18yr olds may soon drive trucks?

Long hours.

 

we are not talking kids playing xbox, or whatever box. this isn't Grand Theft Auto. it is a job that requires constant attention and alertness at all times, and perhaps multiplied by 10 when the weather turns ugly and the drunks are out on a Friday and Saturday night.

as far as leadership roles, yeah, like one leads another into the mall for a day or night of rowdiness.

 

Uuhhh....ok. think you are missing part of the conversation.

 

There is no driver shortage. Again no driver shortage..........There is a shortage of drivers willing to work for low pay. Answer, allow drivers from other countries, on work visa's and lower driving age to encourage young people a path to a career. Companies don't want a mature, level headed business man, they want someone they can run around, abuse, and keep broke, so they will keep their ### in the seat, paying their "dues". Go to a trade school, air conditioning, electrician, mechanic, welder. I guarantee you will make a higher lifetime income. This is in no way a slight to the Driver / Business operator who has made a good living, and has control over his career.

 

And as far as all these mature drivers, how mature is it to speed all the time , run overweight running illegal logs driving tired and back in the day when they would drive 18 hours on amphetamines and drink a beer going down the road which is why we have elogs an hours of service and all this crap how mature was that?

 

And it's not the job that drives people away it's the lifestyle.

 

Those military trucks you see on the highway are driven by 17 and 18 year olds. Lower ranks are always in the driver seat. I started driving military vehicles at 20 and became a trucker at 23, last year. It's not that hard driving a truck, with an excellent trainer, they'll probably be driving better than most people that we have now.

 

Wrong again.

That is simply not true. Please stop spreading internet/truck stop lies.

The brain washing the megas have done is unreal.

 

Ok on that line of thought what is the difference between an 18 year old in the military compared to an 18 year old just out of school with an additude that they should be given what ever they want and not work for it? 6 to 13 weeks of military training that instills the discipline you saw. The 18 year olds the megas and the mills will be preying on will most likely not have that discipline as they just want to receive that training money. Until they set a true standard of training requirments it will just make the issues that you see on the road already worse than they already are.

 

Only if they get that excellent trainer, the ones that actually sit next to them and instruct. Not the L/O that has only been driving a year or two that is still learning themselves that just wants to pad their wallets to pay for the fleece deal they signed by exploiting the new driver by running as a team from day one of training.