CDL Suspention

We need to pressure government to suspend issuing new CDLs for a period of time. Maybe a year.

We have to end this oversupply of drivers. The driver shortage myth has to be exposed.

Government funding of these truck driving schools has to stop, And we need laws against the training companies practice of extending easy credit to CDL students. In my opinion it is akin to predatory lending.

No more new drivers lured into indentured servitude. If a company wants to train someone, fine but if that person gets fired or decides to leave, they walk away free and clear.

We need a system of commercial driver training and licensing that is more like the way the FAA licenses pilots. When you learn to fly, you work your way up. You don't go from flying a Piper Cub to a 747 in one step. You work yourself up in progressively larger and faster classes of aircraft.

When I learned to drive, you started with a car or a pickup, then you got a job driving a small truck like an F350 ford,with a dump or a stake body on it.

Then you worked your way up progressively, Maybe a F600 next, and then into a big single axle straight job with air brakes after that.

This way you learned most of the skills needed (such as cargo securement) so by the time you started driving a tractor trailer you had all the additional skills you need (other than just driving) and had worked around trucks long enough to know how not to hurt anyone.

 

Well if a plan like I suggested was implemented, you would start in a non CDL truck anyway.

I am not saying suspend the issuing of CDLs forever, it just seems like the present system is broken, we need to stop, look at it, address the problems, and then start it up again.

A progressive system of licensing would help the new guys by assuring that they were properly trained when they got in the seat of a class 8 highway truck. It would also let the guys who decide that trucking isn't for them, to get out before they are in too deep.

I learned to drive by progressively working my way up to larger and larger equipment. By the time I got into a tractor trailer I already had all the other skills down pat. I had already driven 3 and 4 axle straight jobs.

In fact my Tractor Trailer training consisted of the boss saying "Swing your corners wide and please don't hurt anyone"

 

This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to stop. How much money is the government spending to train drivers who leave the industry after a couple of years?

 

OK you're in, but please close and lock the door behind you.