The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration scrapped its proposed rule on entry-level, truck-driver training standards Sept. 18, saying it would start over on the mandate.
FMCSA it was withdrawing the rule it proposed in December 2007 because subsequent public comments “raised substantive issues which have led the agency to conclude that it would be inappropriate to move forward with a final rule based on the proposal.”
While most people who weighed in expressed support for the concept, “they had divergent views on several of the proposed rule’s key provisions,” the agency said in its Federal Register notice.
FMCSA said after reviewing the more than 700 public comments, the agency decided that “new rulemaking should be initiated in lieu of completing the 2007 rulemaking.”
Public input on the proposal raised issues with how many hours a driver should train, the accreditation of driver-training schools, the curriculum and on-the-road training once a driver received his or her commercial driver license.
The FMCSA notice means the agency will not pursue further action on its proposed rule. But since Congress mandated a driver-training rule in last year’s MAP-21, FMCSA must write a new proposal.
