Truck Safety

Information on Driver Training Gao ID: RCED-89-163 August 3, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed: (1) the Federal Highway Administration's (FHwA) efforts to establish minimum federal standards for training tractor-trailer drivers; (2) driver training curricula offered by various public and private schools; and (3) trucking industry efforts to improve the quality of driver training.

GAO found that: (1) FHwA published rules establishing a 1992 deadline for all truck drivers to pass tests meeting federal standards; (2) FHwA has recommended a minimum 320 hours of training for new drivers; (3) while many schools had adopted the FHwA model curriculum, the hours of instruction and distribution of those hours varied widely among schools; (4) student-to-teacher ratios varied widely among schools and types of instruction; (5) various trucking industry associations were working to develop certification standards; and (6) the majority of private truck driving schools were unaccredited.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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