ELDT: CDL training swindle across USA

Agreed. Same thing back when I started spent thousands on the dream and put in the work. Had to earn it. No-one rolled out any red carpet. Only leg up I had was I read and speak the official language of business here in the United States which obviously isn't a huge barrier to entry but too much of one anymore apparently these days.

Some more stellar reporting by Freightwaves. A mainstream industry source. They've caught some heat on here in the past for pushing the info they sell but they do good journalism. The kind that hasn't been seen or heard from establishment news media in 30 years or more.

 

Outsourcing the licence testing to the trucking schools ruined the industry in Canada.
I know that 30 years ago you could BUY a AZ license from a guy who had signing authority
He was generally found at the Shell truck stop in Mississauga On
Those who did take the trucking courses were guaranteed a driver license as soon as the check clears.

 

Your do not understand what ELDT is.

First off, 3rd party testers have been a thing since the CDL was created in the early 90s. Every state had different rules about how to become a tester, and in theory no tester could examine a student they had trained. In practice that line got rather blurred, even at the best schools.

Secondly, in 2002 you didn't HAVE to pay for training. A few days after passing the permit test you could show up with a truck, take (and pass) the CDL test and have your CDL 2 hours later. All ELDT does is make a prospective driver pay for someone to run a 'classroom session' covering what's in the General Knowledge and Air Breaks tests, plus any of the endorsements and sign off on "behind the wheel training". Once that's done, the driver can head to the DMV to test out. At the end of the day, it's the same CDL test that you took. And therein lies the problem - the standards are too low. Even if there were no bribery, every CDL instructor knows the CDL Test routes. They may not take the driver through the exact same route, but they will make sure the student has seen every street and turn. The student can then easily pass the road test, but take them somewhere new and it all falls apart.

Contrary to popular opinion, it wasn't the Biden administration that created ELDT, and it wasn't Obama either. The 'final rule' was published in December of 2106, with an implementation date of February, 2017 and full compliance date of sometime in 2020. The Trump Administration effectively removed the rule by continuously delaying initial implementation for two years. In 2018 they republished the 'final rule' with some minor changes, with full compliance by 2020. The Trump administration dropped the ball on creating the registry for ELDT providers, so ELDT got pushed back to 2022. Had the Trump administration wanted, they could have made ELDT into something more than a money grab, but the desire to slash regulations, cutting FMCSA's budget and staff, and bowing to industry groups made ELDT into a sham. I doubt a Clinton administration would have done much different - the implementation would have been done sooner, but probably not any smoother.

Whomever was in office when ELDT got implemented doesn't matter because ELDT has been neutered by industry groups. We knew CDL mills that would skirt the tissue paper thin barrier of ELDT, and FMCSA wouldn't do anything about it, because any serious effort at enforcement is met with shrieks of "over regulation". I've been pretty consistent about this for almost the entire time I've been an "Esteemed TTR Member" - it's too easy to get a CDL and there is no real mechanism for revoking the credentials of testers that are too lax. ELDT is a smoke screen to allow corporations to continue churning through meat in the seat without the cost of actually training new drivers. If we make getting a CDL a grueling test that demonstrates true comprehension of basic knowledge and skills then all the ELP and non-domiciled CDL issues magically disappear. But that will interfere with profits, so it's not going to happen.

 

You might want to dig into their archives to see what they were saying about ELDT in 2018 and 2019. TLDR "it maximizes safety while minimizing regulation". Fuller also lobbied hard (read donated a lot of money) to become Secretary of Transportation. I read Freightwaves because it's one of the better industry publications, but I don't for one second believe it isn't pushing an agenda.

 

Did Rob Carpenter write those earlier articles? Because he wrote this one and if he did maybe he wised up and decided it wasn't such a great idea after all. It's pretty clear he's on the correct side of the agenda now exposing it.

 

I was surprised how many provinces privatized their testing and are surprised that corruption has become rampant. At least the civil servants valued their pensions enough to not screw around. I had a government examiner when I got my license a year and a half ago.
Have done similar stupidities in construction. Eliminating inspectors and allowing builders to self certify the building here. So foolish

 

Couldn't tell you, but what I do know is this article is rehashing FMCSA press releases without a lot of context. Context like the current "eldt registry purge" began under Biden, most of those purged have never submitted a student, and FMCSA's staff and budget has been slashed.

If freightwaves really wants to show the state of training in the industry they should investigate habhab or titan cdls schools.

 

The ELDT was just created to make truck drivers and the general public feel comfortable with the large influx of immigrants they intended to flood the trucking market with.