How Old Do You Have To Be A Bus Driver

Trucking industry struggling to hire drivers as demand increases

02:48 - Source: CNN

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With the trucking industry facing a shortage of qualified drivers, the U.s. government is setting upwardly an apprenticeship program for young truckers. The new plan will let people as young every bit 18 to bulldoze big interstate semi trucks.

The new plan is coming on-line equally the industry complains of driver shortages, which have gotten worse during the coronavirus pandemic. Concluding October, the caput of the American Trucking Associations said the industry needed about 80,000 more drivers. Condom advocates, however, are objecting to the program, saying it puts potentially dangerous, inexperienced drivers at the controls of some of the biggest, heaviest vehicles on road.

Currently, 49 states and the Washington DC give commercial commuter licenses to people under 21, Nick Geale, ATA vice president of workforce policy pointed out in a statement. These younger drivers can drive semis throughout large states like California and Texas, he noted, they but tin't cross state lines. This new programme volition just accept some of those drivers and train them so they can cross country lines in their rigs.

Chris Spear, CEO of the trucking group, said at the time in October that this plan was needed and would aid convalesce some of the driver shortage. The ATA did non immediately respond to a request for comment on the newly enacted regulations.

Under current federal regulations, only those at to the lowest degree 21 years of age are allowed to drive semi trucks across state lines. The new Safe Driver Apprenticeship Airplane pilot Plan will allow people at to the lowest degree 18 years old, and who have a state-issued commercial commuter'southward license with a clean record, to take the wheel of interstate trucks under the direct supervision of an experienced driver.

The program was proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Condom Administration in September, 2020, but it wasn't implemented at the time. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law this past November, required the cosmos of the plan, though. The program will soon become operational, co-ordinate to a find in the Federal Register.

The FMCSA volition issue a specific exemption to the normal age restrictions for each young driver admitted to the plan. Trucks used in the program will be required to take certain safe technologies, including automatic emergency braking, forwards-facing video cameras and a elevation speed automatically express to 65 miles per hour. Apprentice drivers volition not exist allowed to drive trucks with more than ane trailer or trucks conveying hazardous materials.

The experienced driver must be at least 26 years quondam and have at to the lowest degree five years experience driving semi trucks. The supervising driver is likewise required to have had two years of incident-free driving — no crashes or tickets — before training the new, younger driver.

The Truck Safety Coalition has publicly objected to the programme since it was first proposed, citing hazards posed by teen drivers.

"We'd like to encounter [Transportation] Secretarial assistant [Pete] Buttigieg demonstrate a genuine commitment to safety and publicly commit to terminating the program under his authority as DOT Secretary after the showtime fatality or serious injury," Truck Safe Coalition executive director Zach Cahalan.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shared statistics with CNN from a University of Michigan report indicating a 500% increase in injury crashes for truck drivers younger than 21 compared to truck drivers overall.

Cathy Chase, president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Prophylactic, besides objected to the program.

"It makes no sense to put one of the most dangerous driving populations behind the wheel of 80,000 pound rigs," she said.

Apprentice drivers could consummate the program well earlier reaching their 21st birthday, she said, and could go backside the wheel of a semi truck without whatsoever of the condom equipment required by the program. There are other ways to deal with driver shortages, she said, such as making the job more highly-seasoned by increasing pay and reducing driving hours.

CNN'southward Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this study.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/business/18-year-old-truck-drivers/index.html