Peoria Charter hiring younger drivers to help workforce
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — One Central Illinois bus company is moving to get younger people behind the wheel.
Peoria Charter drives hundreds of people around the state each week. Recently, they switched the age limit for drivers from 25 to 23, attempting to rev up their workforce. The company says they’ve had a hard time finding enough drivers.
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University of Illinois student Josh Chu is now working toward his CDL, and said when they dropped the age limit, it was a no-brainer to work towards driving for the company.
“I’m still able to clock in 40-plus hours pretty consistently throughout the last couple of months, so I found it a lot more manageable,” he said. “But sometimes I do have to focus on school, obviously, because I do want to finish my education before fully committing.”
He said he was inspired to get behind the wheel after a friend got his CDL. Chu started as a luggage loader for Peoria Charter to make extra money and will be able to start driving others around in a couple months once he earns his license.
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