GRADUATED CDL: A TOOL TO LESSEN DRIVER SHORTAGE?


BY STEVE BRAWNER Contributing Writer


If Americans under age 21 can be trust-


ed to drive a tank in Iraq, can they be trusted to drive an 80,000-pound truck 40 miles from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.? That’s a question many in the motor carrier industry are hoping to answer, with gradu- ated commercial driver’s licenses potential- ly providing a clue. Current law limits drivers ages 18-20 to


intrastate driving in the lower 48 states. Graduated CDLs would allow them to dem- onstrate that they are capable of driving across state lines by letting them start with limited responsibilities that let them prove their roadworthiness. The idea is included in the Developing a


Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy (DRIVE) Act, the bill funding U.S. highways which has passed in the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House version, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act, has passed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee but had not gone to the full House by press time. The two bills present very different


visions for how a graduated CDL would work. The DRIVE Act would create a six- year pilot program where the Department of Transportation could study the issue by approving as many as three compacts con- taining no more than four states each. Drivers could travel no more than 100 air miles from their home state. They could not drive special configurations such as double trailers, and they could not haul


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