Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003092422
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DEBORAH EVANS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In January, Virginia became the third state to comply with federal regulations requiring a uniform driver's license for the nation's 5 million commercial truckers.
The drivers must be tested to get the new licenses. While some good, experienced drivers are failing because they cannot read, recruiters say unsafe drivers are being weeded out.
Highway cowboys are defined as drivers who hide bad driving records by having licenses from several states, recruiters said. For instance, if a Virginia state trooper stops a trucker who is in danger of losing his Virginia license because of numerous violations, the trucker simply shows a license from another state.
By 1992, all commercial truckers will be required to have a uniform Commercial Driver's License.
In Virginia, 91.5 percent of the 5,187 commercial truckers who have taken the general knowledge test passed. Another 99 drivers have completed the road skills test and 89 passed. Overall, 3,278 drivers have their commercial licenses.
North Carolina-based Cardinal Freight Carriers has started classes to help its drivers who do not know how to read. While they can be given oral exams, they can't study test preparation manuals if they can't read, Roanoke recruiter George Dobyns said.
"CDL is a way of life that is going to have to be done," he said.
Virginia is among the states that offer help to drivers who can't read. The Department of Motor Vehicles has a mobile licensing unit that travels around the state. For the first two years, it will operate at large trucking and bus companies to license commercial drivers who have to meet new state requirements. Service later will be expanded to rural residents who may not be served by local DMV branches.
The Virginia Literacy Initiative offers special reading skills classes. Drivers can call 1-800-237-0178 toll-free for information.
Drivers also can get manuals and information about test exemptions by calling the Department of Motor Vehicles' toll-free commercial drivers' hot line at 1-800-223-8782.
Shortages of qualified drivers are not new, Dobyns said. Qualified drivers are those with one year's verifiable experience and clean driving records that do not include any avoidable accidents, he said.
Gary Lee Santolla, a Dublin recruiter for the Memphis-based M.S. Carriers Inc., said he, too, prefers a driver shortage to having unsafe truckers on the road.
Yet the tests come at a time when many drivers are fed up with trucking and are seeking work behind computers instead of steering wheels, Santolla said.
"It is a full-time job for us just to keep our trucks full," he said.
Truckers sometimes are away from their families seven or eight weeks at a time, Santolla said. "It is a good living but it is a hard way of life."
Darrell Smith, assistant training director at Alliance Tractor-Trailer Training Center in Wytheville, said the school has changed its training program so that 75 percent to 80 percent of what is taught is based on the Commercial Driver's License manual.
by CNB