The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s pilot program to allow 18- to 20-year-olds service members with heavy-vehicle driver training to operate commercial motor vehicles might expand the Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) classifications to open the program to a wider pool of candidates.

As part of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the pilot program was implemented to increase the number of truck drivers by providing service members the opportunity to transition to commercial driving jobs, as long as they are not transporting passengers or hazardous cargo, or operating a vehicle in a “special configuration.”

The seven original MOS classifications approved for the pilot program in July 2018 included:

• 88M Motor Transport Operator (Army)

• 92F Fueler (Army)

• 3531 Motor Vehicle Operator (Marines)

• E.O. Equipment Operator (Navy)

• 2TI Vehicle Operator (Air Force)

• 2FO Fueler (Air Force)

• 3E2 Pavement and Construction Equipment Operator (Air Force)

FMCSA is proposing to expand the list of eligible classifications to include:

• 12B Combat Engineer (Army)

• 13B Field Artillery (Army)

• 13P Multiple Launch Rocket System (Army)

• 88H Transportation Cargo (Army)

• 14T Patriot Launching Station Operator (Army)

• 3537 After 3531 achieves the rank of SSgt (Marine Corps)

• 0811 Field Artillery Cannoneer (Marine Corps)

• 1371 Combat Engineer (Marine Corps)

• 1345 Engineer Equipment Operator (Marine Corps)

FMCSA is now requesting comments on the possibility of including the additional MOS classifications, which are due on or before November 9, 2020.