Carriers, are your drivers qualified?

December 20, 2011 | Filed under: Jobs | Posted by: JJ

About JJ

JJ Arnett has written 12 post in this blog.

JJ has been around the trucking industry all of her life. Her Father, a driver for more than 50 years. She is a truck driver, over the road, traveling in and out of 44 states. A prior owner of two businesses, she also taught English in Ecuador, as well as spending time teaching in China. For several years she instructed at a Nationally known trucking school, while also working in the litigation department for an accident re-constructionist involving Big Trucks, and giving DOT seminars on safety auditing of new carriers. She now works at a local specialized trucking company and loves her job as well as the people she works with. A Montanan, with an attitude and a Stetson grabbed her heart, and now she enjoys the Big Skies of Montana. She has two wonderful sons and two grand children and a mother-in-law that keeps her on her toes!

Are Your Drivers Qualified?

There’s one way to know for sure…

Subpart B – Qualification and disqualification of drivers:

§ 391.11General qualifications of drivers.

(a) A person shall not drive a commercial motor vehicle unless he/she is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Except as provided in §391.63, a motor carrier shall not require or permit a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle unless that person is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle.

(b) Except as provided in subpart G of this part, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle if he/she—(1) Is at least 21 years old;(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;(3) Can, by reason of experience, training, or both, safely operate the type of commercial motor vehicle he/she drives;(4) Is physically qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle in accordance with subpart E—Physical Qualifications and Examinations of this part;(5) Has a currently valid commercial motor vehicle operator’s license issued only by one State or jurisdiction;(6) Has prepared and furnished the motor carrier that employs him/her with the list of violations or the certificate as required by §391.27;(7) Is not disqualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle under the rules in §391.15; and(8) Has successfully completed a driver’s road test and has been issued a certificate of driver’s road test in accordance with §391.31, or has presented an operator’s license or a certificate of road test which the motor carrier that employs him/her has accepted as equivalent to a road test in accordance with §391.33.

The above is directly from the FMCSA site . All of the FMCSR regulations are accessible on this site and are fairly easy to search. If you have any questions, this site has the answers.

I know, I know! Who wants to follow regulations? Well y’all should want to; not only does it equate to safety, it promotes a culture of safety. Ultimately a culture of safety improves profitability. And, I don’t think most of us having anything against making money!