Remarks Wednesday by President Trump about creating an easier pathway for veterans to become CDL holders sounds in its general description to be similar if not identical to an existing federal program that is approximately 15 years old.
At an event in Carlisle, Pennsylvania discussing investment in the military, the President, after criticizing illegal immigrant drivers, said of veterans that “we’re going to teach them a lot about driving trucks, and in many cases, they know we’re going to say any American who’s driven a heavy truck for our military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver’s license, so we’re going to get them taken care of.”
While there could be changes or amendments, the reality is such a program exists already: the Military Skills Test Waiver Program, administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Its origin dates back to 2011.
Military experience gets big credits
Under the program, according to the webpage devoted to the program, there is a provision “that gives State Driver Licensing Agencies (SDLAs) the authority to substitute two years of experience safely operating trucks or buses equivalent to civilian commercial vehicles for the skills test portion of the commercial driver license (CDL) test.”
In the latest update on the program posted June 30, FMCSA said more than 40,000 military veterans have taken advantage of the program to obtain their CDL.
A military driver seeking to make the jump would need to have worked behind the wheel sometime in the prior 12 months to be eligible for the program.
Goes even further back
Lewie Pugh, the executive vice president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, said the ability to leverage military experience into a CDL goes back further than the 2011 program. Pugh should know: he got his CDL license through his military service in 1994.
“We still need to make sure that they’re getting some kind of training,” Pugh said in an interview with FreightWaves. “OOIDA is a big proponent of much stricter training and driving a truck in the military. I feel personally that the actions in driving a truck is that your motor skills learn that, but real world trucking is different than military world trucking.”
The FMCSA page on the program lists numerous other pathways for military personnel to obtain their CDL beyond the Military Skills Waiver Program.
Even Exchange Program: A waiver of the “knowledge test.” When used in conjunction with the Military Skills Waiver Test, it’s a straight pathway to a CDL.
Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program: For military drivers 18-20 who have an intrastate CDL, the program allows them to operate in interstate commerce.
Commercial Motor Vehicle Operator Safety Training Grant Program: Provides money to “educational institutions” to assist training former military members to move into the trucking sector.
Trump used the address to discuss the recent death of Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira. Pahira was on the side of the road inspecting a commercial vehicle in Schuykill County on interstate 81 when he was struck and killed by a truck driven by Michael Bon, whom the Department of Homeland Security described as an illegal alien from Haiti.
Bon is in custody after being charged with vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
“My administration will soon take historic action to get illegal alien truck drivers who are just killing a lot of people (off the road),” Trump said in his remarks, according to news coverage of the event. “They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol and they shouldn’t be driving these things. And they’re, they came in totally illegally. We don’t want them.”
Among the steps taken by the Trump administration so far includes its new rules on non-domiciled CDL holders. The changes in that rule which went into effect in March, limits eligibility for a non-domiciled CDL holder to three categories of nonimmigrant status holders; the elimination of Employment Authorization Documents as a proof of eligibility; and a requirement that states query the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to determine immigration status.
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