As of July 26, 2022, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration allowed carriers to register and participate in the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program, a combined effort with the Department of Labor that acts on the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's mandate to explore allowing younger drivers to operate interstate.
The FMCSA proposed such a program as far back as September 2020, and now its time has come. Under the pilot program, carriers can register as apprenticeships with the DOL and recruit under-21 drivers to drive commercial vehicles interstate.
The program seeks to provide the trucking industry with access to a younger driver pool, and allows drivers under the age of 21 to operate beyond state lines while keeping safety in focus by requiring specific training actions, supervision, and reporting.
While the program seeks to attract a diverse group of participants from small, medium and large trucking companies, it does require carriers to overcome some administrative hurdles, which only carriers in very good standing can overcome. There's also staffing and equipment requirements, so without an experienced driver who is game to do some training on hand, driver-facing cameras and automated transmissions, carriers can't participate.
[Related: DRIVE Safe Act becomes law: Here's what motor carriers need to know]
Carriers who go through the steps and become a recognized apprenticeship program will gain access to an outperforming group of workers and potentially tax credits as well. And, if a carrier does recruit an apprentice driver to the program, that apprentice driver is – for a variety of reasons, both structural to the law and incidental – more likely to stick with the carrier until the completion of the program, which could be as late as July 2025.
