Teenage truckers

Very well spoken...my opinion is the same as yours and I am sure MILLIONS of others. When the age limit law was put into place, it was based on conditions that it takes time, knowledge, experience and safety. Why did all that get tossed out the window, just to accommodate the economy, to jeopardize our lives and safety. WHY do we have law makers , that don' even drive a car, don't own a car, bc they are shuffled around in limos and planes, never been inside a big truck, and have no common sense or knowledge of what it takes to work and survive on highways.....(there are thousands of individuals over the age of 25 that jeopardize all of our lives on a daily basis). ..facts can be seen at all the missing and mangled up road guards and crash sites. Truckers lives matter...make our highways smarter and safe. ELD was to lower the death rate by saving 26 lives a yr...um..now a teenager is in ront of a load next to us on the road, bad decision...death rate major increase...

I would guess most of the veteran drivers out there were driving a semi of some form when they were 16. Ya I agree MOST teenagers aren't ready for the highway until they are older. But alot are. The 740th transportation company out of milbank sd can send a willing 18 year old to haul ammo and food on an IED infested highway in Afghanistan and nobody protests that. Because some of those teenagers are tough and mature for their age.

I agree with most of your opinions that teenagers are a bit too young , especially in the age of auto shifts when it requires a bit less coordination than it used to. But...you can't get future experienced drivers without letting young people drive. Most millennials are anti work anyway so I doubt there will be many of them lining up to drive anyway. Are there really that many of you experienced drivers out there that didn't start when you were 16??

Back when I learned we did not have cell phones and could not text and drive, think about that!

I'd rather see them trained by the two previous gentleman who posted, instead of trained by the new generation of CDL trainers. You were very lucky to be trained in by real word drivers. Here's a question on the current CDL test...if your tractor looses air pressure while traveling at highway speed, what should you do?? The answer, which I got wrong, was call a mechanic from your hands free device while driving...I selected pull over and inspect. Got it wrong.

The way the dot works, more senseless information will be given to the next generation. Maybe let the younger ones get behind the wheel with a baby boomer next to them. Before the government selects who can train. Nobody can argue that distracted driving is dangerous. I'd personally just rather see someone willing to train them,. Just like someone did you all when you were young

My son got his cdl at 18. Insurance company only went along because of his racing experience. By age 16 he had been rac ing since 10 and had a NASCAR one mile license. First one at the time West of the Mississippi. He's still at it.

Art Pfluger

I would completely agree with that. Well said

First off, where did I say I was mad? Second I follow HOS rules even with my paper logs (my truck is old so I'm exempt). Third and most importantly, I'm against most government regulations period. I don't believe that people who have no idea what we are doing out here should be writing the laws for what I can and can't do. Many of these lawmakers seem to want to take a cookie cutter approach to the laws written for our industry. A one size fits all approach doesn't work in trucking.

I agree with your point. What I also think is unfair, is the fact that the DMV lists some of those companies as third party CDL testers for the behind the wheel exam. I don't think that is ok. I think they are biased towards getting their new hires a CDL ASAP. I say that because they will fail a young person for shifting gears without using the clutch pedal, but pass a person that would rather call for a tow, because they cant drive in reverse for more than 20 feet. I'm not trying to insinuate that I'm Mr expert driver. Because I'm not...at all. I just think the government should stay out of it...wether it's age or testing. They always put people with no experience in charge anyway

My thoughts exactly. It will not cost mega carriers that are self insured any more to put 18 year olds in their truck. If I would hire an 18 yr old that is safe and competent my insurance would be that bad it wouldn't work if they would insure him at all .

The reason that some if not most of the mega carriers are self-insured is they have to be. Either got to the point that they couldn't get insurance on the open market or couldn't afford it due to number of claims put in.