It's No-Go For Training 18-Year-Old Drivers
Emotion and politics were key to shelving the pilot program.
Doug Condra
President
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has said no to testing the feasibility of 18-year-olds driving trucks in interstate commerce.
It comes as no surprise. The proposal, developed by the Truckload Carriers Assn., drew the wrath of the usual critics: safety advocates, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) among them.
The FMCSA report says very few people answered specific questions posed by the agency. Mostly they just said they didn't think anyone under 21 should drive a commercial truck.
Apparently they just couldn't get past the image of a baggy-pantsed teenybopper trying to do wheelies for his friends in one of Don Schneider's tractors.
Wolf did use some statistics showing that 18-to-20-year-olds are three times as likely to be in fatal crashes than drivers over 21. But those figures come from a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute report on automobile—not heavy truck—drivers.
And apparently none of the critics gave credence to the fact that in 48 of our states, 18-year-olds are already driving commercial trucks in intrastate commerce.
The test program would have recruited young people between 18 and 21 with clean driving records. Those who made it through screening would undergo 48 weeks of intensive training in truck driving, highway safety, life management skills, driver professionalism and responsibility. The training was to take place in approved truck driving schools.
The student would begin driving duties as an apprentice with an approved motor carrier. He or she would not be allowed to drive solo until reaching the age of 19 and completing a full year of training.
In short, the pilot program would have picked the cream of the crop and given them jobs with decent pay. If it worked, it could have paved the way for trucking to lessen the looming shortage of professional drivers, while providing a lot more jobs to people in need of them.
In its decision, FMCSA said it would be wrong to pursue the pilot program "until there is additional information and data on which to base a preliminary determination about the safety impacts..."
Wait a minute. Wasn't the pilot program supposed to provide exactly that information? What part of "pilot" don't we understand here?
The TCA is understandably disappointed. Its plan had the support of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, American Assn. of Motor Vehicle Administrators, National Assn. of Governors Highway Safety Representatives and yes, the American Automobile Assn.
Those groups issued a joint statement saying that young drivers' tendency for high crash rates "can be overcome by effective training, real-world driving experience and mentoring."
But trucking is back where we started; still losing young people to other industries. And we may never know whether a certain group of them could—or should—be hauling interstate freight.
TCA is putting a positive spin on things because the feds didn't completely slam the door on such a project sometime in the future. But for some time to come, fleets will have to come up with other ways to build the driver pool.
