e d i t o r i a l

Doug Condra • Editorial Director
Editorial

Training Standards: Everyone’s A Winner

‘New’ driver institute off to fast start.

Anyone who’s questioned the value of training standards for truck driving schools should talk with the folks at C.R. England.Earlier this year the big truckload carrier found itself on the wrong end of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, the result of a wreck involving one of its rigs.
The tractor-trailer, operated by a rookie husband-wife team, had parked at a Tennessee roadside so the driver could remove her jacket. Seconds later a car struck the rear of the trailer, killing three passengers.
Witnesses said the rig was parked off the road with its lights on, and that the car was speeding and had gone off the left side of the highway before careening back across into the trailer. Logbooks were clean and showed that both drivers had rested properly prior to the crash. But the trucking company landed in a jury trial.
The claimants’ main contention was that the drivers, both graduates of C.R. England’s own school, were not sufficiently trained. The attorneys hammered repeatedly at the quality of the school’s curriculum.
England’s defense was to show that its curriculum is certified by the Professional Truck Driver Institute of America, and meets or exceeds that organization’s standards.
The jury absolved England of any responsibility for the accident.
“While there were other things, the biggest deciding factor was that we were certified by PTDIA,” says Gordon Lambert, England’s director of safety and training.
A case like that is reason enough for a trucking company to support the newly revitalized PTDIA (see story, page 24). But there’s another element at work in its favor: economics.
The PTDIA, through a grant from John Deere Transportation Insurance, is bringing state government and educational leaders together to demonstrate the importance of truck driving as a profession.
They’re shown how trucking contributes to their economies, including the driving jobs it offers. And they’re shown the advantages of training standards for entry-level drivers.
Those advantages include uniform, quality training; better image of the truck driver as a professional; and potentially lower training costs and insurance benefits.
The state of Illinois has endorsed PTDIA’s entry-level skill standards for truck drivers following one such meeting, and Ohio, Arizona and Michigan are checking them out.
In the few months since the Truckload Carriers Assn. took over managing PTDIA, the institute has come forth with driver-school curriculum guidelines and course-certification standards, as well as the skill standards.
By moving so fast, PTDIAhas established a platform to ask the Department of Transportation to support voluntary driver-training standards, rather than having them mandated. It’s also a platform for showing the public — and the public media — that trucking is committed to safety.
The new PTDIA looks like a win-win organization. It helps driver schools (“It’s our seal of quality,”says Don Hess, an Illinois educator). It helps trucking companies (the C.R. England experience speaks for itself). It helps insurers (“PTDIA is not unlike the insurance- industry-supported Underwriters Laboratories,” says John Deere’s Dave Webb).
But for the industry to win all around, the institute will need all-around support — especially from motor carriers, who stand to gain the most from it. Check it out by calling Program Director Virginia DeRoze at (703) 838-8842.