Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Today's Thoughts 2/26/11 Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Barking up the wrong tree, is that what we are doing? As professional truck drivers, we insist on being as safe and legal as we can. However, we keep asking the FMCSA, a federal level entity, to do what it has no power to do. That is imposing safer, more stringent regulations for not only who can become a truck driver, but also how they are trained out in the real world. Let me say up front that I have never trained a person in the art of driving a truck, and I do consider what I do behind the wheel a form of art. We in the industry know that to be a professional truck driver you have to put "you" into your work just as if you were an artist putting themselves into a work of art to come up with a perfect piece of work.

As I ponder over how it is that we might accomplish a better training environment for new truck drivers, I found myself looking at how it is we are going about this task and why it is that we keep asking at the federal level when it is the states that decide who gets a license, not the federal government. Therefore, as I see it, it the federal government refuses to act or is unable to act, then the issue falls to the states to decide. In short, we should be looking at our state officials to impose what safety standards need to be in place as a truck passes through their jurisdiction with a trainee at the wheel. The state needs to impose where the trainer is while the trainee is driving. And last but not least, the state, not a school or a company needs to be the one to do the final testing on a trainee before a CDL license is obtained. As you may well know, others may have their own version as to what needs to be met here but the end result should be states making sure their own highways are protected without relying on a Federal Government that has no intention of acting on this subject.

As we can see from the current state of things, the FMCSA is once again trailing behind as we professional drivers forge ahead on this training issue. What the exact answer to safer, a more well trained driver is I am not quite sure myself, I do believe that it is time to look at a different approach as to where we can get the proper training etiquette imposed. So I say lets us look at the state level for a possible solution.

Be safe peeps …
Jeff Head.
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