WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says only 113 motor carriers have applied for its under-21 truck driver apprenticeship program since the agency began accepting applications in July 2022, a dismal sign for an initiative that had been expected to recruit up to 1,000 carriers and 3,000 drivers.
The data, included in a fiscal year 2022 report submitted to Congress last week by FMCSA, also revealed that as of February 2024, FMCSA has rejected 34% – or 38 of the 113 applications received. The agency has fully approved only 30%, or 34 of the applications.
The applications that were rejected “have been disapproved due to not meeting FMCSA’s safety performance criteria,” the agency stated. “An additional 36 applications have met FMCSA’s safety qualification criteria (“pre-qualifier”), but do not yet have a registered apprenticeship in place or have not yet provided their registered apprenticeship number to FMCSA.”
In a report covering FY2021 — also submitted to Congress last week — FMCSA provided similarly lackluster results for an under-21 CDL pilot program it launched in 2019 and completed in August 2021 for those that had been in the military.
“Despite significant outreach and recruitment efforts, only a very small number of drivers participated” in the under-21 military program, FMCSA stated. There was not enough interest from the intended participants in operating a CMV in interstate commerce as a profession to justify continuing the program.”
Creating apprenticeships for 18-to-20-year-old drivers – who currently are barred from hauling freight across state lines — has been lauded by the Biden administration as a way to bolster the ranks of truckers across the country.
But the initiatives have been controversial from the start. When FMCSA sought comments for an under-21 driver pilot proposal in 2020, 127 respondents favored it while 50 opposed. Supporters included the American Trucking Associations, the Commercial Vehicle Training Association and the National Retail Federation, which see apprenticeships as a way of addressing what they consider to be a chronic shortage of drivers.
Those opposing it included the National Transportation Safety Board and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. OOIDA has asserted that carriers’ inability to retain drivers has more to do with pay and working conditions as opposed to a driver shortage.
Opponents also focused on safety, noting that “younger drivers are more distracted and have higher rates of crashes,” FMCSA stated in addressing the comments filed on the 2020 proposal, which was never implemented.
FMCSA’s current pilot project, known as the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program (SDAP), was required by Congress as part of the 2021 infrastructure bill and is slated to continue through November 2025.
In an attempt to improve participation in SDAP, an appropriations bill signed by President Joe Biden last month removes two restrictions that had been part of the pilot program and which many saw as barriers to participation: requirements that trucks used in the program be equipped with inward-facing cameras and that motor carriers register their program with the Department of Labor.
ATA was a strong supporter of removing the restrictions, which was proposed by lawmakers in May 2023.
Last week, FMCSA sought emergency approval from the White House to begin collecting data for the program under the revised restrictions.
Jake Walters
I keep seeing all the comments how dangerous it could be to allow 18 year olds to drive trucks over the road, but I think people fail to realize that you can, and always have been able to get a cdl at age 18. You just can leave the state you are licensed in. I started driving truck at age 18 driving a tractor trailer pulling a 53’ flatbed hauling steel. I live in northwest PA and I typically ran steel to the Pittsburgh area everyday during the morning rush hour in downtown Pittsburgh. I also ran to Philadelphia and Harrisbugh which were a 2 day trip… at age 18! Here is the funny part about that… I could drive 350 miles east to Philly but I could not drive 50 miles west and go in to Ohio. How is unsafe to drive 50 miles west and leave the state but not unsafe to drive 350 miles west but stay in my state? No difference between being 18 or being 21. It’s all about training and the quality of people driving. It doesn’t matter if you are 16, 18, 21 or 45…in a car, in a truck or on a motorcycle…an unsafe driver is just an unsafe driver. I wasn’t just pulling a van trailer and running just interstates bumping docks either. 53’ flatbed in down towns of big cities during rush hour hauling 45k steel coils and ingots, rebar, steel beams, big equipment and even oversized loads. No issues, no citations, no bad inspections and no accidents. Train the right people who take the job and safety seriously and age has nothing to do with it. Just my thoughts.
Charles Lemmel
Started driving while in the military. Was barely 18. Stop with the handwringing nonsense. Drivers that have been out here around the 10 year mark are the most dangerous drivers by far.
Richard
Fundamentally, insurance companies drive the economy and create the problems that require insurance, let’s give young nieve people guns, semi trucks, contractual rights by the time they are mature enough they will be in over crowded prisons not even dreamt of being built. First the insurance companies open the doors then they flood the market with anyone with dreams, then they fuel the fire with incidents, and because without lawyers insurance becomes paramount and lucrative. ITS NOT PERSONAL it’s BUSINESS it’s atrocious should be criminalized and politicians lobbyist lawyers and insurance companies sent to jail for treason against humanity
Carl Covington
Forcing truck drivers to buy electric vehicles, allowing California to make their own rules, companies not paying drivers what they earn, which forcing many to quit, government heavy handed rules.
Mike
The thought of this program is a good idea in general. However, most insurance carriers require drivers to be 23 years old with 2 years of OTR experience. Some insurance carriers are now up-charging the carrier for a driver they hire that had a speeding ticket 7 years ago. And by Up-Charging I mean several thousand dollars more in premiums for them to hire that driver. So this obviously creates a barrier to the program. The insurance industry is driving the trucking industry, mainly because lawsuits are out of control for CMV accidents; whether the carrier is at fault or not. Now put a 20 year old kid behind the wheel, with no experience, they have an accident and now the lawsuit is even higher. The insurers are not going to allow it.
In addition, with the current environment, carriers are struggling to even make a profit. This leads to driver turnover; especially when you have leased owner operators. It wont matter how old the driver is in the truck, if drivers cant pay their bills (because freight rates are so low & Fuel prices are so high), they are not going to continue to work 70 hours a week. They will eventually move on to a job where they can be home every night. This is another cause for the “Driver Shortage”.
Michele Adams
I was an intrastate driver at 19 and interstate at 21 and have a perfect safety record. I’ve also trained my daughter at 16 (she’s now 19) using a 200 hour commercial driver’s curriculum that I use to teach as an instructor, absent large vehicles since she is not interested in actually driving commercially. I went so far as to get her in a skate car for an hour. [I wish she would be interested in driving for a living, since she drives 200+ miles weekly “for fun”.] Despite this kind of mileage, she is the only among her peers who has a perfect record. I think there is something to learning at a professional level at a young age that is harder to pick up later. As I’ve expanded further into transportation, I’m impressed that in aviation pilots who start training younger than 21 have higher lifetime safety records than those who start after graduating college, typically at 22 or 23. Driving is a profession that should figure out how to accept apprenticeships; just whose insurance company wants to be the one to take it one, huh?
Gary Holfstra
There are several reasons no one is applying – the rules are to onerous and the paperwork is substantial. Removing these 2 requirements might help, especially the DOL registration, but I highly doubt it will have much of an impact. The real reason…getting an insurer to insure under-21s interstate as part of a pilot program…that’s not happening.
Albert Polzinski
I think safety and efficiency would be better served if truckers did not drive 11 hours with only a 30 minute break between.
Devoid from consideration are the hours weither the driver is driving in nighttime, or adverse conditions, how experienced the driver is.
Since the dollar is the driving factor here, time for the government to do the math. The higher weekly pay divided by a whopping 70 hour work week is evidence that by adding 10 more hours EQUALS TWO FULL TIME JOBS….divide that weekly salary by two (full time ) jobs, and the results prove that drivers are under paid, and require that many hours to pay bills.
Give carriers a tax incentive, that will likely (inspire more carriers), and increase drivers salary. There would be an influx of the required drivers to fill the gap by lessening the 11 hour drive time, promote safer roads and act inspirational for the trucking industry in dire need for increased profits while decreasing the exhausting 11 hour drive with only a 30 minute break.
Would you want to drive daily with fatigue
…do you want those tractor trailer driver to be driving fatigued because of being underpaid ?
Think of the fact that those trucks are on the road day and night in all weather, realize that next time one is driving near your vehicle, safety first…monitor the unnecessary hike in food supplier pricing and give the carriers, and drivers an incentive.