Werner Enterprises is banking on a commercial learner’s permit (CPL) exemption not only to boost operational productivity but to help the company get its drivers employed faster.
In an application filed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in July, the Omaha, Nebraska-based truckload carrier asserted current federal regulations are keeping it from immediately employing new drivers because drivers are no longer issued a temporary CDL after passing the CDL skills test.
Temporary CDLs previously allowed companies like Werner [NASDAQ: WERN] to immediately designate a new driver as “on duty” in order to drive to his or her home state to get CDL documentation without an accompanying second driver in “on-duty” status.
But with no temporary CDL available under the current regime, “Werner must choose either to wait for the new driver to obtain a CDL from his or her home state before commencing freight movement in an ‘on duty’ status or send the new driver home in an unproductive non-driving capacity,” the company stated. “The outcome is an inefficiency in the supply chain and a lost employment opportunity for the driver.”
In addition, Werner stated that because some states take “days or weeks” to update the status of a driver’s license after passing the CDL skills test, the company faces another set of delays.
“This administrative waiting period, or ‘down time’ between a learned skill and active employment, causes a host of issues, to include the following: exacerbating cost and inefficiency problems for the carrier; presenting a financial hardship for the new driver; and causing possible degradation of the new driver’s professional skill set.”
If issued an exemption from current regulations, however, freight operations would be improved and qualified drivers would be immediately employed and compensated “during an historic driver shortage,” Werner stated. “Werner will face a significant burden … if this exemption is not granted.”
In February, FMCSA approved a similar exemption requested by Springfield, Missouri-based Wilson Logistics. Some individual commenters opposed the application, with one stating that the company is merely looking to boost profits at the risk of having an inexperienced driver at the wheel.
FMCSA responded that because the drivers have already met all the requirements for a CDL but just need to pick up the document from their home state, “their safety performance is expected to be the same as any other newly-credentialed CDL holder.”
Werner, which states in its application that it graduates approximately 6,500 new drivers each year through its partnership with Roadmaster Drivers School at 18 locations in the U.S., intends for the exemption to apply only to drivers who passed the CDL skills test, hold a CLP, and operate a truck under supervision of a CDL holder who is somewhere in the vehicle but not necessarily in the front seat.
“By allowing a CLP holder who has passed the CDL skills test to drive en route to a state of domicile with a CDL holder present in the vehicle, this exemption will improve safety over current regulations, which allow the new CDL holder to drive unsupervised immediately after receiving his or her CDL documentation.”
A 30-day public comment period begins on Werner’s application after FMCSA posts a public notice in the Federal Register on Wednesday.
chris
I don’t think CPL should not be delivering or driving like he or she is CDL holder, and from what i have seen the CDL driver or trainer is in the truck but they run it like its a team truck
Tre
I went to a Werner Enterprises training school in Allentown Pa, literally the worst CDL driving experience I’ve ever been part of, Horrible hotel during a pandemic terrible teachers who wouldn’t even be on time to class and we missed a day of training because it was raining and he didn’t want to get wet. I left there and went back home to MD and started driving 4 UPS, probably the best trucking decision I’ve made since I acquired my CDLS.
Link
How about Werner not chase away or fire there most experienced drivers as well as pay better for longevity and experience.
How do I know ?
Because I had 19 years 8 months with them till a coward ordered me fired for something they said multiple times over the Qualcomm and in quarterly safety msg that nobody would be fired for.
They have a building full of aholes who think there degrees in management or logistics make them better then the drivers.
They have forgotten that they are a trucking company and have turned into a training company.
And Werner owns roadmaster cdl schools, they bought them years ago.
Dan
The trucking industry wants to do everything possible to get more drivers except pay them better.
Robert C Ward
I also oppose Werner application that application allows Werner to put profit over human life by allowing a inexperienced driver to operate a 80k commercial vehicle you would think Werner would have learned there lesson from past accidents involving inexperienced driver employed by Werner that resulted in fatalities
Jay Fuller
Warner has helped enrich themselves through electronic logs which they pioneered.i think we can just let it be the way it is no bending rules for them
Guillermo
Truck drivers should get paid more in general,benifits should be cheaper.We take our time off and are screwed on our pay checks.The trucking industry needs to be changed for the better,that includes better training instead of just teaching people to pass a CDL test then pushing them thru so called on the job training (good or bad) they make sure to keep them employed to make sure they get their money back but put the general public in danger by allowing drivers that shouldn’t be driving a truck to be behind the wheel of one.
Stephen Webster
A very bad idea. New truck drivers need more training not less.. Many truck drivers in Ontario Canada including myself when get sick or injured are not getting proper medical care. I have heard that is happening in some cases in the U S. In my opinion if these companies have provided medical care and short term housing for homeless sick and injured truck drivers and paid local drivers to start 19.00 per hour U S and increase of a dollar per hour each 1000 hours worked up to 24.00 per hour pls O T R 3.00 more per hour plus a medical care and 1 dollar per hour into a R S P . We would lots of truck drivers. Note all truck drivers should get overtime after 10 hours per day and 50, hours per week. I run a nonprofit organization with others in Ontario Canada for the homeless and have seen many people who drove truck homeless.
Kyle J McKee
As usual Mega Carriers such as Werner cares less about public safety and more about the profitablity of the company. According to the article Werner wants to have a new driver with a CLP along with a CDL Driver “somewhere in the vehicle and not necessarily in the drivers seat”. Exactly what does this insinuate, that the certified CDL A Driver can be sleeping in the bunk while the “new” never been behind the wheel of a CMV cross country will be driving. This is safety!!! This is how you promote safety on our roadways. Allowing new drivers to take hold of an 80,000 pound Vehicle with no experience except that of what was tonight to him or her in school and then allow them to be “unsupervised” whole a certified CDL A Driver is “somewhere in the truck”. Would you want your family to be next to an 80,000 pound Vehicle with this lack of experience?