Two-year delay in entry level driving training rule ‘concerns’ trucking industry

The trucking industry has waited at least three years for the federal government to issue standardized rules for entry-level training for truck drivers. Now it appears the industry will have to wait a couple more years for those rules to be issued.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is soon expected to issue an announcement in the Federal Register of the two-year delay. The principle reason for the delay is the failure of some states to get their systems aligned with the federal government’s.

An FMCSA spokesman maintained the delay is mostly technical and needed to develop a secure electronic trainer provider registry for the new rule. He added the agency remains committed to the idea of the mandatory entry-level rules.

At issue are the varying levels of quality of truck driver training schools. Some industry officials have decried the curriculum of some of the schools, calling them little more than sham operations. The original compliance date for the rule had been February 2, 2020.

The rule was designed so that new drivers first successfully complete a mandatory theory (knowledge) training program before taking a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) skills test, as opposed to an alternative hours-based training approach.

It’s an open question whether this new training requirement will even further exacerbate the driver shortage – currently estimated by American Trucking Associations at around 60,000.

FMCSA’s decision left safety advocates within the trucking industry concerned over this rule and other FMCSA regulations coming down the pike, such as the national drug clearinghouse that is supposed to track all drivers who fail random drug testing.

Jeff Mercadante, vice president of safety for Pitt Ohio, the nation’s 17th-largest LTL carrier which often is cited as the safest fleet in the country, said the two-year delay is “disappointing” considering FMCSA has been working on this regulation for years.

“The new ELDT training would have required a certain amount of training time for every new driver getting their CDL license to ensure they received proper training,” Mercadante told LM. “By not having training requirements allows some carriers to put little time into training a new driver which has an effect on safety. Our training requirements far exceeded the requirements of FMCSA for new drivers.”

David Heller, vice president of government affairs at the Truckload Carriers Association, was an original member of the Entry Level Driver Training Advisory Committee (ELDTAC) that first met on this issue in 2015.

“They’ve had three years to get this rule in place,” Heller told LM. “That’s a lengthy amount of time. I realize they want to get things right. But three years is a long time. What assurances are there that this can happen in two years? A lot can happen in two years.”

The biggest fear is that so-called truck driver training school “mills” – those unscrupulous operators who are merely trying to cash in on the driver shortage – will continue to operate with scant regulatory oversight.

“A lot of schools have standardized their course to suit the rule,” Heller said.

 The current regulation in question concerns just four things—driver qualifications, hours of service, driver wellness and whistle blower protection. The new rule is much more “hands-on” and teaches exactly how to operate a vehicle, back up a vehicle and “real world” scenarios.

“There’s some concern this (delay) allows CDL mills to continue to operate,” Heller admitted. “We as an industry love to tout our safe drivers on the road. This does not support that.

“That’s not to say we have an unsafe drivers, but this delay is concerning. I am particularly concerned over the additional two-year window needed to promulgate a rule that was finalized almost three years ago in an effort to create a safer, better-trained driver,” he added.

This latest delay follows a two-year delay announced in August regarding entry-level driver training (ELDT) verification process that training was completed and states have confirmed CDL applicants meet that requirement.

Todd Spencer, president and CEO of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said this latest delay “directly contradicts” FMCSA’s mission of improving truck safety.

OOIDA’s stance is that the best way to promote safety is by improving driver training requirements. It has said that too many new drivers enter the industry without the basic skills or knowledge to safely operate a commercial motor vehicle.

OOIDA would favor national ELDT standards. The first negotiated rulemaking process on this issue began in 2015. A December 2016 final rulemaking established a three-year compliance period that industry officials thought was sufficient for FMCSA and the states to prepare for what was supposed to be the February 2020 implementation date.
The new rules would have required individuals seeking a new CDL or an upgrade to an existing CDL to complete a program of theory and behind-the-wheel (BTW) range and public road instruction provided by an entity that is listed on FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry.

It’s all part of a Congressional mandate imposed under the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21). Those rules were based on recommendations from a rulemaking committee that first met in 2015.

Heller of the TCA and other industry safety advocates also are worried this two-year delay is a harbinger of other technical issues that may hold up FMCSA’s other data base-intensive initiatives, such as the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. FMCSA has said that data base is expected to be up and running in January, but this driver training rule delay has not led to excessive confidence in government on that issue.