Groups sue DOT over driver training

The teamsters teamed up with two advocacy groups to compel the DOT to act.    Two advocacy groups and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have asked an appellate court to make the Department of Transportation issue truck driver training standards.
   Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways joined the Teamsters in the suit, which was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
   According to the petition, Congress said that a final rulemaking for the standards was to be implemented by the end of 1993. When nothing had occurred by 2001, safety groups filed a similar petition, asking for the court to compel the DOT to act. The agency settled that suit, agreeing to impose a rulemaking by 2004.
   While the DOT held up its end of the bargain and released a rulemaking, the court found it wanting and ruled that it was “arbitrary and capricious,” according to the new filing, and told the DOT to go back to the drawing board. After another six years without any progress, Congress laid down the law, telling the DOT to finish the rule by Oct. 1, 2013.
   “Congress’ most recent deadline has come and gone, almost another year has passed, and the agency still has not issued a proposed rule, let alone the final rule required by law,” according to the filing. “Indeed, the agency has made clear
that it has not yet even decided whether to undertake notice-and-comment rulemaking or to conduct a negotiated rulemaking.”
   In a statement, Henry Jasny, senior vice president and general counsel with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said, “People are dying needlessly while the agency drags its feet. New truck drivers need to be properly trained before they get behind the wheel. This is a dereliction of the agency’s duty.”
   John Lannen, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, said the lack of a driver training program has become a major issue.
   “The FMCSA’s inaction to release a new notice of proposed rulemaking for entry-level driver training is perpetuating a hazard for everyone on our roadways by permitting inexperienced drivers to interact with the unknowing public,” he said in a statement. “This hazard will only grow in scope as the turnover rate for truck drivers continues to remain extremely high  — over 90 percent — and the current truck driver work force ages out.”