Congress lowers trucking age to 18 via employer-run apprenticeship
H.R. 5563 — DRIVE-SAFE Act · Filed by Rick Crawford (R-AR) · 31 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 26, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a federally structured apprenticeship program allowing drivers under 21 to operate commercial trucks in interstate commerce, provided they complete 400 hours of supervised driving (120 hours initial, then 280 hours) with an experienced driver (age 26+) in a vehicle equipped with automatic transmission, collision mitigation, and video recording. Employers must document competency in specific driving tasks; any accident or violation triggers retraining. The bill lowers the current federal minimum age for interstate commercial driving from 21 to potentially 18 (via apprenticeship), benefiting trucking companies seeking younger drivers while imposing safety requirements.
Why we flagged it
The bill's primary mechanism is to lower the age floor for interstate commercial driving by creating an apprenticeship carve-out, a labor-market deregulation. The safety requirements (supervised hours, vehicle tech, competency benchmarks) are genuine but secondary—they are conditions on the deregulation, not its purpose.
What the text implies
- Employer discretion over competency assessment creates potential for inconsistent safety standards; no independent auditing or federal certification of 'experienced drivers' or employer judgment is mandated.
- The bill does not establish wage floors, hour limits, or worker protections specific to apprentices—existing DOT hours-of-service rules apply, but no apprentice-specific safeguards are added.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
trucking companies and freight carriers (access to younger, potentially lower-cost labor); commercial vehicle manufacturers (increased demand for vehicles with mandated safety tech); fleet safety technology vendors (collision mitigation, video event capture systems)