The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced Friday that it is looking into a pilot program that would allow some commercial drivers under the age of 21 to cross state lines.
In Arkansas -- and the majority of other states -- people under the age of 21 may drive commercial vehicles only within state boundaries. As part of the FAST Act of December 2015, the safety administration was required to gather the first round of safety data on younger drivers.
The proposed three-year pilot program would be limited to military reservists and veterans who have had heavy-vehicle driver training in military service.
The safety administration will take comments from the public for the next 30 days. The comments will be taken into account when the finalized program is announced.
"Under the current law, a driver [under the age of 21] can legally haul from San Antonio to Texarkana, but not St. Louis to Little Rock, or Tulsa to Fayetteville. That's illogical," said Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association.
"The industry is supportive of exploring a graduated [commercial driver's] license. In the FAST Act we advocated for some sort of pilot program to explore this," Newton said. "I just don't know that there are enough honorably discharged, healthy, physically capable veterans under the age of 21 looking to participate in the program."
A person cannot enlist in the military until age 18, although 17-year-olds may with parental consent. The minimum enlistment time varies among the military branches.
"We're glad and hope they can generate enough interest in it," Newton said. "But I'm concerned about the quantity of people able to participate in the program."
The agency's proposal addresses the issue, acknowledging, "Because many service personnel leave active duty while close to or over the age of 21, it is likely that most study group members would be reservists or National Guard members."
The agency also asks: "Would carriers be able to obtain enough volunteer drivers to serve in the control group?"
Volunteers in the proposed study group must be employed by a participating carrier. That carrier also must provide a volunteer driver, over the age of 21, for the control group with equivalent training and experience as the study group volunteer.
"Anytime you have a shortage of drivers you're going to look for folks who aren't driving now," said Steve Brantley, director of driver recruiting at USA Truck in Van Buren. "But you've got to do the research and make sure it's the right thing to do for the public at large and the industry and go from there."
In 2015, the industry was short 48,000 drivers, a figure expected to grow to 175,000 by 2024, according to the American Trucking Associations.
When asked about effects on the driver shortage, Brantley said, "I think it would help because it means a new population of people, but is it a large enough pool of people that would make a significant dent in the driver shortage? No, I don't think so."
Sean Garney, director of safety policy at the American Trucking Associations, said the long-term goal is obtaining safety information on younger drivers.
"Data to date has been mostly limited to private young drivers, and the general data is that drivers under 21 have a higher risk for crash," he said. "But there's a theory that commercial drivers are professionalized. They have more training, and you would think it behooves them to drive safer. We really need some data on this to flesh the theory out."
Butch Rice, president and chief executive officer of Beebe-based Stallion Transportation Group, pointed to another challenge for drivers under age 21.
"The problem is insurance companies. You're going to have a huge problem convincing the insurance companies of changing that age from 21," he said. "There are 18-year-olds as mature as a 30-year-old, but then again there are a lot of 18-year-olds that are 18-year-olds."
However, he said he supports the veterans-specific pilot program.
"That's a great start," he said. "A lot of these guys drive big trucks everywhere else overseas. It's probably the best place to start."
"It worries me as much as it does anyone else," said Bill Davis, president of Bill Davis Trucking in Batesville, of the concept of commercial drivers under age 21. "But I was as responsible at 18 as I was at 21."
He blamed the industry's problem of recruiting young drivers on the current age limit.
"There's a gap. By the time they're 21 they don't have the financial ability to pay for training to learn to drive. There's this disconnect," he said. "We don't have the ability to create a young driving pool just simply because we've made it impossible."
Jason Decker, vice president at Van Buren-based ART Transportation Inc., agreed.
"We're losing a lot of people to other industries because they can't get into ours until 21," Decker said.
Davis echoed a common sentiment of others in the industry: If adequate safety data came out, he would look into hiring people under age 21 "with great scrutiny."
Brantley concluded: "What may be legal to do may not be the best thing from a safety standpoint. Even if they said tomorrow under 21-year-olds are eligible, I'm not sure we would even go there immediately. It's just not a conversation that we've had yet."
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's proposal is subject to changes based on the comments received. The agency will release a final proposal after taking the comments into account, after which time applications for the program can be submitted.
Business on 08/20/2016