All around trucking, we used to take pride in the fact that the job of a long-haul, irregular-route, full-truckload driver was one that could not be hijacked and taken overseas. Yet we have watched it happen in many states right before our eyes.
While announcing non-domiciled CDL rule changes two weeks ago, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy said plainly that “we don’t need non-domiciled drivers to make sure our goods flow through the country. We have American drivers who are ready, willing and able to take those loads.”
Asked if this crackdown on non-citizens who might gain and abuse CDL privileges would exacerbate the so-called driver shortage, he added, “I feel very good that we’re going to still move goods throughout this country, and we’re going to move them safely -- we’re going to be fine.”
David Owen, the author of this commentary, is President of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies.
It’s truly a shame that we’ve had a federal regulation on the books for decades that requires CDL holders to be able to read, understand and speak the English language with a certain level of proficiency, and until Arkansas increased penalties for violations of the rule this Spring and President Trump forced the issue with an executive order, all the other states seemed to more or less ignore the regulation. Many even criticized Arkansas for giving extra attention to it. (Incidentally, many of our so-called mega-fleets have encouraged or are financially supportive of driver training schools who have created crash courses in rudimentary English to circumvent the impact of this rule.)
[Related: Trucking ELP enforcement: The toughest and most lax states]
Finally, it’s more than shameful that the American Trucking Associations all these years continued to promulgate the phantom “driver shortage” to obscure and deflect from the most significant safety issue we have in trucking -- driver turnover. NASTC has taken every opportunity over the past three decades to point this out to anyone who would listen, and because of large trucking’s almost obsessive need to grow despite 100% turnover rates, our opinions have been consistently ridiculed.
There is no shortage of American-made drivers.
There is no need to pass more rules, regulations or laws when the states and other jurisdictions pick and choose which ones to ignore and which ones to enforce.
There is certainly no need to allow individual states and certain non-governmental organizations to make policy and/or rules for all the other jurisdictions in the country.
There is, however, a huge need for the entire industry to get behind the current administration and make trucking great again.
[Related: Did DOT Secretary Duffy just kill the 'driver shortage' narrative once and for all?]
