FMCSA Submits Court-Ordered Guidelines for Driver Training
By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the Sept. 3 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has sent its court-ordered revision of new-driver training guidelines to the White House Office of Management and Budget, and trucking industry and safety officials said they hoped the agency would publish the new rule before the end of the year.
The rule would cover minimum training standards for new drivers and was sent back to FMCSA in December 2005 by a federal appeals court because it did not include a requirement for some on-highway driver training (12-12-05, p. 5).
“FMCSA simply disregarded the volumes of evidence that extensive on-street training enhances [truck] safety,” when it published its rule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said.
The rule was sent to OMB, the last major hurdle for regulations before they are published, on Aug. 13.
It was published originally in 2003 and at first simply required new drivers to get training on drug and alcohol testing, medical qualifications, hours of service, driver health and wellness and whistle-blower protections.
An FMCSA spokeswoman said it is against agency policy to comment on ongoing rules, but in a separate interview with Transport Topics, Deputy Administrator David Hugel on Aug. 28 said, “OMB alone has 90 days statutorily to review” a rule.
“Based on the OMB standard timeline, that’s August, September, October, so maybe sometime in November but probably by the end of the year,” said Dave Osiecki, vice president of safety, security and operations for American Trucking Associations.
At its annual February meeting, ATA endorsed a driver-training policy that said the “curriculum should focus on the core elements of classroom and behind-the-wheel training (2-19, p. 1).”
“I’ve heard their hope is that they can get something out in short order,” said Steve Keppler, director of policy and programs for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.”
Keppler said he was hopeful the proposed rule would address the court’s concerns, “especially when you look at a lot of the comments that were submitted to the docket [in 2003].”
Many of those comments centered on the need for more on-highway training, and in its 2004 lawsuit that succeeded in getting the rule sent back, a group headed by Public Citizen asserted that “FMCSA’s mandatory entry-level truck driver training rule is arbitrary and capricious or contrary to law because it does not require that entry-level drivers receive any training in how to actually operate a commercial motor vehicle.”
“We hope [the new rule] has an actual training component this time,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which was party to the 2004 suit. “Certainly, we think the agency would be obligated to do that, and we are optimistic it could be more comprehensive this time.”
