The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and 13 other organizations recently sent a letter to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure to oppose bills that would lower the age limit from 21 to 18 for obtaining an interstate commercial drivers license (CDL).
“This has been tried before and no one with any common sense thought it was a good idea,” Todd Spencer, OOIDA CEO and acting president, said. “Nothing has changed since that time and no disruptions have ever taken place due to any perceived shortage of drivers. These latest efforts are just more ways to keep driver-churn going and keep wages as low as possible.”
The proposal has been made to address a perceived drivers shortage in the trucking industry. OOIDA said the shortage is a myth and that the real problem is high turnover in the industry. Large carriers have turnover rates of more than 100 percent. This means carriers must completely replace their staff on an annual basis in order to continue to operate.
The American Trucking Associations projected a drivers shortage of 150,000 between 2017 and 2027 during testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. However, OOIDA presented figures reported by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that expect there will be 449,000 applications for CDLs during the same timeframe.