DRIVE Safe Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 659 To require the Secretary of Transportation to promulgate regulations relating to commercial motor vehicle drivers under the age of 21, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 10, 2021 Mr. YOUNG (for himself, Mr. TESTER, Mr. MORAN, Mr. MANCHIN, Mr. INHOFE, Mr. KING, Mr. COTTON, and Ms. SINEMA) introduced the fol- lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Com- merce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To require the Secretary of Transportation to promulgate regulations relating to commercial motor vehicle drivers under the age of 21, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Developing Respon- 4 sible Individuals for a Vibrant Economy Act’’ or the 5 ‘‘DRIVE Safe Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 659 IS SEC. 2. APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM FOR COMMERCIAL 1 DRIVERS UNDER THE AGE OF 21. 2 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 3 (1) APPRENTICE.—The term ‘‘apprentice’’ 4 means an employee under the age of 21 who holds 5 a commercial driver’s license required to operate a 6 class of vehicles described in part 383 of title 49, 7 Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 8 date of enactment of this Act). 9 (2) COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSE.—The 10 term ‘‘commercial driver’s license’’ has the meaning 11 given the term in section 31301 of title 49, United 12 States Code. 13 (3) COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE.—The term 14 ‘‘commercial motor vehicle’’ means a commercial 15 motor vehicle that meets the definition under para- 16 graph (1) or (4) of the definition of the term ‘‘com- 17 mercial motor vehicle’’ contained in section 390.5 of 18 title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 19 the date of enactment of this Act). 20 (4) DRIVING TIME.—The term ‘‘driving time’’ 21 has the meaning given the term in section 395.2 of 22 title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 23 the date of enactment of this Act). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 659 IS (5) EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘employee’’ has the 1 meaning given the term in section 31132 of title 49, 2 United States Code. 3 (6) EMPLOYER.—The term ‘‘employer’’ has the 4 meaning given the term in section 31132 of title 49, 5 United States Code. 6 (7) EXPERIENCED DRIVER.—The term ‘‘experi- 7 enced driver’’ means an individual who— 8 (A) is not younger than 21 years of age; 9 (B) has a minimum of 2 years of experi- 10 ence driving a commercial motor vehicle in 11 interstate commerce; and 12 (C) as of the date on which the individual 13 serves as an experienced driver for purposes of 14 subsection (c)(3)(B)— 15 (i) has held a commercial driver’s li- 16 cense for each of the 2 preceding calendar 17 years; and 18 (ii) for the preceding calendar year, 19 has had no— 20 (I) preventable accidents report- 21 able to the Department of Transpor- 22 tation; or 23 (II) pointed moving violations. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 659 IS (8) ON-DUTY TIME.—The term ‘‘on-duty time’’ 1 has the meaning given the term in section 395.2 of 2 title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 3 the date of enactment of this Act). 4 (9) POINTED MOVING VIOLATION.—The term 5 ‘‘pointed moving violation’’ means a violation that 6 results in points being added to the license of a driv- 7 er, or a similar comparable violation, as determined 8 by the Secretary. 9 (10) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 10 means the Secretary of Transportation. 11 (b) APPRENTICES.—An apprentice may— 12 (1) drive a commercial motor vehicle in inter- 13 state commerce while participating in the 120-hour 14 probationary period under subsection (c)(1) or the 15 280-hour probationary period under subsection 16 (c)(2), pursuant to an apprenticeship program estab- 17 lished by an employer in accordance with this sec- 18 tion; and 19 (2) drive a commercial motor vehicle in inter- 20 state commerce after the apprentice completes an 21 apprenticeship program described in subsection (c). 22 (c) APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM.—An apprenticeship 23 program referred to in subsection (b) is a program that 24 consists of the following requirements: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 659 IS (1) 120-HOUR PROBATIONARY PERIOD.— 1 (A) IN GENERAL.—An apprentice shall 2 complete 120 hours of on-duty time, of which 3 not fewer than 80 hours shall be driving time 4 in a commercial motor vehicle. 5 (B) PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS.—To 6 complete the 120-hour probationary period 7 under subparagraph (A), the employer of an ap- 8 prentice shall determine that the apprentice is 9 competent in each of the following areas: 10 (i) Interstate, city traffic, rural 2- 11 lane, and evening driving. 12 (ii) Safety awareness. 13 (iii) Speed and space management. 14 (iv) Lane control. 15 (v) Mirror scanning. 16 (vi) Right and left turns. 17 (vii) Logging and complying with 18 rules relating to hours of service. 19 (2) 280-HOUR PROBATIONARY PERIOD.— 20 (A) IN GENERAL.—After completing the 21 120-hour probationary period under paragraph 22 (1), an apprentice shall complete 280 hours of 23 on-duty time, of which not fewer than 160 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 659 IS hours shall be driving time in a commercial 1 motor vehicle. 2 (B) PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS.—To 3 complete the 280-hour probationary period 4 under subparagraph (A), the employer of an ap- 5 prentice shall determine that the apprentice is 6 competent in each of the following areas: 7 (i) Backing and maneuvering in close 8 quarters. 9 (ii) Pretrip inspections. 10 (iii) Fueling procedures. 11 (iv) Weighing loads, weight distribu- 12 tion, and sliding tandems. 13 (v) Coupling and uncoupling proce- 14 dures. 15 (vi) Trip planning, truck routes, map 16 reading, navigation, and permits. 17 (3) RESTRICTIONS.—During each probationary 18 period under paragraphs (1) and (2)— 19 (A) an apprentice may only drive a com- 20 mercial motor vehicle that has— 21 (i) an automatic manual or automatic 22 transmission; 23 (ii) an active braking collision mitiga- 24 tion system; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 659 IS (iii) forward-facing video event cap- 1 ture; and 2 (iv) a governed speed of 65 miles per 3 hour— 4 (I) at the pedal; and 5 (II) under adaptive cruise con- 6 trol; and 7 (B) an apprentice shall be accompanied in 8 the cab of the commercial motor vehicle by an 9 experienced driver. 10 (4) RECORDS RETENTION.—An employer shall 11 maintain records, in a manner required by the Sec- 12 retary, relating to the satisfaction of the perform- 13 ance benchmarks described in paragraphs (1)(B) 14 and (2)(B) by each apprentice of the employer. 15 (5) REPORTABLE INCIDENTS.—If an apprentice 16 is involved in a preventable accident reportable to 17 the Department of Transportation or a pointed mov- 18 ing violation while driving a commercial motor vehi- 19 cle as part of an apprenticeship program described 20 in this subsection, the apprentice shall undergo re- 21 mediation and additional training until the appren- 22 tice can demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the em- 23 ployer, competence in each of the performance 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 659 IS benchmarks described in paragraphs (1)(B) and 1 (2)(B). 2 (6) COMPLETION OF PROGRAM.—An apprentice 3 shall be considered to have completed an apprentice- 4 ship program on the date on which the apprentice 5 completes the 280-hour probationary period under 6 paragraph (2). 7 (7) MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS.— 8 (A) IN GENERAL.—Nothing in this section 9 prevents an employer from imposing any addi- 10 tional requirement on an apprentice partici- 11 pating in an apprenticeship program under this 12 section. 13 (B) TECHNOLOGIES.—Nothing in this sec- 14 tion prevents an employer from requiring or in- 15 stalling a technology in a commercial motor ve- 16 hicle in addition to the technologies described in 17 paragraph (3)(A). 18 (d) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 19 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall promul- 20 gate regulations to implement this section. 21 (e) NO EFFECT ON LICENSE REQUIREMENT.—Noth- 22 ing in this section exempts an apprentice from any re- 23 quirement to hold a commercial driver’s license in order 24 to operate a commercial motor vehicle. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 659 IS (f) EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY.—An employer shall 1 not knowingly allow, require, permit, or authorize a driver 2 under the age of 21 to operate a commercial motor vehicle 3 in interstate commerce, unless the driver is participating 4 in, or has completed, an apprenticeship program that 5 meets the requirements of subsection (c). 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Apr 04, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S659.IS S659 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS