Freedom Haulers won’t fix the truck driver shortage that Trump helped worsen

With more than two million truck driving jobs and a growing demand to replace departing workers, the industry requires a steady supply of qualified drivers to move goods across the country. Last week, Trump’s Department of Transportation launched the Freedom Haulers Initiative to encourage veterans and military spouses to pursue trucking careers. Helping qualified veterans by removing unnecessary licensing barriers is a sensible goal.

Yet there is an irony at the center of this effort. The administration is recruiting truck drivers after adopting a commercial driver license (CDL) rule that will likely shrink the truck driver pool by far more than Freedom Haulers can expand it. More broadly, it raises concerns about whether Washington should determine which careers workers should pursue.

Freedom Haulers deserves credit for addressing a real regulatory problem: veterans with relevant driving experience should not have to jump through unnecessary hoops to obtain civilian credentials. The initiative’s expansion of the Military Skills Test Waiver from one year to two years and its broader use of the Even Exchange program make it easier for qualified service members to apply existing skills in the civilian workforce.

These reforms are worthwhile because they reduce government-created barriers, thereby making it easier for qualified workers to enter the labor market. But there is a difference between removing barriers for veterans who choose trucking and additionally using taxpayer-backed programs, including GI Bill-funded CDL training, Veterans Affairs (VA) employment programs, and federal recruitment efforts to steer more veterans toward the industry.

It remains unclear whether veteran recruitment can realistically address the scale of the trucking workforce challenge. This initiative mainly expands existing programs that historically reached a limited number of veterans.

The Military Skills Test Waiver Program shows both the promise and limitations of this approach. Since its creation in 2011, more than 40,000 service members and veterans have used the program to apply military driving experience toward civilian licensing requirements. While noteworthy, it also reveals the limits of relying on veteran recruitment to solve a large labor shortage. Over roughly 15 years, the program has reached fewer veterans than the estimated 194,000 drivers affected by the administration’s CDL rule.

Other programs highlighted by Freedom Haulers, including Veterans Readiness and Employment and On-the-Job Training, face a similar limitation. These programs help veterans obtain employment and training across a wide range of fields. But they are not designed to create a dedicated pipeline of truck drivers.

Nor can the government simply draw from the broader population of unemployed veterans. Roughly 294,000 veterans are unemployed, but that does not mean they are qualified to become truck drivers or interested in pursuing the occupation. Many lack commercial driving experience, do not meet the requirements for operating heavy vehicles, or may have career goals outside of trucking.

Even a small fraction of that population entering the industry would not be enough to replace the drivers affected by the CDL rule, let alone address the industry’s existing shortage.

Even if Freedom Haulers can meaningfully expand the trucking workforce, it raises a broader question about whether federal transportation policy should attempt to solve trucking workforce challenges by steering workers toward the industry. Removing unnecessary barriers is one thing. Using government resources to promote a particular occupation is another.

Individuals and employers are better positioned than policymakers to determine where skills are most valuable because they have better information about individual skills, preferences, and opportunities available in different industries. Veterans possess diverse skills that can translate into careers across the economy, and they should be free to choose the path that best matches their interests and goals.

The limits of government-directed career planning become clearer as autonomous trucking technology advances. Although the timeline for widespread adoption remains uncertain, the industry is likely to undergo significant changes as automation develops. Research on automated vehicle platooning, including from former CEI Senior Fellow Marc Scribner, highlights how emerging technologies could reshape freight transportation and why policymakers should account for technological change when making long-term decisions.

That does not mean veterans who enter trucking today will immediately see their jobs disappear. It does mean policymakers should be cautious about directing workers toward an occupation that is poised to undergo significant technological change. Workers and employers are better positioned to weigh those evolving opportunities and risks than federal workforce planners.

Freedom Haulers’ deregulatory elements are welcome, but they are only part of a broader federal effort to manage the trucking workforce. The government should not make it harder for qualified workers to enter an industry and then launch programs to address the resulting workforce challenges. The better approach is for Washington to remove unnecessary barriers to commercial driving, preserve individual choice, and allow the trucking industry and workers to respond to changing market conditions.