'Not really what we need': Training regs may miss the mark, but this small fleet's doing it right

Overdrive Radio

Pre-CDL prospective truck drivers as of February 7 will have to use either a private or for-hire training provider registered in FMCSA's new Training Provider Registry to receive likewise newly required training before taking the skills test to get their CDL. The implementation of the so-called Entry Level Driver Training regs follows nearly a decade of development, following rulemaking by committee years ago now with a wide array of trucking and training stakeholders with a seat at the table. Conversations then were often skeptical of old apprenticeship-training ways truly surviving implementation, yet companies like Bountiful, Utah-based small fleet Ralph Smith Co. have prepped for the new reg by putting themselves into the nearly-ready-to-go-live Provider Registry in order to fit their longstanding programs with the new rules. Longtime hauler Harry Smith, now in operations and training at Ralph Smith Co., is this Overdrive Radio episode's guest. The company hauls sand and gravel as well as a variety of other materials in dumps, heavy equipment and other oversize loads on RGNs, and more. The organization was founded by his grandfather, and taken over by his father and mother decades ago. Harry, now 33 years old, has made great strides and gained notoriety in recent years as the kind of old-school, hands-on apprenticeship trainer that was once the holy grail of any young and unschooled prospective owner-operator. Many is the story of the young man now fully formed and on his own in business as a truck owner who started just that way –- by finding a more-seasoned hand to take him or her along for the ride to really learn not just the basics of operating a truck but all aspects of the business. Overdrive editor Todd Dills talked with Smith on the occasion of the upcoming implementation date for the training regs. Smith's confident his own extensive training efforts will survive the regs implementation, even with new reporting and documentation requirements put on any training provider, including so-called private, not-for-hire apprenticeship trainers like his company. Yet he’s also skeptical that it’s exactly the right way to go, more broadly speaking, as you'll hear. Read more about the regs' implementation, and Ralph Smith Co., in this January 20 report: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/15287602/fmcsas-entry-level-driver-training-rule-is-here-for-new-truckers Harry Smith's father, owner-operator Doug Smith, is a member of the FMCSA's fairly new driver-advisory subcommittee of the influential MCSAC. Read more about him via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15113673/is-it-overtime-for-companytruck-driver-overtime-pay