Pennsylvania resolution calls for truck drivers under age 21 to haul interstate

A Pennsylvania Senate panel has voted to advance a resolution that targets what is touted to be a truck driver shortage.

Research from the OOIDA Foundation, however, shows that while large motor carriers have stated that the trucking industry is plagued with chronic driver shortage, “real-world facts have demonstrated there are more trucks on the road than there is freight to haul.”

Senate Resolution 258

The Pennsylvania Senate Transportation Committee voted 9-5 along party lines to advance a resolution that urges the U.S. Congress to “pursue legislative remedies” that allow individuals between 18 and 20 years old with commercial driver’s licenses to haul interstate. The non-binding resolution is backed by the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association.

A memo attached to the resolution, SR258, states that the nation is facing a shortage of nearly 78,000 drivers. Sen. Greg Rothman, R-Mechanicsburg, wrote “the shortage is only expected to increase.”

Rothman has said the current federal rules are “arbitrary and are contributing to driver shortages, shipping delays and higher prices for consumers.”

“We have well-trained CDL drivers who are safely and successfully driving across Pennsylvania, from Erie to Philadelphia and back – but are prohibited from driving the same truck with the same load across the state line,” Rothman told the committee.

“It is 429 miles from the furthest point in Pennsylvania above Erie down to southeast Pennsylvania,” Rothman added. “An 18-year-old CDL truck driver can drive that route, but they can’t drive the extra mile into New Jersey or the extra mile from Adams County into Maryland or the extra mile from western PA into West Virginia, because it violates the federal rule on operating a CDL license. You have to be 21. So, this resolution urges Congress to fix this.”

His resolution states that “the federal prohibition on CDL drivers under 21 years of age operating in interstate commerce limits the number of jobs that are available to young drivers to grow their skills in the trucking industry.” He noted that as a result, the limitation “often forces them to follow other career paths at a time when they are making critical decisions about their future.”

SR258 awaits possible consideration on the Senate floor.

No such thing as a truck driver shortage

Michael Belzer, economics professor at Wayne State University, has studied the trucking industry for more than 25 years.

Belzer said there is not a truck driver shortage.

“There isn’t any such thing as a driver shortage. There is a recruitment and retention problem,” Belzer said. “That’s because at the margin, people decide, ‘Is it worth it to get the CDL to work that hard if I’m not making any money?’ A very rational decision on the part of the drivers is to quit, do something else. So we lose all those people. This thing has been upside down for decades, and it’s time to turn this truck right-side up, with the dirty side down where it belongs.” LL

Land Line Associate Editor Tyson Fisher contributed to this report.

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