READER: Mixed feelings on driver training standards

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Tennessee-based small fleet owner Michael Goodman wrote in response to news that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration intended to survey drivers on options in crafting an Entry Level Driver Training Standards rule.

During earlier days in trucking, there were no schools. New drivers learned on their own or from more experienced drivers. I would like to see the government stay out of the training business.

However, I have mixed feelings, because there probably should be some minimum standards. But as long as the government is setting them, I am not sure there will be meaningful rules that make sense. I think surveying new drivers may not give an accurate picture of the quality of training and skills that these people have developed without pulling in more experienced drivers who may have taken a different path to gain their CDL. A broader cross section of drivers should be polled. I question their methodology and ability to gain an accurate picture of the level of current skills of these drivers, likewise whether FMCSA can even structure a survey that will ask the right questions.

The challenge is in finding people who can design a survey which will be unbiased and give a true picture of the level of training and to offer meaningful recommendations. I have little confidence that anything meaningful will come from the feds implementing this survey. –Michael Goodman, via the Overdrive’s Trucking Pro LinkedIn group

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