Brian Favreau is operations coordinator for Sterling, Massachusetts-based Favreau Forestry, an accredited, 12-year TCIA member company. He has been looking to hire a new driver with a commercial driver’s license (CDL) for eight months.

Not having one is slowing down his business. The company has three CDL drivers and about 10 trucks that require a CDL license. As a result, many trucks sit idle during the day.

“I’ve probably gotten a dozen applicants, road-tested seven and haven’t found one who could drive a standard proficiently,” Favreau says. “Some made it two miles, some made it 200 feet.”

One driver struggled so badly that Favreau recalls offering several observations. “If you were driving a wedding-party limousine, they’d all get out of the car sick and throw up,” and “If you were a commercial pilot, people would jump out the windows of the plane.”

That driver may have received his license before the changes to federal regulations affecting entry-level driver training took effect in February 2022. The changes raised the standards for getting a CDL. But as Favreau sees it, some people can do it and some can’t. He believes the real test is on the road.

“I don’t believe the additional financial hardship and time commitment makes it any more of a beneficial program. The changes dissecting the vehicles you test on and are licensed to drive make perfect sense. If the testing inspector feels comfortable passing a student based on their competence, it should not matter how or how long they have prepared.

“The additional cost and time commitments may be more of a hardship financially for both companies and drivers. Just test them with a non-biased, genuine tester on the vehicle they plan to operate. If they perform professionally, take their testing fee and let them get to work!”

New CDL requirement

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) now requires classroom instruction, increased testing requirements and documented time behind the wheel. These requirements are more stringent than the previous requirements, which most tree care veterans agree were fairly inconsistent. Would-be drivers would learn from road training with co-workers. While trainers might be very thorough or very lax, as Favreau says, drivers still had to pass the test.

The new testing and training includes significant work in the classroom (or virtual classroom) for many. This can be prohibitively expensive for a company that wants to train from within. It is also expensive for an individual who wants to better themselves. Favreau says the typical CDL training program takes a month of full-time schooling and costs $5,000 or more.

Favreau doesn’t dispute the need to have skilled, safe drivers at the wheel of heavy, powerful work vehicles. Yet he believes the extra training doesn’t change the fact that the proof comes when the rubber hits the road.

“Until you’ve sat in that vehicle, it doesn’t matter,” he says. “The only reason I see for (the additional training) is revenue generation.”

Not everyone is as frustrated as Favreau, but the new regulations have not been greeted warmly by many in the commercial tree care industry.

“As you found out, the feelings are mixed,” says Peter Gerstenberger, senior vice president of industry support for the Tree Care Industry Association. “In principle, the idea of some kind of standardized and more robust training – both the ‘theory’ training and the behind-the-wheel training – is a good idea. In the past, there was quite a bit of variability in the quality and quantity of training that CDL drivers received.

“I think the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has made the whole process about as easy as it can be made, and has done a very good job of explaining what the requirements are,” Gerstenberger says. “But at the end of the day, for an individual company to put that all together is pretty cumbersome.”

There are basically two ways for a tree care company to add CDL drivers to their roster. Either they hire those with licenses or train their own employees.

With help available through the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry website, and flexibility from driving schools or in-house programs, there is more than one way for companies to approach training from within.

“Like anything new and this involved, there’s going to be a lot of pushback, frankly,” Gerstenberger says. “It’s a learning curve for all concerned.”

Training numbers steady

Gerstenberger notes that the tree care industry and other stakeholders were given the chance to weigh in on the changes. They were approved in 2016, but took several years to implement for a variety of reasons.

The impetus for the change was the relatively high accident rates of CDL vehicles. The reasoning is that by standardizing and improving the training for those driving vehicles with a GCVWR (gross combined vehicle weight rating) or GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) of 26,000 pounds or more (Class A or B), it will decrease those accident rates.

“Basically, the idea was to raise the bar for the prerequisite training you have to do,” Gerstenberger says. “You still have to go to your state DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and take a driving test to get the actual license. This is the homework, so to speak, that you do beforehand.”

Interestingly, driving schools reported little change in business after February 2022. The push came the several years prior, while the changes were delayed. Many companies (not just tree care) pushed their employees to become licensed before the new standards took effect.

“We have fewer people signed up,” says Leo Lomeli, co-owner of the South Bay Truck Driving School of San Ysidro, California. He notes there was steadier business prior to February, as drivers got their training from friends and made a push to beat the deadline.

South Bay offers a 40-hour training program. It breaks the classroom work into two-hour, after-work blocks. This is designed for those who can’t stop working at their full-time jobs to go to school. The cost, if a driver pays in one payment, is $4,000, which Lomeli puts on the low side. “Some are $7,000, and others charge less,” he says.

Southern Missouri Truck Driving School in Malden, Missouri, runs a more traditional four-week, full-time program that caters to those who are currently unemployed as well as those trying a new career path.

“Right after (the changes took effect), it was a little hectic, but really we see the same number of people,” says Abigail Midgett, Southern Missouri Truck Driving School owner. Her school charges $6,000 for the standard course. This is on the low end in her area, she says, where some charge $10,000.

Midgett understands the difficulties for a company that needs drivers. But she sees the training as filling an important safety need. “Having gone through a program is beneficial,” she says, noting that in the past, there were drivers who got a CDL but barely actually drove a truck.

“This way they have to go through a training provider, have to be trained a certain way and have to test out,” she says. “I like the mandate. It puts out better, safer drivers. I’m the third generation in my family to own this company, and safety is our biggest thing.”

More value behind the wheel

For a tree care employee, a CDL will add to their paycheck and their value, notes Gerry Breton, safety director for Lucas Tree Expert Co., an accredited, 42-year TCIA member company based in Falmouth, Maine. They have set up in-house training to help their employees obtain the credential.

“We, as an organization, have promoted what our full arborist is, and that is someone who has obtained a commercial driver’s license,” Breton says. “We feel they add more value.”

He admits that training employees for a CDL can backfire. It may qualify them for a better job in other industries or even with a competitor. But he believes the benefits outweigh those risks. “We promote it, and I don’t see us changing course any time soon,” he says.

Lucas Tree Expert Co. wanted to set up impactful training that was also cost effective, so they brought the training in-house rather than rely on an outside vendor. The company has safety staff members with CDL experience who teach a mix of virtual and face-to-face theory training. It buys manuals from a provider of CDL driver materials. It also gives employees logbooks to track the time they spend driving with others who hold a CDL license.

“For us, (the cost is) going to be significantly lower than if you hire an outside firm to conduct your training,” Breton says. “By the time you consider the materials, the facility if you need to rent, and the time spent by the field safety trainer or the instructor for that eight-hour course, I’d say it probably costs between $1,500 and $2,000 per driver.”

There is no federal mandate on required class hours, just on material covered. The FMCSA also didn’t prescribe any set amount of time in which the training should take place.

Getting creative

Bill Hickman is a crew leader and director of training & development for Heartwood Tree Service, LLC, an accredited, 26-year TCIA member company out of Cornelius, North Carolina. We asked Hickman to describe his viewpoint as to whether: a) This is something new to deal with, b) We need to get creative to satisfy this requirement, and/or (C) This is a giant pain in my business. “That’s a trick question,” he responds. “All three are correct. It’s a pain for sure, and some creativity will definitely help. But one way or another, it is definitely something that has to be dealt with.”

Hickman has seen programs popping up that range from $4,000 to $6,000. Add to that the production lost to a full-time, month-long training program, and the actual cost can easily reach tens of thousands of dollars, he notes.

“We did push hard to get our people who needed a CDL through the process before the rules changed, and put a greater emphasis on any new hires already having a CDL,” says Hickman, whose company has 30 employees in the field. “We are working toward the development of an in-house training program in order to offset training cost.”

More value, more safety

In the end, the hope is that better training leads to better safety. It could also lead to better value for individual employees. Crews benefit as well when they can rely on more people to drive heavy vehicles, even for routine duties.

Not every driver on a crew needs a CDL, Hickman notes, although there might be a need to drive a different vehicle at some point during the day.

“Every crew member having a CDL is a great aspirational goal; it simplifies decisions across the board, from scheduling to a mid-day chip dump, if anyone can drive any truck in the fleet,” Hickman says. “Realistically, though, there are usually one or two CDL vehicles on a crew along with one or two non-CDL support vehicles, depending on the crew’s scope of work for the day.”

Hickman notes that, as the CDL license becomes a more valuable commodity for an employee, there will be a refocusing on the value of those employees. “The changes to the CDL rules will become, for some, yet another reason to focus on employee retention due to increased training and compliance costs associated with merely getting trucks to job sites.”