When the commercial driver’s license was first implemented, there was a great cry among drivers that it was unnecessary. Everybody who drove a truck supposedly knew how to drive, and future drivers would learn the way they’d always learned. That was good enough for the hard-nosed, commonsense truck driver.
The government, of course, saw things differently. A basic standard of performance was necessary in its view. Perhaps more important, a license would provide the means to track professional drivers, whose nomadic habits made them less visible to documentation by the states.
We live in a different world now, a world in which some trucks are potential bombs and the 2.5 million truck drivers with hazmat endorsements are under particular scrutiny.
Indeed, the 80,000 motor carriers registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to transport hazardous materials – everything from hairspray to nitroglycerin – are the subjects of that same increased attention. Tracking truck drivers, whose profession has recently become a possible means of terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, is a priority. So it is that the CDL and the hazmat endorsement have taken on a significance foreseen neither by drivers nor by those who brought these documents into being. Having a valid CDL and a hazmat endorsement requires a higher level of responsibility and awareness than it did before Sept. 11. Professionals remember that a national emergency will require CDL holders to report to federal authorities. A truck driver’s skills will become even more indispensable in times of crisis. This fact alone makes the CDL more useful all the time.
Doubtless there are some Americans who have gotten their licenses and/or hazmat endorsements by less than legal means. In recent years, there have been license-buying scandals in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida, to name a few. Drivers who committed fraud by not going through licensing tests might once have been considered common, petty criminals. Now their indiscretions are significant blunders and their actions could have consequences for them far beyond having to live with personal stupidity. Sometimes one small step off the legal path puts a man in quicksand. There are more reasons than ever to abide by the law of the land.
Steve Kozar, western regional manager for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Licensing, said there were approximately 31 people involved in the latest license buying scam in the Keystone State. He said all those licenses had been revoked and was adamant that “nobody else was involved.” That may well be. But drivers with false documents must recognize that other investigations are taking place.
Officer Genareo gives a clean bill of health to a tanker driver headed home for the border.
