ADMIN

Alfred E. Neuman for President! - Imgflip

The federal government will let teens drive transports throughout the nation in a move it hopes will alleviate the supply chain crisis - but the initiative is being panned by critics who fear it could lead to disaster.

The new apprenticeship program deviates from current law - which requires truckers crossing state lines to be at least 21 years old - by allowing 18- to 20-year-old drivers to travel beyond their home states.

The push to change the law comes as the industry faces an exodus of 600,000 retiring truckers by 2028, and the Transportation Department estimated last October that 80,000 new hires were needed this year to offset attrition and clear a backed-up supply chain.   

The pilot program, detailed last week in a proposed regulation from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, would screen the teens and bar any with driving-while-impaired violations or traffic tickets for causing a crash.

But safety advocates say the program runs counter to data showing that younger drivers get in more crashes than older ones. 

read more:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10416127/Feds-allow-TEENAGERS-drive-big-rigs-state-state-apprenticeship-test-program.html

You need to be a member of Command Center to add comments!

Join Command Center

Email me when people reply –

Replies

    • Of course Nelda that is one of the motives of the libs.

    • Interesting theroy

  • My Grandson drives an 18 wheeler. He is on the road for 4 weeks and then gets 4 days to come home and rest. The job is not cut out for everyone. You sleep in you rig, the food at truck stops not the best and expensive. You are by yourself most of the time and only see you friends when you get your days off. Fortunately my Grandson loves the job. I wish he was local because I worry about him 24/7 with the snow, winds and violence now in most States. It is not an easy life along with all of the rules and regulation they have to follow. Cannot see a teenager having to do what he does. He was 25 when he got his tractor license but drove CDL B trucks for a couple of years and got a lot of experience and that is where the teens need to start.

    • A teenager doesn't have the maturity for it.

  • I,m sure the states ,unions and insurance companies have something to say about this .

  • And I've seen 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years old and older that can't drive worth a damn. I've also seen kids 12 on up put in 14-16-18 hour days because that was the way their parents did it, and theirs before them. Without errors, without complaints.

    Lynn Bryant DeSpain

    • Anyone can rent trucks as long as they have a drivers license, even if they never drove anything bigger than a smart car before.
      Not comparing an 18 wheeler to a 24 foot truck, but I rented one years ago and after the guy told me where the gears were (they didn't have them marked) I was able to drive that thing, back it down a steep hill on a twisting driveway without any problems. I'm sure a responsible 18 year old can learn, they teach them, they have to go to school. They can learn to use weapons, take care of equipment on nuclear subs, fly planes......I think some can handle it.

    • For somebody who spent several years in the US Navy, I can tell you that those kids  on a sub or fly don't get several weeks of training then solo. They spent years at a lower rank being supervised with more experience, mature elders, until they can do it themselves. The Navy don't put them in a plane on missions until they can handle landings, takeoffs, and flying in all kinds of weather conditions. And even the least experience have crashes with their aircraft because of inexperience flying. And the equipment on a sub take a least two years of electronic school before they can even start maintaining, or repairing them. 

  • Colonel, if you and your buddies had your way, America would be under permanent Marshall Law with bare minimal standards and workers taking orders from the person behind the barrel of the rifle. Not in My America. Not with My Constitution and Bill of Rights.

    Lynn Bryant DeSpain

    • If what we have today is YOUR AMERICA ... you can keep it... my America is what our forefathers bequeathed us... and we haven't seen that America since the early 20th Century... beginning with the Federal Reserve Act, Social Secuirty, and the New Deal.  Fundamental change in our culture and government became openly obvious beginning with the Civil War and has only become more obvious with each preceding year since... 1861.

This reply was deleted.