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Lawmakers hear support for an 18-year-old trucker bill at Duluth roundtable

Two Midwestern members of Congress received positive feedback on the proposed 18-year-old interstate truck driving rule change. Minnesota’s Ben Stauber and Wisconsin’s Tom Tiffany recently held a roundtable discussion on supply chain issues in Duluth, where many agricultural and industrial products move by truck, rail, and ocean-going vessels.

Tiffany says the current law requiring drivers to be 21 to cross state lines needs to be changed. “You could drive a truck intrastate from like, say Milwaukee to Superior at 18 years of age, but you can’t drive from Superior to Duluth which is right across the bridge. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Tiffany tells Brownfield there is a shortage of truck drivers, and if a driver is over 18 and has the appropriate training, that driver should be allowed to drive in any state.  He says more driver training was brought up by roundtable participants. “One of the members at the roundtable is really encouraging our technical schools to get more aggressive on having more driver training programs and I think that is an excellent avenue that may be successful.”

The recently-passed infrastructure law includes an apprenticeship program for 18-20 year-old drivers.  Tiffany supports opening interstate driving to all properly trained drivers over 18.