Hi there smart drivers. Rick with Smart Drive Test talking to you tonight about
toll bridges and border crossings. I'm going to give you some information, techniques
and tips about how to do all of that safely so you're not impeding traffic
and you're minimizing your time at the border crossings. Stick around we'll be right
back with that information.
[INTRO]
Hi there smart drivers, welcome back. Rick with Smart
Drive Test talking to you tonight about tolls: toll booths, toll roads, bridges &
those types of things. And we're going to talk to you about border crossings and
give you some information about all of that. So you can get across these things
and through the tolls. Yeah, and minimize the risk with all of that. So a few
people are here. If you're just tuning in to the live stream tonight be sure to
let us know where you're tuning in from in the world. So Tommy's here; TanMoy is
here. Thank you very much for your compliment there tamboy. That's awesome.
If you don't live on the eastern seaboard of the United States or you
don't cross the border as a rule you're going find it a bit daunting the first
couple of times you do it. And I do remember that I was actually fortunate
enough that when I start going across the border in the truck
I had another driver that was with me. So I wasn't completely alone and
didn't have to figure out on my own. Okay first thing I'm going to tell you, I
did get the winter driving course up at over at the Smart Drive Test website and
you can see the link right below the presentation here. So for
those of you who are new to Smart Drive Test my name is Rick August. I started
the YouTube channel about three years ago. And as some of you know, I was a
truck driver in the 1990s. I became a licensed driving instructor in 1997. So
I've been a licensed commercial driving instructor since 1997
with an expertise in air brakes. I got my doctorate in legal history in 2006. You
know, roll down your windows on both sides if you have passengers in the back
of the vehicle, make sure you roll down that window as well and roll down your
window. Open the trunk because they're gonna look in the trunk especially if
it's American border crossing officials. Take off your sunglasses, and
when you get up to the booth, shut off your engine so you can talk to them. As
well, just sort of think of the border crossing official who's standing there
in the toll booth. And for two or three hours, and every vehicle that comes up is
sitting there running. There's a lot of pollution.
So it it kind of reduces the irritation with the the official and as well they
don't have to yell over you, especially if you're driving a diesel truck or you
know something that's got a loud engine on it. Make sure you shut your
engine off and keep your hands on the steering wheel in plain sight. And as
well, when you're approaching the toll booth, make sure that you obey all the
speed signs and those types of things. ...like a commercial driver, so we're
talking a transport truck. He was saying that the toll to go across the George
Washington bridge now, it's like upwards of $100 U.S. And I know as a Canadian
we take great umbrage in paying tolls. Yes Janet, when you go to Google, Google
will tell you whether you're taking a ferry, whether you're
taking toll roads, those types of things. So if you use Google Maps, it will give you
that information and tell you whether there's a toll bridge, toll road or
there's a ferry or whatnot. And I know also on Google that you can
use the option to route yourself around those toll roads and whatnot. Yeah Matt you
hate tolls. [LAUGHING] One minute, I want to address a question from a smart driver on the
Twitter channel here. And essentially what's happening is that the cars are coming
out of the parking lot here and they're trying to make a left-hand turn across a
multi-lane road. Last March break, my two kids and I--and as many of you may or may
not know, I'm a single dad and I've got two young kids--and we were going down to
Washington State to help Jen get her license. I was doing an evaluation for
her because she had low vision. And me, you know, being in a hurry and having 4,000
things on the go forgot to get the letter from their mom saying that I
could take my kids into the States. Because oftentimes, border officials if
you've got two young children and you're by yourself without the
other parent, they are thinking that you're taking off and absconded with the
children. So goofy me ended up at American customs--the border crossing in
Washington state...were we in Washington state or did we go through
Penticton?--we went through Penticton. So we end up at the border.
Of course I don't have the letter. [LAUGHING[ And the border official says to me: "you need to go inside." We go
inside and I talked to the customs official. And you know: "yes sir, no sir,
what are you doing in the States?" And I of course I said to the official
that I was going down to shoot a YouTube video. Of course, well then this gets into
Hollywood and all these types of questions and whatnot. Anyway, you know it
came down to one thing after another which was all kind of funny. And the kids
Mom wasn't in the country at the time either. She was overseas somewhere
so we couldn't just call her and have her confirm that in fact the kids were
with me and I had her permission to take them into the United States.
But you know, I did have their passports. So you know, there was that. I just
didn't have the letter. And so the border official says to me, "can I inspect your
vehicle?" And I said yeah absolutely. Here's the key. And so the
board official goes out to the car, looks through the car, inspects the car and
those types of things and comes back in. And she says to me. She says, you realize
there's empty beer cans under the driver's seat. And I know how bad that
seems... it really does. But I said to her, I said the kids and I
collect beer cans to save money to go to Disney and we've been doing this for
years - three or four years we've been collecting beer cans to go to Disney and
what happened, the kids would pick them up - we're out somewhere
at a parking lot or something like that, and I'd just throw them in the car. Well,
unfortunately two or three of them got underneath the driver's seat and
didn't get dug out. So winter driving course is ten dollars for the first
hundred people that enroll in the course. So click down in the description-the link there-and
head over there and sign up for the winter driving course. And we'll see if
we can get the payment figured out for you there. Okay, so thank you again. For
everybody that showed up. If you passed the road test in the last week congratulations.
And if you have one coming up, good luck on your road test. And remember, pick the best
answer not necessarily the right answer. Have a great day. Bye now.