WASHINGTON, D.C. – CDL driver turnover is being driven by under-trained drivers gaining jobs for which they are not prepared, says the international trade association representing the interests of independent owner-operators and professional drivers.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association gave its input to a rule change from the U.S. Department of Transportation tied to immigration and safety in licensures of CDLs by states. It is among more than 8,000 comments, as of Tuesday morning, received by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Todd Spencer, president of the truckers’ association, said the industry is at a crossroads and pleased the Transportation Department led by Secretary Sean Duffy and the motor carrier administration led by Derek Barrs is embracing policies prioritizing the needs of truckers.
“The days of exploiting cheap labor on the basis of false ‘driver shortage’ claims are over,” Spencer said in an emailed statement to TCS. “There is no driver shortage. Instead, there is tremendous driver turnover as under-trained drivers are put in a new job they are unprepared for.
“Additionally, inconsistent and improper licensing protocols among states has permitted hundreds of thousands of unqualified drivers to work on our nation’s roads which has needlessly resulted in numerous fatal crashes. We applaud the Trump administration, USDOT, and FMCSA for issuing the ‘Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses’ Interim Final Rule. This sweeping action delivers immediate licensing reforms that remove unsafe and unqualified drivers from the industry.”
The comment period closed on Friday, though the motor carrier association says it will consider late-arriving comments as practicable.
The Public Citizen Litigation Group; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, commonly known as AFSCME; the American Federation of Teachers; and two drivers filed litigation against the change in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Enforcement of the rule is on hold while the merits of motions are being judged.
This means the stay is not reflective of those merits.
Duffy has said to enhance safety, a tightening of the rules is necessary. Specifically, as lawmakers with proposals idled in Congress collectively say, those operating 80,000-pound 18-wheelers must be able to read road signs – this includes pictographs, symbol signs and variable message signs – and converse as needed with others using the highways, such as lawmen.
Nondomiciled commercial driver’s licenses, under the new rule, would be limited to those with lawful immigration status and the employment-based nonimmigrant categories of H-2A, H-2B and E-2 visas. Others could come from U.S. territories or states with decertified CDL programs.
“This unlawful rule seems intended to put people authorized to work in the United States out of work, solely because of the prejudices of the Trump administration,” Wendy Liu, attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, said in a release through the AFSCME. “We are asking the court to promptly invalidate the rule to prevent devastating consequences for our clients and the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who depend on commercial driver’s licenses for their livelihoods.”
The litigation of Jorge Rivera Lujan and Aleksei Semenovskii and their three ally groups was filed a day before the 10 Freeway crash in Ontario, Calif., killed three on Oct. 21. California Highway Patrol says 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh of India was behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler that didn’t brake starting a rear-end crash involving eight vehicles.
Prosecutors say on Aug. 12 that Harjinder Singh was driving an 18-wheeler and tried to U-turn on the Florida Turnpike through a point in the divided highway marked “official use only.” The speed limit at mile marker 171 is 70 mph. Three people in a van behind them, with a tractor-trailer suddenly blocking the lane, perished.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Harjinder Singh failed the written portion of the CDL 10 times. After he had been taken into custody, in an interview with the motor carrier administration, he had correct responses to two of 12 verbal questions on an English language proficiency assessment and correctly identified only one of four highway traffic signs.
Neither man named Singh is related, according to published reports.
Duffy announced the rule change Sept. 26.
