91��Ƶ

March 22, 2000 10:22 AM, EST

Oregon officials are concerned that commercial driver license applicants have memorized how to perform perfect pre-trip inspections but wouldn’t know a real problem if it fell off the truck in front of them.

“Currently, when they take the pre-trip inspection part of their CDL test, they look at a truck or bus with no defects,” said Steve Gallier, head of driver programs with the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles. “They tell us they would inspect the truck for certain problems, but those problems aren’t in front of them, so how would we know if they could identify them if they saw them?”

The DMV is planning to address the problem this summer, with an experiment that will test a small number of potential truckers using a written knowledge test instead of the hands-on pre-trip test used by most states.

Gallier is working with carriers, the Oregon Trucking Associations and driver training schools to conduct the test.

For the full story, see the Mar. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. .