Posted on 01/26/2022 5:36:01 AM PST by Kaslin
Editor's note: This piece was authored by Andrew Donaldson
Stereotyped slogans and lazy data analysis are nothing new, but when rhetorical tropes become the foundation for regulatory policy, real world consequences quickly happen. Add this mix of laziness and bias to something as impactful to the overall economy as the commercial truck driver shortage, and you have preventable folly inevitably turning into full blown disaster.
The push back against a pilot apprenticeship program in resident Biden’s recently passed infrastructure package has all those factors converging into a frustrating mess where a policy solution ought to be. Signed into law in November of 2021, the program would allow commercial drivers license (CDL) holders under the age of 21 to drive across state lines after completing additional training. The stated goal is to get more commercial drivers into the interstate trucking ranks at a younger age and alleviate the truck driver shortage in an industry with serious retention issues. Issues that are projected to get much worse if no action is taken.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s quinquennial Commodity Flow Survey, calculated in partnership with the Department of Transportation, 71.6% or $10.4 trillion of the $14.5 trillion of the value of all goods moved in America did so on commercial trucks in the last year the report was taken. Commercial trucking and the freight it carries is the working end of the United States economy that makes all other commerce possible. Every one of those commercial trucks must be driven by one of the 3.5 million truck operators who must hold a CDL.
Yet, for years, warnings about an impending commercial truck driver shortage have gone unheeded. Some of the reasons for alarm were obvious; like many other sectors of the economy, large numbers of the Baby Boomer generation were set to retire around the same time. Other reasons, like the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic labor shortage that accompanied it, were not as predictable, but further exposed already existing issues.
Then there are the self-inflicted issues of regulation, gatekeeping, and poor policy. While 49 states allow CDLs for anyone over 18 who otherwise meets the requirements, federal statute restricts them from crossing state lines in most cases unless they are 21 years of age. “Letting younger people just go all over the country, it’s unsafe, it’s crazy,” Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh expressed in opposition to the pilot apprentice program. “We all know that younger people crash more. They have more accidents.”
But the data for young drivers in general is not accurately or fairly representative of those over 18 years of age who are properly trained and certified commercial drivers. Those who cite such figures use data sets that lump 16-19 year olds together as one block of teenagers, and only as general population drivers. The 16-17 year old cohort has by far the highest accident risk factors. Lumping the adult 18-20 year olds in with the teenage beginner drivers skews the data. We are not letting 16-17 year olds drive commercial trucks, so while it sounds good that “young drivers have more accidents” the line doesn’t apply to young adult commercial drivers.
And the data proves it.
Research from The National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence at Virginia Tech shows that experience, not age, is the deciding factor in most accidents involving commercial trucks. Not only that, but inexperienced older commercial drivers have a far higher rate of accident than any other age group, due to factors such as overconfidence and having more difficulty learning to safely operate a commercial truck than younger counterparts. Further, despite the rhetoric from some, just because 18-20 year olds are young people doesn’t make them kids. The age of 18 has been a long-standing legal recognition of adulthood. 18-21 year olds make up the backbone of the enlisted ranks of the United States military, another example demonstrating experience and training are far more important factors of ability than age alone. It is important to note that the pilot apprenticeship program is predicated on training requirements over and above the basic CDL training. Skills younger drivers don’t magically lose the minute they cross into a new state.
he pilot apprenticeship program is not a perfect plan by any means: Some of the equipment limitations are superfluous, the program sunsets in three years unless renewed by legislative act, and it is limited to only 3,000 participants. Even with these flaws and shortcomings, however, it is a positive step that would show young adult drivers capable of starting to fill the gap if given the opportunity.
Too often, the voices that complain about young adults not taking their place in society are the same voices that insist on infantilization by arbitrary and unnecessary age-biased regulation. 18-21 year old truck drivers who already hold a CDL are not kids; they are certified, skilled, and trained adults who are vital to the economy. Ignore the lazy rhetoric and stereotypes about young drivers, believe the data and the pressing need of the crisis at hand, and let the young adults take the commercial driving wheel.
I work professionally in a field that is directly impacted by the issues described here. For years I have refused to accept the whole “truck driver shortage” nonsense at face value.
If the supply chain is broken well then who needs more truckers (except calipornia).
Don’t they wear turbans these days?
how many of y’all remember the tv ads for truck driving schools?
i wonder if they went the way of those little nursing schools?
i believe all that truck driving data disvuises all the damn i-or non-repaired tru ks being driven by manuel, juan, jose and their krewe?
At a high enough pay, there will not be a driver shortage.
That said, I would be uncomfortable with an 18 year old new driver behind the wheel of a tractor trailer. I would be much more comfortable with pairing a young driver with experienced driver for the first few years of apprenticeship, which defines “apprenticeship”.
Only in PRC (Politically Repressive Canada), I believe. Od course, that may have changed in the last few years.
In North Carolina, I was a school bus driver at 17, with nothing more than basic Driver’s Education and the ability to work a manual transmission. I could tell you stories about how this dim bulb figured out a school bus was not a sports car, but fortunately no one was seriously injured.
I don’t see a problem. There are hundreds of thousands un-vaxed, illegals just waiting to get a CDL and motor voter registration.
Younger, less experienced drivers hauling massive loads across state lines in all weather conditions. What could possibly go wrong?
I do too. As a lumber broker we have directly been impacted by the driver shortage over the last several years.
Generally, most truck drivers are underpaid.
Even today, in many places in the country, companies are paying between $22-25/hour for a truck driver.
It is a hard job. You are away from home.
However, when I ask the owners/dispatchers of actual trucking companies they all state the same reason as to why it is so difficult to find drivers:
THEY CAN NOT PASS A DRUG TEST
This is especially difficult in states like OR where ALL drugs are legal.
Why is this a concern for the owners of trucking companies?
A new tractor costs between $160K-200K.
The trailer being pulled cost another $75K.
The product on the trailer maybe worth another $100K
So, IF you were that owner of a trucking company would you want to be responsible for the liability insurance on a driver that can not pass a drug test when they are in your very expensive equipment.
I have been in the trucking industry since 1968. I have done everything from driving to owning and had my own company for a while. The working conditions in the industry are real disincentives for fresh blood to enter the industry. Trucking companies have allowed shippers, receivers, and brokers to abuse and exploit drivers for so long that it is now an accepted practice to keep drivers waiting in line for a load 2,4, 6 or more hours (no pay). I could go on and on about how screwed up the industry is, but until the companies unite and cure the abuses, there will be little draw to enter the industry.
What about beefing up the freight rail infrastructure to move more goods “intermodal”, making more trucking more intrastate and intra-regional and less very long haul.
I think that is not attractive to many industries, including retail, where “just in time” has been the goal for EVERYTHING. And, while freight trains can carry more goods in weight per mile, I imagine getting the trains loaded with the containers, the miles per hour that trains can travel (currently averaging only about 38 miles per hour), and the fewer end-to-end points trains travel (compared to the many routes of multiple trucks that replace a single train), shipping remains focused so much on using the trucking industry.
This trucker issue is subterfuge to force quick acceptance of driverless trucks. Now that 5g rollout is underway, the permanent solution will be overnight long-haul trucks, graduating to daylight in short order. Humans will be last mile delivery. They are proposing 18yo so the accidents increase, leading for a cry for more automation. No logbooks, no breaks, no downtime . . . it’s the next perfect solution.
“However, when I ask the owners/dispatchers of actual trucking companies they all state the same reason as to why it is so difficult to find drivers:.....”THEY CAN NOT PASS A DRUG TEST”
Unfortunately, it is just a guess but maybe why the drug test factor is so big in finding truck drivers has to do with the population cohort of who is attracted to being a truck driver - why do so many attracted to that work have drug issues.
And, I know the full drug issue is more than just illicit drugs.
I have a nephew who has been suspended from driving a long haul truck more than once for a drug issue - he’d ignore taking his diabetes drugs and doing so would affect his blood sugar levels, resulting in problems driving. His employer required diabetes blood tests from him before every run and demanded to see he had his prescription drugs available for the length of a run.
When he was younger he had the other kind of drug problem - illicit drugs, and I think the length of that experience chemically altered his brain wiring, especially in critical decision making.
Up until last year, my son was prevented from crossing state lines as a professional trucker due to his age. It’s a stupid law.
A 19 year old trucker in Texas is no different than a 19 year old trucker in Rhode Island, but the Texas kid has an opportunity to get a job and the Rhode island kid doesn’t.
We live in a small state. My son moved to Michigan so he could get a driving job in a big state. When he was taking his CDL class, he couldn’t even drive out of state in the Driver Ed truck with an instructor.
At the least, the DOT directive should be changed to allow young drivers to go to any state contiguous to theirs.
The problem with the rail industry is that over the last 35 years I have been a lumber broker the railroads have abandoned hundreds of sidings around North America.
For example, back in the 1970’s almost every larger lumber yard had a rail siding. Railcars shipped from the west coast or Canada back east or down south. The serving carrier would spot the flatbed or box car at the customers siding. Even if they only received one railcar per month or less.
Starting in the 1980s the railroads started abandoning lower volume sidings. Especially, after deregulation went into effect. So, a lot of the smaller volume yards had to start purchasing by truckload delivery. Reload facilities sprang up in most major cities. A reload unloads the railcar and then delivers to the customer by truckload.
Even several sawmills in more rural areas like North central Idaho no longer have rail service. I purchase from several sawmills whose rail service was abandoned in the last 25 years. They now have to truck their lumber to a place where it is loaded on rail car.
When you start adding all these extra origin reload and destination reload charges, in many cases it is cheaper to just truck directly to the customer.
The railroads really do not like making the milk run to fill up a train before it heads south or east.
They much prefer picking up 100 cars loaded with coal in WY and bring the entire train to the port of Tacoma. Same thing with tankers full of oil. The entire train goes from ND to the refinery without stopping. This is the type of business the BNSF, UP, CN, CPRS all love.
How long ago was that? Bus drivers must have a CDL with Passenger endorsement. 17? My CDL required me to be at least 23 and pass a DOT physical. It didn’t take long for trucking to ruin my health. Long hours, no physical activity, and truck stop food put 35 pounds in me in short order.
Thank god I got out when I did.
My kid that I mentioned in post 17 runs flatbed semi’s for a lumberyard and occasional truss loads.
Of course he passes the drug screening. The yard hired him based solely on a recommendation from a former boss. They bought him a brand new tractor trailer rig when they hired him.
I’ve told him that especially during the lockdowns, he had the most important job in the family. By delivering lumber to jobsites, he was keeping hundreds of men employed.
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