WASHINGTON — Regulators received heavy opposition from truck owner-operators and safety advocates on a proposal aimed at making it easier to test and employ new drivers.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposed rule, “Increased Flexibility for Testing and for Drivers after Passing the Skills Test,” would loosen current CDL testing regulations by:
- Allowing commercial learner’s permit (CLP) holders who have passed the CDL skills test to operate a truck without having a CDL holder in the passenger seat.
- Expanding CDL applicants’ ability to take a skills test in a state other than the state in which they live.
- Eliminating the requirement that an applicant wait at least 14 days after being issued a CLP to take the CDL skills test.
The proposed changes, which FMCSA published for comment in February, stem from temporary waivers and exemptions issued by FMCSA during and after the pandemic, as well as a petition filed by the American Trucking Associations in 2020. The public comment period ended April 2.
In pushing for the changes, ATA said it considers a streamlined CDL testing process a way to attract more drivers.
“If the industry and broader supply chain doesn’t effectively address the driver shortage, it could reach 160,000 drivers by 2030,” stated ATA’s safety policy director, Brenna Lyles, in comments submitted on the proposed rule.
“Over one million new drivers will be needed to keep up with industry demands and growth alongside driver outflows. ATA believes any reductions in regulatory barriers in the CDL testing and issuance process that encourage and allow new individuals to enter the driving workforce more quickly are urgently needed to fill this critical gap.”
Werner Enterprises said allowing CLP holders to drive while a CDL holder rests in the sleeper berth — as opposed to requiring the CDL holder to observe the CLP driver from the passenger seat — expands team-driving opportunities and will “promote greater productivity and efficiency in freight operations, while helping recruit qualified drivers to timely and safely enter the workforce.”
The Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA), which represents CDL training schools and supports the changes, contends that the revisions to shorten wait times related to license processing and to expand where applicants can take their skills test would reduce costs and bolster tax revenue.
Delays associated with wait-time and test-location requirements “put jobs on hold for 258,744 drivers and resulted in over $1 billion in lost wages for these drivers,” commented CVTA Chairman Danny Bradford, citing data from 2016.
“As a result, federal and state governments missed out on an estimated $234 million in forgone income taxes and $108 million in forgone state and local sales taxes that could have been generated in the absence of skills testing delays.”
Safety taking a back seat?
But owner-operators and safety advocates assert that streamlining CDL testing regulations weakens safety objectives that FMCSA should be promoting.
Regarding allowing CDL holders to rest in the sleeper berth instead of overseeing the learner’s permit holder, FMCSA “fails to explain how the CLP holder will be adequately mentored,” commented Todd Spencer, president and CEO of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
“Given the minimum nature of current entry-level driver training (ELDT) standards, inexperienced drivers will face countless conditions, scenarios, and other challenges they had absolutely no training for during their first months and even years on the road. Eliminating [the CDL holder/passenger seat requirement] ignores the fact that well-trained, more experienced drivers have better safety records and can pass their knowledge along to less seasoned drivers.”
Spencer also pointed out that because FMCSA’s ELDT rule, which went into effect in 2022, does not require a minimum number of behind-the-wheel hours, the agency “should not weaken training opportunities by eliminating the 14-day waiting period for CLP holders to take the CDL skills test absent other appropriate agency actions.”
Peter Kurdock, general counsel for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said FMCSA includes no data or analysis in the proposed rule to support the assumption that CDL applicants are being forced to wait long periods to schedule a skills test.
Instead, by allowing a state to administer a skills test to any out-of-state CDL applicant regardless of where the applicant received driver training, it increases the potential for skills test “shopping,” Kurdock argued.
“CDL applicants would be allowed to choose any state in which to test, including those that could be believed or demonstrated to be ‘easier’ or less stringent,” Kurdock stated in comments to FMCSA.
“Moreover, an extensive investigation published by The Boston Globe … revealed the chronic failings by FMCSA to properly oversee and regulate unsafe carriers and drivers. Therefore, it is unlikely that FMCSA would be able to provide adequate oversight of a less rigorous testing regimen that has fewer protocols in place to prevent unqualified individuals from operating CMVs.”
Nono
The only ones really making $$ now that ELDT is a must, are these inept trucking schools who are over charging for training that is sub par. I also have beef with these third party testers that no one is regulating and it makes me wonder if these CLP holders actually took a legitimate test or if fraud was involved. There should be better oversight, audits and accountability for these “Testers” by FMCSA. There would not be a supposed shortage of Commercial drivers if the pay was better.
Carla
Definitely be able to read and write in English!! If you can’t how do you know what the road signs are telling you, you don’t!! That’s a big safety problem, along with reading and studying the drivers manual. People that doesn’t has no idea that if raining or foggy you turn your headlights on!!! That’s a BIG SAFETY ISSUE!!! Because if rain the spray coming off the road makes it hard to see a vehicle in front of you. The police used to set good examples by following the law they are just as bad as drivers out there and blinkers they think we all know where they’re turning or going. Safety all around has went flying out the window!!!!
Carla
Safety isn’t a top priority for these idiots making these decisions on how the trucking world should be. In the past you had to train and study for your CDL’s and it meant something to you as a person to accomplish this and then pass on what you learned. But we see daily on the road of in experienced cdl and regular drivers in cars that doesn’t have safety as their priority. It’s sad y’all want to streamline inexperienced drivers into a 90,000 weapon on the highway. So sad!!! Keep the age limit at 21, these younguns are inexperienced and immature to be driving much less a tractor trailer. Don’t put citizens at a higher risk because of your stupidity and greed.
Erin Thibault
Why is it that me, a Class A CDL Holder, and EVERY Class A CDL holder I know is currently experiencing less hours and/or less freight to haul? What “driver shortage” are you talking about?
Bud Young
Why are ATA members considered to be Stakeholders? Nobody is more of a Stakeholder than the person supporting themselves and their family with one truck!!! So far the CDL deal isn’t working as it is much less making it easier!
Chuck
If this goes through it will mean more accidents, higher insurance rates, and lower wages. And probably just phase 1 of a broader plan to flood the trucking industry with cheap labor.
If fmcsa wants to become a job creator for the trucking industry maybe they should start with promoting better working conditions & higher wages. People will chase good paying jobs that will provide enough to support a family.
DARYL Wilson
It’s a sad day/ time in America when money again takes priority over safety. Watch how severe injuries and death increase because of the stupid people in Washington as well as many other places in our wonderful country ruin things for a few others. Maybe it will take a severe accident or death of a loved one or family member that voted/ approved this ridiculous change to have them wake up.. wake up Washington get your heads out of your xyz…
Speed bumps
What joke what happened to safety first
Been driving since 1984 and it was 6pm this with a seasoned driver with over 10 years experience and I still practice the pretrip I was taught and been passing it on since then. I’m appalled letting anyone get a CDL in America that can’t even speak write or even understand English and they get a license what happen to America
They put there phone on translator for u to speak into the phone so they can understand in there language not right
The driver shortage they say it’s not
They just want to pay less and risk everyone’s lives for a dollar
Insane
Something has to stop
God help us