CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) – The president of the nation's largest truck driver training school said the federal government is trying to delay an important driver training rule that can improve highway safety.
There are an estimated 300,000 individuals obtaining a commercial drivers license (CDL) on an annual basis nationwide. Yet only a third of those are getting training from a qualified drivers' training program. A federal rule, scheduled to start in February 2020, will require those seeking a CDL to attend a federally certified training school. However, a government agency wants to delay implementation of that rule.
“The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has asked for a delay for two years,” Steve Gold of the 160 Driving Academy told WAND's Doug Wolfe at Parkland College in Champaign. Gold’s school trains truck drivers across the country and expects to train 8,000 new drivers in 2019. He is asking Congressman Rodney Davis, (R) Illinois, to help keep the February 2020 implementation date in place.
“We’re doing our jobs here,” Davis stated at Parkland. “The folks at Parkland, they talk about the stringent measures that our new drivers are safe when they get out on the roadway. We want every other state to feel that way too.”
Gold says his school will “create 1,700 driving jobs in the state of Illinois alone". In addition to the drivers training program at Parkland 160 Driving Academy has training facilities in Springfield and Peoria.
