18-20 year olds possibly driving

Bingo! Most people who aren’t professional drivers never drive outside of their home area.

I got my class A at 19, I could do 660 mile round trips across the state but couldn’t drive 3 miles west of our yard into Kansas. Pretty dang silly if you ask me.

 

Another good reason I'm not against it. Just like a broken clock, even the megas can be right twice a day.

 

I see people of all ages driving trucks with no CDL nearly every day. A 16 or 17 year old can jump in the “farm truck” in South Dakota and drive down the interstate at 150k gross with a set of doubles if they want to. So I guess I’m not buying the fear. The argument about winter can be said for literally every new driver who’s never been in the snow regardless of age.

 

Set up a mileage limit for their first 12 months that they are allowed to travel away from terminal. This way they become familiar with driving in a area that stays the same . AKA 750 miles but no state line rules.

 

Here’s my out of left field idea to remove any driver shortages. Increase pay and benefits, Decrease rules and regulations.

 

The folks who plow our lot have their 14 year old running one of the tractors. Kid looks about 12, but seems to handle his role. While there is a correlation between age and competence, it is not a guarantee.

I've said it for a decade now - most of the lazy, entitled, or hard to train guys that come thru my truck have been in their 50s.

The only problem is the cdl test still doesn't test competency. It only tests comprehension, which isn't enough.

 

Went out to a call a while a while ago at a yard owned by a colony. Driving in we see an excavator loading a super b. Excavator is just making that machine sing. Get a little closer and seen there's a young lad up in the operator seat. Couldn't have been much older than 12. I kid you not that little fella could dance circles around operators 4x his age.

 

I’d even argue that it tests memorization ability more than comprehension, even for the skills part. My CDL school didn’t teach people how to back. They taught a procedure that, if followed exactly, would get you through each specific maneuver every time. I already had trailer backing experience, but most students got their CDL with no idea how to actually back in the real world.

 

The good news is 18-20 year olds won't leave the house to get a job. Maybe they will in their mid-30s.

 

The law is not about logic. Law is accumulated one court case at a time and one piece of legislation at a time. There is no more reason to think one law will fit with another law than there is to think once grocery list MUST match someone else's grocery list.