Many of today’s senior drivers are wondering pretty much the same thing. “What the are the trucking schools teaching today’s new drivers?”
Experienced and veteran drivers today are noticing the caliber of new drivers who are out on the roads today. It is evident that there is a lack of proper CDL training, including maneuvering in and out of parking spaces, streets, and on the highways of our country. The comments about these new drivers, from the experienced “hands”, are far from pleasing. These new drivers are leaving a mark on the industry, with rising accident rates, unsafe driving habits, failing to use caution when passing other vehicles, not watching when they use on-ramps and the lack of attention paid to making sure that they are in a safe position to merge with traffic. These are only a few of the actions that new drivers, and even some drivers that have been behind the wheel for several years have been doing. Both truck driving schools, and companies with their own schools have been developing these new drivers, but they need to take a step back and look at the mess they are creating.
The FMCSA only recently (under pressure from the US Congress), started looking into the issue of truck driver training standards. Many drivers recognize that something has to be done, both quickly and effectively so that standards are put into place and that all trucking schools should be required to adhere to. Promoting safety awareness among trucking companies, and requiring higher standards for who is qualified to train new drivers is a must in our industry.
Over the years it has been documented and found in several states that a number of people have gained commercial drivers licenses illegally. This has been by paying exorbitant amounts of money so that officials will “turn the other cheek”. One such case having taken place in Illinois, back in the 90’s and then most recently in New York City, with these officials having been arrested and charged, or removed from their jobs. It seems that there needs to be more oversight for drivers license offices around the country so that officials are also held responsible for the testing of new drivers.
Hopefully the changes that are needed will come in such a way that when a new trainee starts at a school, they will be properly taught all aspects of trucking. Then when they are hired to fill a seat with a company they will be held to a standard of quality that many companies require.
This article was originally featured on North American Trucking Alerts.
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