Year
1988
Abstract
The Department of Transportation (DOT) and several States have adopted requirements for certifying and/or licensing professional drivers. These requirements involve physical qualification standards, age, experience, and safety records. It is anticipated by the year 1990, the motor carrier industry and operators of private trucking fleets will experience a shortage of some 600,000 drivers in the United States. Over the past twenty-five years significant improvements have been accomplished in upgrading transport equipment, packaging for hazardous materials, including radioactive materials, the regulations - Federal, State, and local, and in the enforcement of these regulations. However, accidents continue to occur that are attributable in part to driver error. As such, the selection of drivers by motor carriers and private operators is of concern. Certainly the increased interest in the institutional areas addressing the transportation of all types of hazardous materials will require the development of some type of driver-selection process. The purpose of this paper is to examine existing regulations, standards, statistical data, in providing the groundwork for developing a driver model to be used by shipper who operate their own fleet or contract with motor carrier to transport their Radioactive Materials.