Re- ME truckers
Just a thought- when my son finished up getting his CDL recently, he "graduated" along with several Middle Eastern men .
The Middle Easterners all went to work for a certain company. One feature of this company is that the trucker himself/herself "verifies the seal"- (whatever exactly that means) rather than having to have that done by someone else.
Maybe some truckers here can delve into this a bit further? It sounded to me like the company gave more control over the load to the drivers.
Another point- one of the ME students- let's call him "Mohammed"- ran a schoolbus off the road during training- seemed unable to focus on his driving task.
Could point I am giving Hipshot a ping.
He use to be a truck driver, maybe he knows.
Drivers ALWAYS write the seal number down in their log book, and verify it's integrity. It's actually supposed to be checked at every walkaround, but most drivers BS their log anyway.
As far as bad students, those schools are really no more than "diploma mills".
There are companies that demand the driver seal every load, no matter what it is. I still have several hundred numbered seals hanging around somewhere. It's really nothing to worry about.