The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and a group of safety advocates have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Transportation in regards to training standards for entry-level truck drivers.
According to Public Citizen, which is representing the advocacy groups, Congress first instructed the DOT to complete rulemaking on driver training by 1993. The DOT never compiled, however. The lawsuit calls for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to order DOT to issue entry-level driver training regulations.
Public Citizen said entry-level drivers are required to complete only 10 hours of classroom lectures and pass a test in order to receive their commercial driver’s license. According to the group, these standards need to be raised. The group also sued the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which would be in charge of issuing the entry-level training rule.
The lawsuit follows a similar issue in June by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which also called for DOT and FMCSA to bolster training standards for new drivers to help improve safety.
Source: Safety and Health Magazine
