The General Accounting Office examined the types of training available for tractor-trailer drivers, focusing on the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) efforts to establish minimum federal standards for training tractor-trailer drivers, the driver training curriculum offered by various private and public schools, and the trucking industry's efforts to improve the quality of driver training. Currently, there are no federal or state requirements that tractor-trailer drivers receive formal training as a condition for licensing and no minimum federal standards governing any training that may be provided, despite the fact that driver error continues to be cited as the major cause of truck accidents. FHWA did not develop proposed minimum standards for training programs until 1984 and a model curriculum for training tractor-trailer drivers until 1985. Since 1984, three governmental organizations have recommended that FHWA complete its proposed minimum training standards, but it currently has no plans to do so. The review of tractor trailer driver training programs offered by 24 private training schools and 12 public education institutions showed a wide variance in the course curricula, hours of training, and costs. The number of training hours ranged from 150 to 610. The trucking industry has recently tried to improve truck driver training by establishing a program to certify truck driver training programs, the first eight of which were certified in January 1989. The FHWA needs to reconsider whether tractor-trailer drivers should receive formal training as a condition for licensing and whether there should be any minimum federal standards for such training. (CML)