Proposal to Lower Age to Drive Big Rigs

* Your Feb. 23 editorial, “Kids Driving Big Rigs--No Kidding,” mentions that “Washington justifies the federal pilot program by citing a shortage of truckers.” There is no shortage of truckers; the number of drivers with a commercial license is at an all-time high. The problem is that there is a shortage of drivers willing to work in today’s workplace.

Trucking companies are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Since the industry was deregulated in 1979, the Teamsters Union has all but disappeared from the cabs of heavy trucks, leaving a work force that has no minimum wage and is unprotected by collective bargaining. Honest carriers are forced to set their rates to match the other carriers that are only too willing to take full advantage of these exemptions, leaving the drivers to drive unlawfully long hours to feed and clothe their families. These are not conditions that promote safe transportation, and adding 18-year-olds to the mix will not make it better. The solution to the shortage is in eliminating the labor-law exemption, thereby giving all truckers legal wage protection.

BILL STECK

Bakersfield

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The Times finds it ridiculous that the trucking industry should try to solve its driver recruiting problem by getting the feds to lower the interstate truck driving age to 18. I don’t recall, however, any Times editorials decrying the fact that the government solves its military recruitment problem by hiring 18-year-olds to defend the country. We are a most hypocritical nation when it comes to defining “adulthood.” It’s OK to fight and die for your country at age 18 but not to buy a can of beer or, as The Times would have it, drive a civilian 18-wheeler.

Recently, the skipper of an aircraft carrier visiting Santa Barbara reminded members of the press that his ship was run by teenagers. The guys who fly the planes aren’t teenagers, but ask them what they think about the maturity and soundness of judgment of all the teenagers who repair their airplanes and get them ready for missions. But perhaps that’s why The Times is so reluctant to let 18-year-olds drive big trucks; maybe all the ones who can be trusted to act responsibly are in the service of their country.

LOU EINUNG

Santa Maria