Last week NAAA submitted comments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in support of expanding a pilot program that allows commercial drivers between the ages of 18 and 20 to participate in interstate commerce. The current pilot program only allows drivers between the ages of 18 and 20 to participate in the pilot program if they have a military background.

NAAA and several other trucking and agriculture groups submitted comments supporting the expansion of the program to allow drivers under 21 without military training to participate as well in order to get a more statistically significant sample of drivers. If the pilot program shows allowing commercial drivers under 21 to participate in interstate commerce has no negative impact on public safety, the driver age could be lowered to 18 nationwide, expanding the pool of workers for and industry experiencing a severe worker shortage.

NAAA’s comments explained pests do not take a break from devastating a farmer’s crops simply because a commercial driver isn’t available to supply an aerial applicator with the tools they need to quickly and efficiently eradicate pests.

The comments also explained the variety of ways commercial motor vehicles support agricultural aviation operations, including the transport of pesticides, fertilizers, spray adjuvants, seed, fuel, water, finished spray solution, aircraft engines and other large aircraft parts, and helicopters for those operations that utilize them. Since many agricultural aviation operations operate across state lines, these drivers operate both intrastate and interstate. 

You can read NAAA’s full comments here.