On June 9, the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines, and Safety held a hearing titled “The Need for Speed: How Technological Advances Are Driving Transportation Innovation.” For CVTA-member schools, the discussion that followed was directly relevant.
As the freight industry enters an early adoption phase of autonomous and connected vehicle technology, the professional driver and the training pipeline that produces them sits at the center of every policy question Congress is sorting through.
Chaired by Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) with Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI), the hearing featured testimony from the American Trucking Associations, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Association of American Railroads and ITS America.
Autonomous commercial vehicles dominated much of the discussion. So did the question of what happens to the workforce that trains, operates, and maintains them.
Sen. Young framed autonomous technology as both a safety and a supply-chain opportunity saying, “In addition to safety, AVs can better secure supply chains while taking strain away from workers who often drive countless hours to meet deadlines.”
ATA President and CEO Chris Spear directly pushed back against the notion that automation eliminates the driver.
“Gradual integration of automated systems into the driving profession will mean an evolution, not an elimination, of the job, and will almost certainly boost both safety and operational productivity,” he testified, adding that drivers “will always play a crucial and necessary role in the logistics system that includes automated trucks.”
That framing tracks with what CVTA member schools see every day: Demand for trained, qualified drivers is not going away.
Teamsters’ Deputy Director Cole Scandaglia cautioned that Congress must not ignore the economic stakes of mass AV deployment, noting that “the single most common occupation for men in the United States without a college degree is truck drivers and driver/sales workers.”
His testimony made clear that any federal framework must account for the millions of jobs tied to commercial driving, not just the technology itself. That makes the training pipeline that produces those drivers central to every policy decision Congress is weighing right now, and CVTA will be engaged as that work moves forward.
Several pieces of legislation that carry direct CVTA priorities came up during the hearing:
BUILD America 250 Act: Would establish the first federal framework for autonomous commercial vehicles, including performance-based safety standards and DOT authority to preempt conflicting state laws. Critically for CVTA, the bill includes an explicit workforce development program for the future CMV workforce and extends the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Program through FY 2031.
SAFER Transport Act (Sen. Young): Strengthens DOT and FMCSA tools to detect freight fraud, combat cargo theft, and root out chameleon carriers. CVTA is a named supporter of this legislation, which also takes direct aim at sham training schools that have undermined CDL program integrity.
The decisions Congress makes in the months ahead on autonomous vehicles, workforce development, and CDL program integrity will shape the training landscape for years. CVTA will be there to make sure our schools are part of that conversation.
Click here to watch the June 9 committee hearing.
This story was originally published on CVTA’s blog. Republished with permission.
The Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA) is the largest association representing commercial truck driver training programs in the United States. CVTA Members represent 100 training providers with 400 locations in 46 states.
