Legislation introduced to allow 18 year old interstate CDL drivers

They just laid down the guns from schools and you going to give them 80,000 pounds to drive around? You thought truck stops were juvenile now..just wait. But some of us aged ones did start at a age like that and no problems other than stupid mistakes, but we learned.

 

Exactly. Its attitude and skill building, not age that counts IMO.

 

Laws are introduced one at a time for their own purpose. There's a place where all the laws ate introduced at once, but it doesn't work any better.

 

The Megas are by and large self insured so it won't make much impact there.....but small fleet and owner ops.....if they try to add 18 year old's with new Class A.....will cost them an increase of 100 - 150% of what they currently pay per power unit.

 

Where was this two years ago? I could’ve been driving the entire time! Realistically though how would this work out? I know a lot of companies hire at 21 but then there’s also a lot that hire at 23 and I think I’ve seen a couple that are 24 or 25. I’m assuming that’s because of insurance and required experience. So if driving interstate was switched to 18 would these companies have to lower their age requirements to accommodate it or would it be you can drive at 18 but everyone is still hiring at 21 and 23?

 

I figure most companies will not hire at 18 for awhile for insurance reasons. After a couple years when insurance gets a handle on what the rates are, more companies will start hiring younger.

 

That’s what I kind of thought, if the minimum age now is 21 and you have a lot of companies hiring at 23 I can’t really picture those companies switching to 18 if they aren’t currently 21. I hear people talk about starter companies like prime, Swift and millis so maybe those would be the first to switch since they handle training to get the cdl and all that.

 

Idiots come in all ages. Attitude is what matters. When I trained I told them, don’t be a idiot, don’t hit nothing and always consider self preservation. I never used the word “safety”. It’s overused and passes through folks ears