We begin the new year, alas, with a nightmare: You’re barreling down a three lane highway at 70 mph, when a tractor trailer rig pulls up behind you. All you can see in your rear view mirror is the ominous grill of a Mack truck. What runs through your mind? Do you console yourself with the notion that the driver is at least trained to operate the 10 ton rig? Can you safely assume he knows what he’s doing? Maybe not.
Commercial drivers are supposed to go through an elaborate training and certification process. They are drug tested randomly and after every accident. Prior employers must fully disclose their actual job performance. They must pass bi-annual physicals – and if they fail, there is no protection from the ADA to put them back behind the wheel. That’s reassuring, isn’t it? Well it would be, if the system were being run the way it’s supposed to.
In an alarming article by Stephen Franklin and Darnell Little in the Chicago Tribune, we learn that there are literally thousands of commercial drivers on the nation’s highways who obtained their licenses under suspicious circumstances. In the last five years, the federal government has discovered licensing fraud in 24 states. The payment-for-license schemes usually center on so-called third-party examiners who are hired by states to perform driver testing. In other words, the aggressive driver coming up behind you in a 10 ton rig may have no idea what he’s doing.
There are about about 1.5 million commercial drivers operating in the country. That’s up from just 200,000 in 2002. Commercial driving is one of our fasting growing occupations. Trucking tends to pay well, so it attracts a lot of people who might not otherwise qualify for the jobs. The gap between available jobs and skilled workers gives rise to the entrepeneurial spirit. If you look closely at states with relatively lax enforcement (Illinois under disgraced Governor Ryan, Missouri, Wisconsin), you will find CDL license mills that offer phony certifications (for the right price).
How many commercial drivers are operating with fraudulant licenses? At one point the federal government tallied up 15,000 licenses nationally that it believed were obtained under suspicious circumstances. But it didn’t have any details from the states on nearly 7,000 of those drivers. They have become highway ghosts, beyond detection and potentially lethal. If the government is pretty sure that one percent of the drivers are not qualified. It’s no great extrapolation to assume that as many as three or four percent may be illegitimate: that’s anywhere from 45,000 to 60,000 drivers operating, in the words of one judge,”10 ton torpedoes.” One study of 300 drivers with illegitimate licenses found that 200 of them were certified to haul toxic waste. Does that make you feel any different about the truckers who surround you on your morning commute?
Safe Driving is Essential
One of Lynch Ryan’s fundamental themes is the importance of safe driving. We recommend that employers annually check the licenses and driving records of any and all employees who drive during “the course and scope” of employment, whether or not they operate company vehicles. Your great salesman might be a terrible driver – and because employers are responsible for the actions of their employees, that salesman might become a huge liability. (We blogged one dramatic example here.)
Even if you are confident that your people drive safely, their ultimate well being is dependent upon the actions of other drivers on the road. Given the fraud and abuse in the CDL system, that’s not exactly a reassuring thought.
