Opinion: Cleaning Up Illinois Licensing

By Jesse White - Illinois Secretary of State

Editor’s note: In Illinois, the secretary of state is responsible for all driver licensing, including the commercial variety. The state’s CDL system is under fire. Mr. White took the job in the midst of a scandal in which some licensing officials have been indicted for allegedly selling CDLs to unqualified applicants. Also, the truck driver involved in the Amtrak grade-crossing crash that killed 11 people was allowed to drive on a provisional license after Illinois suspended his CDL.

When I took office in January, I pledged to clean up the secretary of state’s office. Toward that goal, I am initiating a plan to use automated examination machines when testing applicants for commercial driver licenses.

The new computer testing will greatly reduce opportunities for the type of illegal activity that became the focus of investigators last year. This move is an important step toward ensuring the integrity of our CDL testing system.

I also formed a Highway Safety 2000 advisory committee consisting of highway safety advocates from across the nation. At its meeting this spring, two subcommittees were formed to craft future legislative action and set tougher standards for training commercial drivers. The subcommittees are meeting this summer.

Since hosting the advisory committee, I have taken several actions to improve safety on Illinois roads. First, my office distributed bulletins to law enforcement agencies, state’s attorneys and court personnel outlining the present court supervision law and reporting procedures. Then we started requiring commercial drivers from out-of-state to pass the Illinois CDL test prior to licensure.

Additionally, I have taken steps to:

• Require suspended drivers to spend additional time in defensive driving classes offered by the National Safety Council.
• Retest drivers who apply for a probationary permit prior to granting driving relief.

We have taken these steps to toughen standards and make our roads safer. But our original Truck Safety Task Force uncovered a multitude of issues that need more attention. This is why we created a Highway Safety 2000 subcommittee.

The Subcommittee on Legislative Action includes legislators, court professionals, traffic safety advocates, law enforcement officials and experts from my office. Its goal is to work toward crafting legislative language for me to introduce during the fall veto session [of the Illinois legislature] that establishes a statewide database of court supervisions.

The subcommittee recently held its first meeting and has taken the necessary steps to ensure that the finished legislative product is one which will improve the level of highway safety in Illinois.

The second subcommittee is reviewing educational requirements for truck driver applicants. The panel includes experts from my office and leaders from the Illinois trucking industry.

At our regional task force meeting, trucking industry leaders expressed concern about the limited educational requirements for new truck driver applicants. We all agreed that increased instruction can be of great benefit for new drivers. The subcommittee is focused on crafting a plan to meet that goal.

These recent steps are an indication that my office is taking a long-term approach to improving highway safety in Illinois. We do not want to stick a high-profile Band-Aid on this problem and pronounce the issue solved.

We intend to take a long-term view that produces results for the workers and families that use Illinois roads. These are the first steps in a long journey.