ATA: Lowering age restriction could ease truck driver shortage

A federal law inhibiting truck drivers from crossing state lines until they turn 21 is “illogical” and is making it more difficult for carriers to attract young drivers, according to Rob Abbott, VP of safety policy at the American Trucking Associations.    The trucking industry is looking to change a federal law that prohibits licensed truck drivers from crossing state lines if they are under the age of 21, according to Rob Abbott, vice president of safety policy at the American Trucking Associations.
   Under current federal regulations, states are allowed to issue a commercial driver’s license to anyone over the age of 18, but few people between the ages of 18 and 21 apply due to the abovementioned restriction.
   The federal law prohibiting drivers from crossing state lines, which is typically a requirement in long-haul trucking, is “illogical” and is making it more difficult for carriers to attract younger drivers and stem a growing shortage across the industry, Abbott said at the ATA’s management convention in Philadelphia this week.
   “Drivers (under the age of 21) today can drive from San Francisco to San Diego, but can’t cross the street in Texarkana,” he said. “That’s an imaginary boundary.” The city of Texarkana sits on the border of Texas and Arkansas, meaning that in some instances crossing the street also requires crossing state lines.
   Safety advocacy groups oppose proposals to lower the age limit because younger drivers are statistically more prone to accidents could potentially make roads less safe. In fact, many argue that states should do the opposite, advocating they raise the minimum age to obtain a CDL to 21.
   Trucking carriers, on the other hand, claim they need as many drivers as they can get, pointing to the growing shortage of qualified drivers caused by an aging and retiring work force that hasn’t been replenished by young generations.
   ATA recently published a report estimating the shortage of drivers in the trucking industry will reach 48,000 by the end of 2015 and could grow to as many as 175,000 by 2024.
   Both the Senate and House versions of a long-term transportation and infrastructure funding bill include provisions that could eventually lower the age restrictions, but the prospects of those individual sections being included in the final bill are unclear.
   In either version of the legislation, states would be allowed to create pilot programs to test the feasibility of allowing younger truck drivers to cross state lines. The Senate version, which passed earlier this summer, included a provision that would lower the minimum age to 18, the age ATA and other industry groups recommend. The version of the bill currently being debated in the House includes language that would lower the minimum to 19-and-a-half.
   Congress is running out of time to merge and agree on the long-term highway funding bill before the current authorization expires Oct. 29, and Capitol Hill observers and analysts aren’t holding their breath. They say Congress is likely to pass yet another short-term extension, which would leave the current federal age restrictions in place.