With the new highway funding bill passed in congress, it now goes on to the Senate for a vote, but safety groups and many in the trucking industry are concerned about one of the amendments that was added on to the bill – they don’t want truck drivers under the age of 21.
By now most people know that drivers as young as 18 are actually allowed to drive large commercial vehicles as long as neither they, nor the freight their hauling, will cross state lines. Of course, since very little is sourced, manufactured, distributed, and sold all in one state, that effectively means that Class A CDL drivers under the age of 21 don’t really get to work.
But all that could be about to change. The proposed highway budgets from the Senate and the House both contain language that would either allow (Senate) or require (House) the implementation of an under-21 interstate driving pilot program to see if commercial drivers between the ages of 18 and 21 are just as bad at driving as non-commercial drivers are at that age.
Accompanying the chorus of drivers who are against these “baby truckers” are the safety advocacy groups who says that this is a matter of the bottom line of businesses being more important to lawmakers than the safety of the young drivers and others on the road.
“Tomorrow, the backroom, closed-doors negotiations between the House and Senate begin,” said Jackie Gillian, the president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “I urge our nation’s leaders to stand up for safety. The public will pay with their lives and their wallets if corporate lobbyists win.”
Lawmakers seem to be split on the issue however. Senator Richard Blumenthal for example called the amendment a step backwards in terms of safety, but others claim that having younger drivers would be a boon by helping to alleviate the driver shortage.
Proponents of younger drivers claim that the government should not be creating unreasonable obstacles to job creation, and that driving a truck would be a great job for people just out of high school or community college.
“They’re driving trucks in Iraq at that age,” said Rep. Brad Ashford. “I think they can do the same here.”
Source: ringoffireradio, omaha, nptelegraph
Those drivers in Iraq have been trained, are supervised and quite frankly are 3 cuts or more above so many of the ‘trainee’ drivers we’re pulling off the streets these days.
The REAL reason they’re allowing these youngsters to drive is the fleets need cheap labor and these kids will work for a lot less than seasoned drivers. It’s all about money.
Wrong on so many levels. The reason you need to recruit these people is that they will go into another field if trucking isn’t offered. Once in another field, the chance of them being lured to trucking afterwards is slim to none. In case you haven’t noticed, there is a huge gap in capacity nationwide. Training is training no matter where it comes from. Hold some standards to these trucker mills churning out drivers with little or no experience. That’s your solution!
Army truck training is seven weeks, with automatic transmission, not really as focused on highways and backing, and no 53′ trailers.
It’s totally different.
I’ve heard so many people say that if we had truck training as regular driver’s ed, we’d have safer drivers, but now that they want to do it, everyone is opposed?
You are exactly right. …..Don’t people realize by now that its ALL about the money. ….Cheap labor.
In Canada 18 year old drivers have always been allowed to run coast to coast and it does not seem to be a problem.
It will be a tragedy. I’m sorry but as a parent as many of you are it is pretty much a known fact that an18 year old is not a good match for an 80 thousand pound vehicle. That’s the truth that’s the fact and Washington should see that crystal clear. If they allow this there signing who knows how many death warrants. Its that simple.
This sounds more like your opinion, and a lot less about real facts!
I was pulling loads permitted for 104,000 at 18, and 8 years later I still have a clean driving record
its a also known that women at age 18 to 21 are involved in less driving incidents then men. so should women be allowed to drive big rigs at 18? also with age your reaction time decreases. should we cut off truckers at age 70?
I know you lifers dont want us out there but one day even you will die and there will be noone to drive trucks cause there are no young people to be drivers.
Population control
Pay the drivers more and there won’t be a driver shortage. Plain and simple.
There wouldn’t be a so called driver shortage if drivers were paid better.
They gonna be allowed to drink and smoke weed too?
thats medicinal weed.
Let them take the training at 16, I say. Then by the time they’re 18, they’re good.
What difference does crossing a state line really make?
And just because they CAN, doesn’tmean they WILL.
Just having the very basic truck training will, in my opinion, result in better drivers of cars, especially around us in our trucks.
I think if they address the real problem with this. It might possibly be a good thing. I am a driver trainer and know from first hand experience that age does not define a good driver.
I have trained them from 21 to 65 and believe the first step is proper candidate selection followed by a training process that is more thorough and lengthier than the average 4-6 weeks that most companies have. Actually training them and not use them as a second log book to fatten the trainer’s wallet. I’ve heard opponents to this talk about an 18 yr old’s
maturity level. Drive through any truck stop with your c.b on and you will hear what passes for maturity. But,I believe this is just a band aid trying to cover the alleged driver shortage and once these 18 yr olds get a dose of what we already deal with and why so many leave the industry and many more won’t even consider driving. We will have a lot of 18 yr olds with cdl’s in their pockets choosing to flip burgers or fetch shopping carts instead.
The issue isn’t age as much as temperament. Young people are brash and selfish (not all, but most).
Putting them over the road also puts them into unfamiliar situations in a stressful, hostile environment.
They haven’t learned to temper their reactions or to think thru the consequences of their actions.
There will be more road rage and it will be with greater consequences.
Then the entire industry will be under more scrutiny as a whole.
The driver shortage isn’t a result of age. It has been “created” by:
Gov regs. (CPAP, lane control, speed governors, CSA, EOBR, black boxes)
Poor working conditions. (Traffic, toll roads, construction, lumpers, waiting at docks, inadequate night parking, ticket happy local & state jurisdictions)
Low pay.
Decreased home time.
Increased stress.
Poorly appointed trucks. (Lower power, higher costs, lack of amenities like bunk design & driver comfort)
Public domain. (HOV lanes that should be thru traffic lanes including trucks, trucks not allowed to pass on hills instead of adding a passing lane, Lane restrictions prohibiting trucks instead of lanes requiring a minimum speed)
The answer is not younger drivers. It should be “happy” drivers….
The trucking companies need to stop treating the drivers like crap, and throw in more pay, and they wouldn’t have a driver shortage.
Placing a 18 year old behind the wheel of a 80,000lb lethal weapon? yeah right!!
They must be a special kind of stupid!!
It’s funny how the US gives their 18 year old “brash and selfish “guys who “havent leaned to temper their recation” guns and puts them “into unfamiliar situations in a stressful, hostile environment” in the middle east. But if any of those guys wanna drive a truck, everyone thinks its irresponsible to give them a 80,000lb lethal weapon?
Clearly this proofs americans at all ages are not capable of logical thinking. And really none of you should drive a truck and therefor just let the 18 year old do it too.
It’s all about more money in the pockets of the companies. You offer an 18 yr old a couple of hundred a week and they will jump on it! They have no family to support (most times) so they are cool with a couple of hundred. If companies would treat their drivers better and pay them the way they should there would be no driver shortage. Insurance companies should love this.
18? Not a good idea. Young peopple just have to much sperm pumping in to their brain and they just do stupid stuff automaticaly. Thats the nature, you cant go against it. There will be allot of road rage. Look how they drive cars, always speeding always cutting off, speeding in construction zones, passing on sholder, hitting cones when line ends. They always wanna be first at that age they just cannot be calm anough by nature to drive a big truck. At that age they will first do something and than think what they have done. Not a good idea at all. Back in a day loads price was based on its weight, number of pallets and milage. Now brokers tighten the belt on companys necks. They see how many trucks in the area and how many loads. And they sell those loads for almost free. Companys often can only cover fuel and tolls and not other truck related expences, thats why in order to survive they cut on drivers pay. Thats why truck driver is not atractive job anymore. And companys cannot afford biger pay. Truck driver lives in a truck 24/7 he dont see his friends or family forever, he has no life. There is big chance he will pay part of his paycheck to police for violations. Cuz driving thousand of miles a week its not like other peopple driving 12 miles a day to work and back. And any situation can happen. Much more chance for tickets. And if all this stress not paid acordingly, no one wants it.
Well I agree with most the comments on here to a degree,,,,,I m a female now age 53 with lot of health problems that ha forced me to retire early from the interstate in 2007…..But I grew up in the trucking industry ,,,,my grandfather owned a fleet of trucks in the 40s and 50s,,,,moom drove them for him after she graduated from high school in 1951,,,,,at the age of 10 I was already dispatching a fleet of 5 logging trucks,,,,by age 13 I was married into and driving them rigs with a Chaufers Licence in thoe days for the fleet i later built into a 32 rig fleet at the age of 16 I went Long Line on the Interstate as a company driver with a friends semi,,,a well as an owner operator with my own rig,,,,I have owned and run my own rig ever since,,,I have a clean ODOT Record minus a few 5 or 10 mph over speed fines in the last 36 years,,,,my theary here is I agree with the baby drivers may or not be safe and i have een the training at thee so called driving schools for big rigs I even put my self thru one in the early 90s jut to see for my self what they do and how they train,,,,,,i dispise the training that they do not do more than i do what they do do,,,,,,I have always told a new interssted driver no matter what age they were to firt find a friend or relative willing to take them on as a trainee for 6 mth to a year,,,,then get that hands on training then decide rather you want to remain in that field as a driver….i grew up in the two lane skinny and i mean skinny mountain roads firt then gradually moved up to the big intertate that scared the hell out of me for the firt couple of years,,,,stillprefer the skinny rds when i can
I find this kind of funny that the government is thinking about this considering that most companies won’t hire anyone under 23 years of age. Insurance companies are funny about this.
It’s not the issue of age it’s the level of maturity when they first get in the truck especially the kids now days texting and driving acting like drunk drivers on the road
Hmmm, let’s see……pay/benefit increases to lure more folks into the trucking industry?………..or keep pay and benefits low by just hiring more cheap (young burger flippers) labor. This is easy…..let’s hire more cheap labor, LOL.
When I first made a few inquiries about work driving a truck, back in 1972, I found that no one would hire a driver under age 26 because, although we were legal to drive interstate at age 21, the insurance companies refused to insure them unless they were at least age 26. Times have changed, but I doubt if underwriters have changed much; so I expect that if the Senate approves age 18 that don’t mean the insurance companies HAVE to insure them. I expect they will insure them but with a seriously marked up premium. Also, I think a normal 18 year old will want some dating and social life rather than spending their lives in a mobile jail cell, so the glamour of a big rig will wear off quick, and these kids aren’t tied to debts and family support yet so they can change out of trucking and into something with a lower more normal turnover much easier than older drivers, and I think they will opt out prematurely. And lastly, if driving long haul paid a million dollars a year, would there be enough drivers? If the answer is yes, and I think it is, then you don’t have a driver shortage problem, you have an economic problem (so says a guy I know who learned this in a college economics class). Just my two cents worth.
Bigger companies are self insured so they can hire any age the government allows.my company was 23 just lowered to 21.they have a good training plan better than I had when I was starting off. Still my sister’s kid got his cdl at 20,does local so he doesn’t miss out on dating,drives daycab with 40′ I’m undecided if that is better training than over the road Co driver for 6 months.
There is no driver shortage. There’s widespread driver abuse. The industry is extremely crooked inside and out. Treat drivers better and they will stay.