Agency wants truckers to have more behind-the-wheel training

By Laurie Whalen

Photo by Jason Ivester

Randy Mason, 22, a truck-driving student at Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale, checks his mirrors as he reverses a rig.

ADVERSTISMENT

Veteran trucker Jerry Bledsoe said he sympathizes with new truck drivers who have to earn valuable behind-the-wheel experience the hard way.

"If you go straight out of [truck-driving] school and into a truck, you're gonna have an accident," said the Wickett, Texas, native with 25 years of driving experience.

Bledsoe, 49, an over-the-road driver with Janco Ltd. of Wayne, N.J., said the trucking industry in general doesn't provide novice drivers with enough behind-the-wheel experience as part of their training.

While industry insiders say new drivers likely will have an accident within the first 90 days on the job, analysis from federal crash studies doesn't show any significant difference in the number of crashes by drivers trained behind the wheel and those not trained behind the wheel.

For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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