Tens of thousands of truckers on U.S. roads are currently operating big rigs without a valid CDL. That’s according to a recent study, which has also revealed that deadly truck wrecks caused by non-CDL holders have spiked in recent years.
Those findings have sparked growing concerns about the real dangers of truckers without CDLs and the failures that put these unqualified drivers on the roads. Here’s why, diving into:
- The Deadly Risks of Unlicensed Truckers
- 18-Wheeler Accidents & Truckers without CDLs: Statistics
- How Do Unlicensed Drivers Get on Texas Roads?
- End of the Road: Why CDLs & CDL Enforcement Shouldn’t Be Optional
To explore more trucking safety issues, check out Can AI Prevent Drowsy Driving for Truckers? and Driverless Trucks in the Permian Basin.
The Deadly Risks of Unlicensed Truckers
18-wheelers can be 20 times heavier than passenger cars, with additional blind spots, much bigger dimensions, and far more equipment. That’s just one reason why commercial truckers throughout the U.S. are required to have CDLs — and maintain them — as a contingency of being legally allowed to operate 18-wheelers.
While many truckers follow the rules and have valid commercial driver’s licenses, those who fail to do so can:
- Lack of training: CDL programs teach critical skills associated with air brakes, weight distribution, and handling hazardous materials.
- Lack of foresight: Without training and verified knowledge of big rigs, truckers can overlook red flags in their driving environments and fail to get ahead of riskier situations before it’s too late.
- Be more likely to engage in dangerous maneuvers: Unfamiliar with 18-wheelers, non-CDL-holding truckers can run speeds too high, misunderstand how soon they should start breaking, and take other risks that can easily result in truck wrecks.
- Make poor judgment calls: Adverse weather, hours-of-service rules, and so many other factors can put truckers in the position to make subjective calls on when, how long, and how to operate 18-wheelers. Without CDLs, truckers can be less likely to make the safest call possible simply because they lack the training and/or experience to properly weigh out these complicated matters.
All of that and more can amplify the risks of deadly truck accidents, especially if non-CDL-holders are driving:
- Hazardous materials
- Overloaded big rigs
- Poorly maintained 18-wheelers
- Unsecured or improperly secured cargo
- While impaired or distracted
18-Wheeler Accidents & Truckers without CDLs: Statistics
Recent data on truck accidents and license status paint a grim picture of the very real threats that truckers without valid CDLs pose:
- Around 4% of truckers on U.S. highways do not have a valid CDL.
- Estimating a national trucker workforce of roughly 3.55 million would mean that about 142,000 truckers on U.S. roads do NOT currently have a valid CDL.
- Looking at fatal 18-wheeler accidents, non-CDL holders have been involved in an average of 1,300 fatal big rig wrecks each year (from 2019 through 2021, the most recent years for available data). That’s roughly 3 to 4 deadly truck accidents every day, on average.
- Since 2019, fatal 18-wheeler accidents caused by truckers without valid CDLs have increased by more than 14%.
Growing fast and alarming, the problem of non-CDL-holding truckers isn’t unsolvable, even though it’ll likely take time and coordinated action to address.
How Do Unlicensed Drivers Get on Texas Roads?
Several factors can put truckers without CDLs behind the wheels of massive big rigs, including (and not limited to):
- High demand: Notorious for driver shortages, the trucking industry has had a high demand for truckers for decades. In a desperate move to fill seats, some hiring processes may have cut corners on background checks, overlooking (or ignoring) CDL status.
- Loopholes in CDL path: Third-party testers in some states may fast-track instruction or fail to provide adequate road-time education, resulting in undertrained drivers with insufficient safety skills or knowledge.
- Fake documents: Fake credentials aren’t unheard of, especially at scale. That could ‘trick’ hiring managers and put unqualified truckers on the roads.
- Hiring negligence: The motor carriers, shippers, brokers, and others who hire truckers (or owner-operators) are responsible for verifying that drivers have valid CDLs. If they don’t, non-CDL-holding truckers can end up in 18-wheelers, creating new safety risks for everyone around them.
Ultimately, these are preventable failures, not impassable roadblocks. Proper oversight, verification, and training could be some solutions for minimizing these oversights and, ideally, the deadly wrecks they cause too.
End of the Road: Why CDLs & CDL Enforcement Shouldn’t Be Optional
Commercial driver’s licenses aren’t the end-all-be-all in trucking safety, but they are a crucial foundation for knowledge, training, and putting the right foot forward in safety.
Given how devastating any 18-wheeler wreck can be — and the fact that non-CDL-related big rig crashes are preventable — this could represent a real opportunity for change, tighter enforcement, and consistent oversight to make America’s roads safer.