Back-to-school season is upon us and by the time you read this column, many kids will already have returned to school. All students will be back in school buildings this year after having experienced a yearlong virtual environment due to COVID-19. That said, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is taking a page out of the back-to-school playbook and beginning to inform the industry of its Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) regulation that is finally set to take effect on Feb. 7, 2022.
Starting now, FMCSA is encouraging training providers to begin registering on their website so they can be included on the public list of providers when it goes live later this year. Obviously, like any regulation, there is an assumed compliance aspect that requires each provider to self-certify that they are meeting the federal standards for training these students. I would encourage each school, institution, or entity that can provide training to a potential commercial vehicle operator to register sooner rather than later and avoid the mad rush that seems to consistently accompany these published timelines. From the files of Captain Obvious, once Feb.7 comes and goes, students seeking to obtain their commercial driver’s license (CDL) may only do so from an entity that is registered through FMCSA.
Now, I know what you are thinking. What qualifies as an entity? The answer is obvious in most cases. Schools, both public and private; motor carriers; government; and even individuals and owner-operators would be considered training providers and are all required to register. Yes, even independent contractors who own one truck and seek to train their son or daughter in the business would qualify as an entity that is required to register as a provider.
These requirements should not really be considered breaking news since the original implementation date was delayed an additional two years in order to effectively get it right. By now, most institutions have already positioned themselves with the proper curriculum to satisfy the regulatory requirements for training.
Are there hours attributed to this rule? In short, the answer is no. But before we go down this rabbit hole, we should probably state the obvious. There is no minimum number of hours that driver-trainees must spend on the theory (i.e., knowledge) portions of any of the individual curriculum. The regulations prescribe specific topics for each of the five theory curricula, requiring the training provider to cover all topics, and requiring that driver-trainees demonstrate their understanding of the material by achieving an overall minimum score of 80% on the written (or electronic) theory assessment. In other words, would you rather have a student achieve the proper number of hours required in training, or would you rather have a student demonstrate that they are capable of operating a commercial motor vehicle in a safe and responsible manner? The correct answer to that question seems obvious.
The good news here is that the additional two-year window used by FMCSA to implement this rule was not wasted; in fact, it's quite the opposite. Giving credit where credit is due, our friends at FMCSA have created a great website to walk you through this “newish” rule in an effort to allow people to have a great understanding of what it entails. At a time when training entry-level drivers will be paramount to our industry’s success, the information and FAQs on this website make this effort that much easier to undertake.
It is no secret that our industry advocates for younger drivers, and the headway that the DRIVE-Safe Act has recently made is a tremendous example of that. This ELDT rule and its corresponding website certainly make understanding how to properly train an entry-level driver, regardless of age, a much easier endeavor. This ensures only qualified drivers receive a CDL and sets a national baseline for training every driver who seeks to obtain their CDL.
A long time in the making, this rule was originally published in the Federal Register in December 2016. It detailed the curriculum and theory behind training new drivers based on a series of meetings from an advisory committee derived from an agreed-upon negotiated rulemaking. Yes, I was there, and while it seems like a long time ago, we stand at the precipice of a new rule that can and should define the new safety performance of a driving force destined to deliver to a nation in the not-so-distant future.
