bonus for referring a qualified driver to his company.
Yeah my understanding is the shortage spiked about a year ago, but they are still short because of retirements. I know a few retired truckers and one guy who just moved into a new career after a decade of driving. The retired truckers mention pay still insnt as good as the late 80’s early 90’s but better then it was 10 years ago. The guy who just stopped said he seemed to have hit a wall where he could make more long haul but he didn’t want that so he switched to manufacturing (which also has a shortage at least here in New England) His last job was hauling food into NYC on 24′ refrig box trucks.
Theres a severe shortage of heavy vehicle drivers here not enough young guys want to work 14 hours per day and if they do they expect to be in a new 600hp Kenworth or similar without any experience of the kind of roads they will be on even with 600 or more hp you will still be at walking speed on a lot of the climbs and downhill they lack the knowledge of how to descend such hills as nothing is straight the roads twist going up and down, foreign recruits often dont last when they discover what the roads are like, so retirement age guys like me are often still working like I plane to but not full time Ive had enough and health is catching up fast Fruit picking and American clutches have done my knees in.
I have never had a CDL but probably should have the years I worked in Boat yards. Luckily I’m pretty good with a truck and big trailer but I got thrown into it when I was young.
When I was a teenager I often towed small boats for the boat repair place and later RV dealer I worked at, towing 25′ Travel Trailer or Fishing boat isn’t to bad. But then I worked at a bigger boat yard and we sometimes moved really big boats and had a hydraulic trailer. In the US after 26k GVW you need a CDL. Since the Dually Ford was around 10K GVWR and the Hydraulic trailer was around 30 GVWR I was well over that. Luckily I never got stopped and I had no idea you might need a CDL with a pickup at the time, towing a 35-40′ long trailer with a 20′ long truck does take a lot of planning a head at every intersection.
This side:
License B = up to 3,500 kg GVWR (cars, vans).
License C1 = from 3,500 kg to 7,500 kg GVWR (like a serious motorhome).
License C = over 7,500 kg GVWR (the article’s Ginaf).
Letter E (like in CE) means a license for towing a (semi-) trailer with one of the above vehicles (the article’s driving school rigs).
It varies a little state by state here but the 26,000 GVWR stays the same.
Here in CT there is an exception for campers and RV’s so no CDL is required.
Class D: normal non commercial Lic
Class is under the 26K lbs but for hazardous materials or more than 16 passengers (or under 10 for school bus drivers) .
Class B is over 26K lbs for the truck but can only tow a trailer up to 10k lbs (this is more complicated then it sounds because you can tow more then 10K lbs as long as the combined GVWR of the trailer and truck are under 26k lbs)
Class A is anything over 26k lbs and includes all trailers.
I had a CDL; got it in Iowa in 1972, when I was 19.
It was all crazy: I answered an ad for a dump truck driver. I told them I had driven a few trucks for the Ford dealer in Baltimore (true). They hired me even though I had no CDL.
I took a written test (very basic) and then they called for a tester to come for the driving test, on site. A woman Highway Patrol officer arrived. One problem: all the trucks only had a single seat for the driver. The foreman saw an old wooden chair in the office, grabbed a handsaw and cut the legs short, and set it in the cab on the passenger side.
When that woman officer opened the door she looked at that chair and gave this “WTF” look. I was sure she wouldn’t get in. Then she looked up at me in the driver’s seat, and a little smile came across her face and she gamely got in. It was a pretty short drive, and I passed.
I suspect it’s a bit more formal these days…
A bit more formal…indeed. Back in the day, a spin around the church in an Opel Blitz or something similar was basically enough to pass the test for a “groot rijbewijs” (CDL). Never mind the size, weight or overall length of what came next.
Easy test Paul my class 2 was the written axle weights general rule BS followed by a short drive around the roads at the power station I worked at, several guys did their licences the same day too many people in the steam fitters shop were driving the trucks without licences, the drive was in a TJ6 Bedford 300 cube diesel flat deck with a Palfinger Hiab mounted behind the cab rendering the mirrors useless,
Many years later I did my trailer clas 5 licence it was fay more comprehensive had to drive around in Napier city and do a left turn(blindside) and right turn in reverse following the curb 1 metre distance, that was in a 350hp Isuzu towing a 4 wheel full trailer not a semi trailer.
Ha! Neat story Paul.
over here
class 2 =4 wheel truck 14 tonne
class 4= 6/8 wheel truck 26 tonne
class 5 = 1 drawbar trailer or semi trailer or A/B train combination maximum of 2, 60 tonnes,
more trailers will simply not corner in one lane on a lot of our roads, there is little in the way of motor/express ways here mostly narrow 3 metre lanes on two lane blacktop,
Interesting segmentation. In NL, heavy straight trucks range from 19 tonnes gross weight (a standard 4×2) to 50 tonnes (10 wheelers/modified factory chassis).
21,500 kg GVWR is the absolute max for a 4×2, in which case a 10 tonnes front axle comes with the package.
All of them can be driven with one and the same C driver’s license.
Truck schools in the US often cheat by using short single axle trailers rather than full length two axle units.
The oddest one I used to see was a distinctive rental trailer that was used by Freightliner product validation and was occasionally hooked to a Mercedes cabover shipped over from the parent company.
Does a large commercial tandem trailer like this use forward and aft stabilizers during loading or parked alone so as not to tip forwards or backwards? Maybe the axles are that close together in the center to help with maneuverability?
Yes, when decoupled (and unladen) there’s a stabilizer at the front to keep things horizontal. Rear stabilizers for stability when loading/unloading.
That type of big trailers, with two or three axles, often has front cargo doors too.
See picture below for the reason why. You can also see one of the rear stabilizers, right behind the rearmost trailer axle.
The advantages of such a set-up: easier to drive backwards than a so called full trailer -also towed by a straight truck- and it’s easier to take corners when driving forwards, compared to the semi-trailer as pictured in the second photo (as in needs a less wider turn).
Thanks Johannes. That was a real head scratcher until you explained it.