RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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An Army veteran and trucking company executive who attended President Donald Trump's Wednesday announcement about a new initiative called "Freedom Haulers" at the White House praised the new plan to provide a boost to the industry.
"I came down here to support the cause of getting into an industry that is always in need," said Tom Jacques, the director of Department of Transportation (DOT) compliance at Waste Management. Jacques is also the chairman of the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Motor Trucking Association.
Jacques, whose biography says he enlisted in the Army and joined the 3rd U.S. Infantry as an escort to the President, called the plan "wonderful."
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"It's wonderful to get skilled workers who are disciplined [and] dedicated into an industry that requires discipline and dedication," Jacques told Fox News Digital at the White House. "You don't get behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer — 80,000 pounds — without understanding the need to be disciplined and to be safe. So it's nice to have that, to tap into a large workforce as they transition out of the military and into the next career field."
Under the initiative, qualified veterans with heavy-vehicle experience gained during military service can apply to waive the CDL road-skills test , allowing them to avoid duplicating training they received in the military.
Certain veterans in participating states — 34 of them so far — may also qualify for a waiver of the written knowledge test . Veterans without military truck-driving experience will be eligible for expedited training that administration officials said could be completed in several weeks.
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"Data shows that truck drivers who are veterans account for 42% fewer accidents. Think of that, 42%," Trump said at the event. "And that number, they say, is their very minimal number, even as they drive double the number of miles of non-veteran drivers."
Jacques said the trucking industry is always in need of new drivers, and discussed the important role that truckers play in the everyday lives of Americans.
"If you take a look at the trucking industry, the behind the scenes, that's what gets the commodities where they're at," he said.
He also noted that during COVID-19, when non-essential workers were furloughed and much of America worked from home, truckers didn't have that option. Americans depended upon their work in order to have access to necessities, otherwise the country could have "shut down," he said.
"There's no shortage of positions for truck drivers," said Jacques. "It's an aging workforce. It's something that people need to understand that we've got to be continually replenishing that workforce, and [it's] a great opportunity getting our veterans ... into a good, highly-paying job right out of the service. It's going to be really nice to see more service members behind the wheel."
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That truckers are paid well is a fact not lost on Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who also spoke at Wednesday's event.
"These are great paying jobs. They're anywhere from $80 to $100,000 plus a year," he said. "And it's important because you have men and women who drove big rigs in the military who would then get out and have to go through a months-long training for their skills and their knowledge test to drive this vehicle over here."
The initiative has another component — getting illegal alien truck drivers off the roads.
"For many years, American highways and roadways have been terrorized by unqualified illegal aliens dangerously driving big rigs," Trump said, pointing out that many illegal alien drivers can't speak English or read the road signs. "You have to have a talent for it, and these people don't have that. They're driving big rigs, semi trucks and tractor trailers, all because radical left maniacs at the state level have issued them commercial driver's licenses, even though they're not entitled to have them."
He said that last year alone, at least 30 Americans were killed at the hands of illegal alien truck drivers, and that 24,000 illegal aliens drivers have already been taken off the streets.
"So to end this, very simply, the radical left wants more jobs for illegal aliens and more migrants in 18-wheelers, Trump said. "And the Trump administration wants safer roads and more jobs for the American veteran."
Fox News Digital's Brittany Miller contributed to this report.
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