Bill Proposes Letting 18-year-olds Drive 18-wheelers Cross-country

A group of U.S. Senators has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to move ahead with a proposal to put drivers as young as 18 years old behind the wheels of large interstate transfer trucks, according to trucking industry magazine Overdrive. A pilot program under consideration for more than a year was authorized in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law in November.

Senators Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), and nine other Republican Senators said in a Nov. 3 letter to FMCSA Deputy Administrator Meera Joshi that lowering the legal interstate driving age for commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders from 21 to 18 would help address the industry’s driver shortage.

But the Dayton Daily News quotes safety advocates, union officials, and other trucking industry leaders who say the move would put the public at greater risk. Young drivers are more crash-prone due to their inexperience and immaturity.

“Tapping into a younger, unsafe driving population, especially considering that more than 5,000 people get killed in truck crashes every year, seems like a very bad decision,” Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, told the newspaper. “It’s using the motoring public as guinea pigs for this experiment.”

FMCSA Proposes New Under-21 Commercial Driver Pilot Program

The FMCSA proposal for a pilot program calls for allowing 18- to 20-year-old commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders who operate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce to be allowed to drive tractor-trailers across multiple states. Drivers in the program would not be allowed to operate vehicles hauling passengers or hazardous materials or to drive special configuration vehicles.

Currently, 49 states and the District of Columbia allow 18- to 20-year-old CDL holders to operate tractor-trailers in intrastate commerce — meaning drivers under 21 may currently drive within Indiana’s state borders but not cross into Illinois or another neighboring state. In New York, the minimum age to obtain a Class A commercial driver’s license Class A CDL to operate a tractor-trailer is 21.

The FMCSA program would require CDL holders aged 18 to 20 to take part in a 120-hour probationary period and a subsequent 280-hour probationary period under an apprenticeship program established by an employer. But 19- and 20-year-old commercial drivers who have operated CMVs in intrastate commerce for a minimum of one year and 25,000 miles would be able to drive across the country with no further training or restrictions.

A similar exemption dating to 2018, the Military Commercial Driver Pilot Program, allows 18- to 20-year-olds with the U.S. Military equivalent of a commercial driver’s license to operate CMVs in interstate commerce.

What is Congress Proposing?

The infrastructure bill signed into law on Nov. 15 incorporates the DRIVE-Safe Act, which directed the Department of Transportation to establish regulations for implementing an apprenticeship program for licensed CMV drivers under the age of 21 to help alleviate the nation’s truck driver shortage.

In their letter to the FMCSA, the Senators said a 2021 report to Congress from the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated the average age of a commercial truck driver is 48 years old, six years older than the national workforce average. Nearly 30 percent of truckers are over age 55. “With a large portion of this labor demographic so close to retirement, the shortage of truckers could exceed 100,000 drivers by 2028.

“This wave of retiring drivers exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic produces severe consequences in an already delicate supply chain,” the Senators said in the letter. “While American truckers do their part to help America recover from this devastating pandemic, the FMCSA should strongly consider allowing persons 18 years of age and older to operate commercial vehicles in interstate commerce. … It should be our policy to aid and encourage these capable workers.”

Forgoing the program “threatens to drive up shipping expenses, prolong delays, and burden already-strained consumers with additional costs,” the letter says.

Is Safety at Risk from Teenage Truck Divers?

The Dayton newspaper report cites statistics our truck accident attorneys at Craig, Kelley, and Faultless are all too familiar with.

“The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens aged 16-19 than among any other age group, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers in this age group are nearly three times as likely as drivers aged 20 or older to be in a fatal crash.”

We would add this statement made by the NHTSA: “One thing is certain: teens aren’t ready to have the same level of driving responsibility as adults. Teen drivers have a higher rate of fatal crashes, mainly because of their immaturity, lack of skills, and lack of experience. They speed, they make mistakes, and they get distracted easily.”

“All of the data points to the fact that these drivers are not safe,” Sam Loesche, senior legislative and policy representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, told the Dayton newspaper. “In the meantime, the industry wants to push a proposal that would unleash them nationwide on the roads. We just think that’s a backward way to approach it.”

Contact an Indiana Truck Accident Attorney

Young truck drivers are on Indiana roads daily and they may soon be driving under the burden of fatigue brought on by longer hours behind the wheel required by interstate trips. If you’ve been injured in a truck accident caused by a negligent truck driver of any age, you deserve to be compensated for your losses as well as your pain and suffering.

Contact the experienced Indianapolis truck accident attorneys of Craig, Kelly & Faultless for help seeking compensation after an accident caused by a commercial truck driver.