Truckers Lobby for Age Concessions
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Feb. 18, 2002
Post-Sept. 11 security priorities have stalled a trucking industry pilot program that would put 18-year-olds behind the wheels of big rigs.
Nonetheless, the three-year plan is still being considered by the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration, which collected and evaluated public reaction last year.
Federal rules now require truckers to be at least 21 to haul cargo across state lines.
The Truckload Carriers Association, which represents long-haul carriers, seeks to show that qualified 18-to-20-year-olds are mature and safe enough to handle the job's grueling demands.
The plan sparked a national debate that pits a growing industry's severe shortage of drivers against the grim statistics of teen-age motorists.
"It would turn truck drivers and American motorists into guinea pigs on the road," said Michael Scippa, executive director of San Francisco-based CRASH, or Citizens for Reliable And Safe Highways.
Trucking-industry pilot programs have a history of undermining safety in trying to address needs, Scippa said.
"They create regular exemptions, which make Swiss cheese out of uniform truck safety," he said.
Trucking officials propose a program in which only the most qualified and skilled young drivers would be selected to participate.
About 1,000 drivers between the ages of 18 and 21 would undergo 48 weeks of classroom instruction, in-the-cab training and apprenticeship. No driver would be able to climb behind the wheel alone until he or she is 19.
"There are a lot of 18-year-olds doing far more complicated jobs than driving trucks," said Virginia DeRoze, director of education and training for the Virginia-based trade association.
DeRoze pointed out that 18-year-olds drive big rigs up and down U.S. highways in 40 states, including California.
"It is interesting to note," the association's petition reads, "that an 18-year-old in Texas can drive a commercial vehicle from Houston to Abilene in interstate commerce, a distance of 419 miles, but not an adjoining city separated by a state line."
If successful, the plan could pave the way for permanently lowering the age requirement for truckers, a possibility that makes safety advocates and insurance agents bristle.
"This amounts to a risky experiment," said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "We know that young drivers, whether in passenger vehicles or large trucks, are riskier drivers."
Studies have shown that large-truck drivers under 21 are four to six times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes, Rader said.
While large trucks account for 4 percent of registered vehicles nationwide and 8 percent of the total miles driven, they were involved in 12 percent of all fatal vehicle accidents in 2000.
The numbers don't support safety advocates' fears, said Robert Hirsch, president of the Truckload Carriers Association.
"Our position all along has been that we're not looking at all young drivers."
The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration has not indicated when it would make a decision. It would happen "soon," said an agency spokesman, Dave Longo. He would not elaborate.
In any case, the federal safety agency will make its recommendation to the Department of Transportation.
The proposal was put together by the carriers' association to expand the pool of drivers in a field that continues to grow while interest in trucking has waned nationwide.
According to a recent Gallup survey, the trucking industry must hire 80,000 drivers a year to keep up with a trade made increasingly larger by e-commerce.
In addition, the government's new "hours-of-service" rules will require the industry to hire an additional 49,000 drivers a year, according to the trucking association.
Trucking officials argue that, other than lowering the age requirement for commercial drivers' licenses, no alternative exists to recruiting more young people.
"By the time a young person reaches 21," the petition read, "he or she has most likely already chosen another career."
But Scippa of CRASH said the industry has only itself to blame.
Truckers, he said, are asked to work for low wages, and to endure long and irregular working hours under what he called "deplorable" working conditions.
"Until those factors are remedied, recruiters will continue to come up short," he said.
Roger Ury, director of American Truck School in San Pablo, said about 16 young men every month enroll in his three-to-four-week program to learn the trucking trade.
The rigors of the industry, he said, will always chase potential drivers away because the job demands a certain type of personality.
"You need to be footloose and fancy-free," said Ury, who has directed the school for seven years. "No girlfriend, no marriage, no family. Just someone looking forward, with great vengeance, to see the world."
Another sizable hurdle the industry faces is increasing national scrutiny and concern over big rigs and their drivers. About 5,000 people die every year in accidents involving large trucks.
The Highway Patrol will soon begin a crackdown on reckless big-rig drivers.
"These clowns just won't slow down. There is not a day that goes by that we don't have a truck-involved crash," CHP Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick told Associated Press last week.
In a memo sent to his 6,700 officers, Helmick said that the CHP had to overcome an image problem that it does not enforce traffic laws on truckers.
Whether or not the federal agencies endorse the plan, trucking officials promise to keep fighting.
"If we don't address where these drivers will come from," said Hirsch, "at some point this industry will come to a screeching halt. People don't respect how much the industry affects the country, day-to-day, minute-to-minute."
Contra Costa Newspapers
Feb. 18, 2002
Post-Sept. 11 security priorities have stalled a trucking industry pilot program that would put 18-year-olds behind the wheels of big rigs.
Nonetheless, the three-year plan is still being considered by the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration, which collected and evaluated public reaction last year.
Federal rules now require truckers to be at least 21 to haul cargo across state lines.
The Truckload Carriers Association, which represents long-haul carriers, seeks to show that qualified 18-to-20-year-olds are mature and safe enough to handle the job's grueling demands.
The plan sparked a national debate that pits a growing industry's severe shortage of drivers against the grim statistics of teen-age motorists.
"It would turn truck drivers and American motorists into guinea pigs on the road," said Michael Scippa, executive director of San Francisco-based CRASH, or Citizens for Reliable And Safe Highways.
Trucking-industry pilot programs have a history of undermining safety in trying to address needs, Scippa said.
"They create regular exemptions, which make Swiss cheese out of uniform truck safety," he said.
Trucking officials propose a program in which only the most qualified and skilled young drivers would be selected to participate.
About 1,000 drivers between the ages of 18 and 21 would undergo 48 weeks of classroom instruction, in-the-cab training and apprenticeship. No driver would be able to climb behind the wheel alone until he or she is 19.
"There are a lot of 18-year-olds doing far more complicated jobs than driving trucks," said Virginia DeRoze, director of education and training for the Virginia-based trade association.
DeRoze pointed out that 18-year-olds drive big rigs up and down U.S. highways in 40 states, including California.
"It is interesting to note," the association's petition reads, "that an 18-year-old in Texas can drive a commercial vehicle from Houston to Abilene in interstate commerce, a distance of 419 miles, but not an adjoining city separated by a state line."
If successful, the plan could pave the way for permanently lowering the age requirement for truckers, a possibility that makes safety advocates and insurance agents bristle.
"This amounts to a risky experiment," said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "We know that young drivers, whether in passenger vehicles or large trucks, are riskier drivers."
Studies have shown that large-truck drivers under 21 are four to six times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes, Rader said.
While large trucks account for 4 percent of registered vehicles nationwide and 8 percent of the total miles driven, they were involved in 12 percent of all fatal vehicle accidents in 2000.
The numbers don't support safety advocates' fears, said Robert Hirsch, president of the Truckload Carriers Association.
"Our position all along has been that we're not looking at all young drivers."
The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration has not indicated when it would make a decision. It would happen "soon," said an agency spokesman, Dave Longo. He would not elaborate.
In any case, the federal safety agency will make its recommendation to the Department of Transportation.
The proposal was put together by the carriers' association to expand the pool of drivers in a field that continues to grow while interest in trucking has waned nationwide.
According to a recent Gallup survey, the trucking industry must hire 80,000 drivers a year to keep up with a trade made increasingly larger by e-commerce.
In addition, the government's new "hours-of-service" rules will require the industry to hire an additional 49,000 drivers a year, according to the trucking association.
Trucking officials argue that, other than lowering the age requirement for commercial drivers' licenses, no alternative exists to recruiting more young people.
"By the time a young person reaches 21," the petition read, "he or she has most likely already chosen another career."
But Scippa of CRASH said the industry has only itself to blame.
Truckers, he said, are asked to work for low wages, and to endure long and irregular working hours under what he called "deplorable" working conditions.
"Until those factors are remedied, recruiters will continue to come up short," he said.
Roger Ury, director of American Truck School in San Pablo, said about 16 young men every month enroll in his three-to-four-week program to learn the trucking trade.
The rigors of the industry, he said, will always chase potential drivers away because the job demands a certain type of personality.
"You need to be footloose and fancy-free," said Ury, who has directed the school for seven years. "No girlfriend, no marriage, no family. Just someone looking forward, with great vengeance, to see the world."
Another sizable hurdle the industry faces is increasing national scrutiny and concern over big rigs and their drivers. About 5,000 people die every year in accidents involving large trucks.
The Highway Patrol will soon begin a crackdown on reckless big-rig drivers.
"These clowns just won't slow down. There is not a day that goes by that we don't have a truck-involved crash," CHP Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick told Associated Press last week.
In a memo sent to his 6,700 officers, Helmick said that the CHP had to overcome an image problem that it does not enforce traffic laws on truckers.
Whether or not the federal agencies endorse the plan, trucking officials promise to keep fighting.
"If we don't address where these drivers will come from," said Hirsch, "at some point this industry will come to a screeching halt. People don't respect how much the industry affects the country, day-to-day, minute-to-minute."
posted by Corey at 10:03 AM
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