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Quote of the Day
Given the theme of the issue’s lead story regarding military and trucking careers, here are a few famous military quotes:
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
– Prime Minister Winston Churchill, talking about the Royal Air Force
“Come on you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?”
Gunnery Sgt. Dan Daly, June 4, 1918, while leading Marines at Belleu Wood
“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
– Gen. George Patton Jr.
“I have not yet begun to fight.”
– Captain John Paul Jones, aboard the Bon Homme Richard after the captain of the British ship Serapis asked Capt. Jones if he wanted to surrender
Feds Push for Tougher Driving School Standards
The Bush administration has proposed that new truck drivers take classes only through standardized, accredited training programs, but the trucking industry’s not buying it. A vice president at Pitt Ohio Express said, “The accreditation requirements as proposed are onerous, costly and would undermine the ability of Pitt Ohio to advance and train our own employees for driving positions.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would require entry-level drivers to complete 120 hours of training in an accredited program before receiving a CDL. Current CDL requirements vary from state to state. The FMCSA notes that the rule will give drivers additional skills, but the trucking industry says it would worsen the driver shortage. The problem, they say, is that many companies rely on their own training programs, which are not necessarily accredited.
About 40 percent of Pitt Ohio drivers go through the company’s in-house training program.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) supports an enhanced rule but takes issue with the number of hours required for training. The group says it favors a performance-based curriculum, not a curriculum based on an “arbitrary and capricious” number of hours. More important than hours, according to the ATA, is whether a person can operate the truck safely.
Source: Roemer Report. Used with permission.
