Because a small number of fly-by-night, unsafe, trucking companies refuse to train their drivers (the vast majority of trucking companies have training programs), the FMCSA finally had to pass regulations requiring ongoing training of CDL drivers. The fly-by-night trucking companies contended if drivers have a CDL that is “good enough.” The FMCSA says it isn’t. That it never has been. Not when you are driving an 80,000 pound articulating vehicle. Mistakes in big rigs kill people.
We can go through the long litany of reasons that training is required (do you have regular training in your job? Do you want a 16 year old driving a 2,000 pound car car without training? Multiply that times 40!) of safe trucking companies. The FMCSA determined the unnecessary carnage on the roads, from untrained and poorly trained CDL drivers, required at least minimum continuing training standards.
The Proposed Rule requiring training was published in the Federal Register HERE and the Final Rule HERE. The new requirements are still are awaiting clearance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) 3,660 people died in large truck crashes in 2014. Thats 305 people a month that are killed, much less the thousands that are injured, in large truck crashes. IIHS states that 68% of these wrecks are fatal to passenger vehicles!
Anyone else – excluding the 305 people that will die this month – unhappy with the delay at OMB???