18yr olds may soon drive trucks?

Worked with a young man that was suppose to have military truck driving experience..."suppose to".... Tore up more stuff than we could fix. Owners brother in law was untrainable, my company pickup had whiskey bumps above both tail lights "01 F-350" that was from a simple 18' boat we kept at Jordan Pile driving in Mobile, AL. I truly feel it's more about simple knowledge and ability to learn, not so much the age. At 16 I was driving drill rigs into areas you could hardly walk to, at times had a dozer or winch line hooked to me. Not everybody has had the chance to grow up in the ways some of us did, so the room of knowledge is empty starting out, not matter what the age. Sad thing is I have to agree on the thought of "getting home" to hang with the buddies can be a problem, depending on mindset.

 

The sad thing is with this microwave/smartphone generation they actually prefer an elog and a 60mph truck. They can be lazy for 12hrs a day and do zero paperwork cuz the computer does everything while the company babysits.

 

My daughter is 19 and is a road hazzard. Uses her turn signals and drives the speedlimit. Totally unsuitable for El Paso.

 

Please refrain from using...driver....intelligence, in the same sentence.....

as you will make the FMSCR come up with a code number, chapter, and sub-chapter for that, which if we get a roadside inspection, we will get a lot of PSP points against us.

 

The first time I drove truck I was 15 and went on a harvest crew. Then I did local farm stuff and got some good practice in. I turned 18 and I went and completed the written and driving tests and passed. No school, just drive time.

The guy I was working for had some highway trucks. He started running me around SD hauling grain and cattle. Pretty soon that turned into hauling wheat to New Prague MN and loading back out of Mankato. Then I started loading calves out of the sale barn at night going to NE and KS.

I think that if you actually looked at the 18 year olds that want to drive truck you'd find their stories would be similar to mine. Growing up around them, wanting to learn the old way. I don't see a huge rush of 18 year olds signing up to go thru school for a mega.

 

I know I have reservations based on how I see the 18 year olds act in my area and agree that there are a few that would be good. But I see this as a way for the megas to get even more recruits and potentially put the smaller carriers out, not to mention the possible abuse by the megas as well. Of course the only way it may not happen is to contact the same politicans that are looking to pass this bill

 

Hmmmm the employment participation rate keep gettings lower and lower every month (more and more available to work if they just wanter/needed to), and there is talk of legalizing 10's of millions of illegals overnight to "come out of the shadows" and CDL schools TODAY are cranking out students by the thousands every week.

The notion there are not enough eligible driver wannabe's does not compute.

 

I started doing it at 16 , did it til I finished high school at 18....the Army , back home and did it til I retired in 2011....some are , some aren't , those that aren't will weed themselves out pretty quick IMHO.

 

But driving safely , and driving a truck hasn't changed.....the biggest difference is the changes in equipment , and the changes in most kids.....18 year olds when I was 18 ....were way different than most of them today...

 

But on average..... statistically.... a higher percentage of us are not opposed to this. Here's a link to...... this thread. Hahah

 

The soon to be new CDL Mill School Mission Statement will be:

"It's so easy, even an 18 year old cave-boy can do it"