WASHINGTON — The training departments of three large truckload companies want to be exempted from federal rules for entry-level driver training because they claim it is causing them to be short of both instructors and drivers.
Drivers of the three companies — Heartland Express (NASDAQ: HTLD), Contract Freighters Inc. (CFI) and Millis Transfer (acquired by Heartland Express in 2019) — receive training from Millis Training Institute (MTI), the training division of Millis Transfer.
MTI, on behalf of the three companies, has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for an exemption from regulations requiring that a behind-the-wheel (BTW) training instructor have at least two years’ experience driving a commercial motor vehicle or two years’ experience as a BTW instructor.
“MTI has had CDL training since 1991 and has always required our ‘OTR’ [over the road] trainers to have one year minimum experience in order to train our students,” wrote MTI Training Director William Griffin in the companies’ exemption application. “We have an extensive ‘safety evaluation’ process and only those that pass our evaluation process will be allowed to train. We have been extremely successful with this policy.
“At present time, since February of 2022, we have had very little success in getting enough trainers to take and train our students due to the two-year BTW rule, hence the reason we are requesting this exemption.”
Griffin estimated MTI’s 2023 student enrollment for the three companies at 500-700 students.
“We currently only have 131 trainers, so with each trainer spending up to 90 days with a student before letting them go solo, you can see the companies are going to need to turn students away because of the shortage of trainers,” he said.
“If we are denied this exemption, we are all in agreement that our schools would suffer, hence reducing the growth of our companies and therefore reducing the number of safe drivers that we could potentially put on the road with a career in trucking and reducing the shortage of truck drivers.”
According to federal regulations, those applying for exemptions from FMCSA regulations must include in their application a safety impact assessment of the exemption as well as explain how an equal or greater level of safety would be ensured if the exemption was approved.
“We believe our Trainer Evaluation process is second to none,” Griffin asserted in addressing the safety aspect of the exemption.
“Our trainers must have no safety violations, must be able to communicate the importance of safety and demonstrate all aspects of our safety protocols as well. We are certain that our trainers and training will be a positive contribution to highway safety.”
He added, “I have no research reports or technical papers, just a sincere request from a 40-plus-year trucking veteran who is trying to keep our programs running smoothly.”
A 30-day comment period on the application begins when FMCSA formally publishes the request, which is expected on Friday, according to a notice published on Thursday.
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Michael
These big companies with driving schools do not care one bit about safety. They want their government subsidies and bodies moving through the school as fast as they can. The pay is not enough to put your life at risk to train these incompetent automatic restricted drivers and that is why they are trying to get less experienced trainers.
Shawn
Since when have these students been with a trainer that long, fmcsa changes this rule, the fmcsa will put the public in danger.
Snowman
These carriers are having a hard time not because of the regulations. But because of poor management and mediocre policies that cause drivers to seek employment elsewhere. Any experience driver out here would agree that we need more strict training requirements for newcomers to this industry. These new drivers can’t even back up straight and the same companies who “preach safety” are now asking for exemptions to have greenhorns training greenhorns. That alone shows that they only care about their profits, as long as they can have a truck moving they can care less about the driver or the safety of the motoring public.
John
Hire trainers with 20 plus years is experience pay them salary of $120,000yr. The trainee should work like a plumber apprentice, journeyman, master. I’ve seen some of the trainees do a better job than the trainer.
Dennis Stout
I have been a driving instructor for 3 years.
I have over 35 years experience with all types of equipment.
Dueto the extreme skill set it takes to be one, in my personal opinion, sacrifice a few students to maintain the highest quality of drivers being put behind the wheel.
Insurance will be better ,accidents happen no matter how much you train just depends how bad they are.
Gentlemen the transportation industry is changing very rapidly but to make it quality instead of quantity is the better one of the two.
Thanks for your time
Thomas
That’s crazy, they talk about how safe they are but yet want NEW drivers with just a years experience training new drivers. That’s like the blind leading the blind. I think FMSCA is being nice and giving two years. It should be at least 4. One year drivers are still learning the road. They haven’t experienced half of what they gonna face in this career let alone train. Millis- if you are all about safety you will withdraw your application and just be content. All you are doing is trying to run new drivers through the paper mill. With that said how about doing an application for doing away with ELD
Garry
They must not be paying that good because they can’t keep their drivers And I do believe 2 years of driving is the least that you want a trainer to have
P. nichols
No one should be able to train a driver with less than 5 years of otr experience. Trainee should with a trainer for no less than 6 months. During that time the truck should be ran as a solo truck with only trainee doing the work. Trainer should be in passenger seat at all times except at night when both are sleeping. Than a trainee should have to run team cross country for at least 6 months before they can be in a truck by themselves. I am a 35 years veteran. No way do they know eny in 90 days. If you want safety than do it right. If they really want to be a driver they will stay. If not you got an unsafe driver off the road