In February, we wrote a story about how the Department of Motor Vehicle road tests for Truck drivers, know as CDL-Commercial Driver License tests, were no longer being offered in Yonkers. Most Yonkers resident know that the longtime location for regular driver’s license tests is on Vrendenburgh Avenue. That location for regular driver’s license remains, but for CDL Truck driver’s, the parking lot in the Cross-County Shopping Center was the location to take and pass your test on trucks as large as 18-wheelers.
Early this year, NYS Department of Motor Vehicle announced that they will no longer schedule appointments for CDL tests in Yonkers, and the nearest location for a CDL test would be in Wappinger’s Falls in Dutchess County.
The decision to half CDL tests in Yonkers has outraged bus and truck companies and Yonkers resident Al Sorano, owner of Al Sorano’s Professional Truck Driving School. Sorano trains applicants, on his company’s trucks and prepares them for the CDL test, which is now 2 hours long.
“We train a lot of people who are trying to get back into the workforce. These are people with no jobs who come out of prison or drug rehabs, we try to help them by teaching them how to drive a truck, bus or tractor trailer. They come to me for training and then we book a road test with DMV in Yonkers, and they use my truck. “
Through the help of Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano’s office, Sorano was able to get a reprieve, and continue to allow CDL tests to be taken at the Cross County through April. But in May the CDL test stopped again in Yonkers, and it remains that way for the past 2 months.
Sorano has suggested other locations in Yonkers big enough to accommodate a commercial truck but has not been able to get any answers from the DMV, which sounds familiar to many of us who have gotten caught up in governmental-bureaucratic red tape.
“They said they were in negotiations for a new location, but it never happened. This is not a problem for just Yonkers but all of Westchester County. They are neglecting some of their residents who want to become drivers and earn a living. Its about getting jobs and putting people back to work.”
Rumor has it that DMV is working with the owners of the Old Boulder Creek steakhouse on Central Avenue, closed for several years now, to use as the new CDL test site. Sorano will believe it when it happens. “DMV is sitting on their hands waiting for State government to tell them to do something. They are not working fast enough.”
Sorano said that he will reach out to Yonkers state representatives to try and help try and fix the situation. But, for now, if you want to take a CDL test, head north to Wappingers Falls.
