Teenagers behind the wheel

Or if you were OTR from an early age you might not have had kids....

 

Any change in my earlier life could have had that sort of change. Who knows. I wouldn't have made a life for myself doing otr though. It's not me.

 

Anyways I think the original topic was youngsters after doing 4 years of the military under strict supervision the whole time being allowed to suddenly drive all 48 states.
So they would be 21 or 22 and would have went from being coddled by their parents to being devoid of any thoughts in the military to being hurled onto the highway in a 80,000 pound semi right beside me.
No thanks. I'm for raising the age

 

There is that assumption that it is after discharge from active duty, but that's not the case. The only people who would cut muster on this plan, that is being under 21 and having military experience. That would apply to reservists.

 

There are farm children who are raised driving pickups and gooseneck trailers at a young age and there are people who at 35 can hardly drive a Honda Accord. I had a CDL instructor tell me when riding with someone he knows in a quarter mile whether they can drive a truck or not. Not all of us are surgeons, not all are funeral directors, not all are mechanics, not all are truck drivers, but those that are truck drivers will have it in them. I'm not down playing training at all but several years older isn't going to help. There are plenty of 18 year olds more mature than a stay at home mooch off mom and dad 35 year old

 

Try to keep a couple of the cranky old ones in your closet. When something goes down and you need a "Crew" to patch together something delivering into Hell tonight, you know who to call.

 

Cranky competent coots I'm fine with. I love talking with old hands. It's the 50 year old who can't shift, back, log, or count past ten without taking off his shoes and socks that I'm referring to. The one who cries when I won't let him use GPS until he can read the atlas and follow road signs. The one who expects dispatch to tell him where he should overnight, and give him weather updates on his route, and provide tools, and free food at the operating centers, and think it's okay to per in a bottle while sitting on the top bunk when I'm in the bottom bunk. All the while they say "but I'm new, I'll get it eventually ".

 

I got my license when I was 20 and I drove locally on a international 91’, I guess you get more experience as you go, but now I’m driving a 11’ super 10 Dump Truck and I love my job!

 

Allow me, if I may, to offer a bit of historical perspective here.

First, the idea of "teenagers" and "teen years", being essentially an extended childhood with limited responsibility is actually a relatively new social construct. One, indeed, that came into being during the Industrial Revolution.

When society trended more towards agrarian, there were no "teens". There were children, and there were working adults. A child became a working adult by simply being big enough and strong enough to put in a full day's work. Marriages and starting a family would more typically occur at the 14-16 year range rather than today's more socially acceptable 25-32 year range.

15 year olds would run a farm, start a business, have a family of their own, and die in war.

If the child wasn't going to take the farm, trade apprenticeships would start as early as twelve. Instead of working the fields, young people would be learning smithing, coopering, teamstering, and any number of other trades to support society.

So all these arguments that 18 is "too young" to learn a trade is, by historical standards, so much horse manure.

That said, I myself am against the idea of 18 year olds running interstate freight. Not because I don't feel they can learn, but because I DON'T WANT THE COMPETITION!

Pay rates are finally approaching reasonable. If we expand the pool of potential drivers, those same pay rates will plummet, putting a major financial squeeze on older drivers.

 

I could never understand why America has different age limits for stuff. Definitely simpler up here. Turn 18 and you can go vote, take your Class 1 test, smoke a big cigar and then go celebrate with a beer at the local pub.