FMCSA proposes interstate pilot program for 18-20-year-olds

"We here at the ATA have discovered that for our members to continue paying as little as they do, we need to attract recent high school graduates still living with their parents and provide synergistic integration of low-requirement labor."

 

Actually that I don't disagree with you on that. If it's 21 for interstate CDL I see no difference between 21 and 18. The maturity level is about the same. Heck even science states the human brain doesn't fully develop until about age 25. If they were proposing to move the age to 25 I'd be all over that. It's just 21 to 18 i see no difference from my experience.

 

I ran local from 18 to 21. Going interstate at that age, some can take and some cant. Lack of having to look the boss in the eye daily could be bad for some. But heres the advantage i think running local gave me... at least 10 backs a day and running a whole lot of time in city traffic. Open road is the easy part.

 

Lowering the drivers age, will only increase the pool of people available the first year of implementation.

 

as long as there are message boards, there will be debates on the maturity of people under the age of 21.

i say that if "most" trucking companies (or is it really the INSURANCE companies) prefer one to be at the very least 25 years old, then make it mandatory that a CDL can only be obtained by people 25 years old, and older.

sure, there are idiots and morons at ages well above 18 to 21, but at the younger age, (to me), they are still just kids.

and i also just do not, will not and won't ever accept the debate on, "well we send them off to a war zone, with weapons of mass destruction, they should be able to drive a truck under the age of 21"

first, we are not "sending them off to war", there is still not a draft in place, it is all voluntary, so they are not required to go into the service, they choose to do so, on thier own.

maybe some service time, maybe mandatory like the country of Israel, where they MUST go into the service for at least 2 years?, at 18..?? would make them more responsible, and TAKE responsibility for thier actions, rather than to be cry babies always demanding something.

 

and the high possibility that pay raises for many will be denied, as there would be a crop of seat meat, that'll work for minimum wages

 

Again I stand by my statement that you'll lose out on a lot of good potential if you increase the age limit. All I wanted to do since I was like 3 was drive truck. Trucks were literally all I talked about. Ended up turning wrenches when I was 18 because the age limit for a class 1 in BC is 19. I wasn't about to work some chump job pumping gas for $8/hour until my 19th birthday.

I feel if the age was increased, many more people like myself would just say screw it and take another career path.

Consider this: if you don't trust folks under 25 to drive a truck? How do you feel about an 18 year old fixing a truck? By that logic, everyone under 25 should just flip burgers because they're too immature for anything else.

 

Only if there's DNA testing involved to prove kid's parents aren't siblings...

 

I think they could make it if you are under 21 that you have to drive full time instate for a year but then open it up or something along that line.

 

What does that accomplish? In Texas and Cal. one can go their whole career and never leave the state.