Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado, recently signed into law a bill that will open interstate trucking opportunities to people between the ages of 18 and 21—as soon as federal law will allow.
The legislation authorizes the state Department of Revenue to adopt rules that would allow 18-to-21-year-olds to participate in interstate commerce as long as they hold a commercial drivers license (CDL) and is permitted by federal law.
Senator Ray Scott, one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said, “A whole lot of people come out of high school these days and they don’t have the funding to go to college [or] they don’t want to go to college. They want to start a trade and truck driving is kind of a cool trade. They want to get trained and start driving at 18 years old and they can’t do it. They pick another trade before they’re 21 and we’ve lost them.”
Additionally, Scott identified young veterans as a demographic that can potentially help address the driver shortage.
He adds, “You’ve got a 19-year-old who comes out of the United States Army who’s been trained and qualified but tries to go work for a trucking company and he’s told ‘Sorry, we’d love to have you, but…’”
