An apprenticeship program being developed by the federal government and trucking industry leaders holds promise to help relieve supply-chain backlogs.

The program, detailed by an Associated Press article, would allow 18-, 19- and 20-year-old truck drivers to cross state lines.

The program has a number of safety provisions, including requirements that the trucks have some of the latest safety features such as an electronic braking crash mitigation system, that drivers receive an additional 400 hours of advanced training and that an older mentor ride along on multi-state trips.

As Nick Geale, vice president of workforce safety for trucking groups, told the AP, 49 states and Washington, D.C., already allow 18-year-old truckers.

Allowing those very same truckers, with additional safety precautions, to cross state lines is neither a radical idea nor an inherently dangerous one.

The proposal also is a pilot program.

Its critics will have ample opportunities to review the data and, if warranted, make changes.

In the meantime, the program can help alleviate bottlenecks in shipping and the supply chain.

We believe the immediate benefits of the proposal, coupled with the opportunity to jettison it if officials find it unsafe — a frankly unlikely outcome given, again, that 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds already can drive semi-trucks in 49 states — makes it a necessary step to take.