Trucking news and briefs for Oct. 11, 2023:
New high-school trucker-training curriculum unveiled
The Next Generation in Trucking Foundation (NGT) is launching a first-of-its-kind "NGT Curriculum Companion" to support high school Commercial Driver's License (CDL) programs nationwide. The Curriculum, free to NGT members and sponsored schools, provides five parts of online modules aligned with the standards set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's pre-CDL Entry Level Driver Training rules. It also includes classroom activities, videos, handouts and assessments for educators.
It's intended to support teachers for a yearlong CDL course, preparing high school students to successfully complete the CLP exam after they turn 18.
Dave Dein, co-founder of NGT and teacher at the flagship high school CDL program in Patterson, California, encouraged educators and engaged truckers to imagine how different the trucking business writ large might "look and feel if trucking was a first career choice for more people. Ten years from now, we'll look back at this point as this defining moment in the trucking industry, when high schools took a proactive approach and provided the highest level of training for our students.”
Teffany Dominguez, a current student in Dein's CDL program, said she wanted "to be a truck driver because it's a career with unlimited possibilities. There's so much freedom and opportunity in it, and I can't wait to meet the amazing community of truck drivers."
Students in a recent CDL course at Patterson High School
Recent alumni are finding success. Ricardo Jimenez, a program graduate and now a trucking company owner, said "going into high school, I didn't even consider being a truck driver. I thought it wasn't a real career, and that there was no passion or vision in it." Yet after a friend convinced him to take the Patterson High School course, he developed that passion and vision himself. "I also learned about the impact that truck drivers have around the world. The trucking program at Patterson High School changed my life.”
Developed with Education Development Center (EDC) and funded through a grant from Knorr-Bremse Global Care North America (KCBNA) and the PepsiCo Foundation, the new online curriculum resource is designed for in conjunction with online ELDT courses for adult learners, while adapting materials for high school students and providing supportive hands-on activities. The course materials aim to equip students to have long, healthy careers, too. Materials incorporate SafeWork Training: Powered with Worklete (for injury prevention) and the Supply Chain Fitness Company (for health and nutrition). The course includes lab hours with driver simulation training, golf-cart backing skills, field trips, guest speakers, and industry engagement opportunities.
The Curriculum Companion can be accessed via this link..
[Related: Former hauler Dave Dein and partners bring trucking to high-school curriculum]
Upcoming Women of Trucking Advisory Board allowing public comment
The next meeting of the Women of Trucking Advisory Board (WOTAB) of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will be held October 26, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.
The meeting will be held virtually. Attendees from the public are required to register by October 21 at this link. Copies of WOTAB task statements and a larger agenda for the entire meeting will be made available at at that link, too, at least one week in advance of the meeting.
Oral comments from the public will be heard during designated comment periods at the discretion of the WOTAB chair. To accommodate as many speakers as possible, the time for each commenter may be limited. Speakers are requested to submit a written copy of their remarks for inclusion in the meeting records and for circulation to WOTAB members. All prepared remarks submitted on time will be accepted and considered as part of the record. Any member of the public may present a written statement to the committee at any time.
[Related: WOTAB takes aim at NIMBYs, billboard lawyers]
DAT partnership with Verosint to automate identity verification, detect and prevent fraud
DAT Freight & Analytics introduced what it called an "AI-powered identity-fraud detection and prevention platform" through a partnership with the Verosint company. The platform aims to block the unauthorized use of customer login credentials and combat the growing threat of identity theft in trucking and logistics. The partnership allows DAT, the company said, to leverage AI and machine learning to validate user identities and scrutinize suspicious accounts. Users of the DAT network can expect the system to help in these areas:
- Identity verification of the entities they are doing business with
- Ensuring the legitimacy of load postings
- Monitoring/detection of potential ID frauds
- Leveraging rules, signals and intelligence to identify signatures
It's powered by Verosint and works in the background to maintain a secure and seamless login experience for legitimate users. It uses DAT data, analytics and generative AI expertise to detect potential fraudulent activity and stop unauthorized access to the broad DAT One platform of load board. “Identity-based cybercrime is challenging all businesses, and account fraud is a key enabler of these crimes," said Stephen Shoaff, CEO and co-founder of Verosint. The Verosint platform will enable monitoring of "all identity transactions for real-time detection and prevention of fraud.”
DAT reports that 56% of the fraud cases it investigates are identity-related, driven by account takeovers, credential stuffing, new-account fraud and fake accounts. Without sophisticated identity verification to detect and preempt potential fraud at scale, operators of online freight networks have to investigate reports of suspicious activity individually, a laborious manual process, DAT said, underscored as a kind of "whack-a-mole" game in this recent edition of Overdrive Radio on the subject of double brokering and identity fraud. The new partnership with Verosint hopes to enable DAT to intervene quickly and selectively, to prevent fraud activity before it happens.
The partnership is another step in what DAT calls a multifaceted fraud-prevention program announced earlier this year, and questioned by some observers.
DAT's Jeff Hopper detailed some elements of the program, too, in this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast:
[Related: The double-brokering slow burn: How it happens, and how to fight back against it]
