Teenagers behind the wheel

Its already hard enough for an 18 year old to find decent work. The ones with their head on right have to deal with all the BS assumptions made by everyone how they're lazy and entitled. I know guys that started driving at 18 (its legal here in Western Canada) and they could outdrive half the hacks on the roads today after a couple of weeks.

 

If you train a 18 year old, hand the kid a rifle under orders in war and peace, that's one thing.

Now if you hand a 18 wheeler to a 18 year old, you cannot believe the amount of problems you are exposing yourself, your company and the cargo to potential losses among other things like dealing with a meltdown because they got a 3000 dollar ticket from DOT etc.

Considering the pitiful state of training in this industry it is my firm judgement that you will not be able to teach teenagers how to do much more than hold a steering wheel.

There is no point in investing too heavily in a 18 year old kid if you are also going to dismiss, fire him or her for being 10 minutes late to a appt time or cutting a trailer tire during a turn? Most people cannot be on time to a local doctor in town and children have to be herded to the bus or they miss it (And school) and what makes you think 18 year olds are going to be able to meet time and distance requirements across the entire USA in the face of storms and other problems?

Finally but not least, let's not underestimate the health impacts on these people when they are so young, tender and find themselves in a fleshpot for a while and come out infected. Or taking part in drugs (Because now we are in a drug legal state yay!) or a variety of other stupid things.

There is a reason we hold em off until 21 for some trucking and after 25 for fuel purposes etc.

I would not want to hire a 18 year old me to run a big truck, hell no.

 

I was driving at 18 but not OTR. All local work and was fine. Dont think OTR woulda worked out good. Not many 18 year olds can handle the independence and lack of supervision.

 

Or the opposite. Driver facing cameras, frivolous make work messages, being interrupted while sleeping and a host of other computer stuff in that tractor designed for both enforcement and risk management. If I had to ride a box that beeped every few miles at me because someone did not really paint the travel lane marker very well 10 years ago I would have been working out very satisfying scenarios in my head under which such a torture box would be carefully destroyed.

 

It's not specifically otr, it's interstate. If an under 21 lives in Brooklyn for example, currently he could drive to Buffalo as long as he stays in NY, about 400 miles, but he can't drive to Bayonne, NJ, 30 miles because it's in a different state.

 

Just because it becomes legal doesn't mean a carriers insurance rate will go up.

It solves the capacity crunch because the industry can grab them out of high school and give them a career. 18 year olds with solid jobs that pay well tend to act more responsibly because they have something to lose.

There is no safety reason to prohibit interstate to over 21. I can hire an 18 year old from Odessa TX, then run them from Laredo to Dallas and back, never letting them go home right now completly legaly.

Finally, I've said it before, I'll say it again - younger guys are easier to train. 4 weeks ago I had a 60 year old man. The week was painful. I had to constantly babysit him, heck getting my 5 year old nephew to brush his teeth and go to bed was easier than getting this guy yonupdate his log. The week after I had a 25 year old. Ran similar loads but he was running the truck by weeks end. Didn't have to crack the whip, didn't have to get him out of bed.

Age has very little to do with being responsible.

 

A macro risk benefit analysis would likely indicate that this is a seriously flawed idea. And I believe it is, in general. However, if you take the right person and place them in the right company with good trainers in a well groomed and maintained training environment; great things can happen.

Case in point: I as a HS drop out, with my moms signature, joined the Army as an Infantryman at 17. I knew going in I was going to do at least 20 years and I had a goal for the rank I wanted to attain. 24 years later, with a GED, an Associates degree, job skills (I switched jobs to become a heavy equipment operator) and having exceeded my goals, I retired.

If I did it...so can others. However, I certainly don't think the right company or environment would be with any of the mega carriers which from my understanding are the biggest proponents of this push.

^^^^^THIS

 

For the people opposed to the idea, you do realize you are already sharing the roads with 18-21 year olds now driving big trucks, they just can’t cross state lines. So it’s okay for one of these drivers to run from Orange, Texas to El Paso(800 plus miles), but god forbid they cross state lines.