Comments about the trucking industry

I’m tired of tariffs.

It’s not that they’re everywhere; it’s that everyone (at least our largest national windbags, working, law-making and lobbying out of our nation’s capital) is talking about the ones Mexico put on some U.S. goods when we decided not to let their trucks run rampant on our roads.

Let’s look at the chief argument they’re using against the U.S., the main argument for imposing tariffs on some American goods: NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

They say NAFTA means the border must be opened. But NAFTA says specifically that the U.S. doesn’t just have to open the border.

It says the U.S. has the right to impose on any truck and trucker operating within its borders the same regulations and requirements it puts on its own trucks and truckers.

In fact, the treaty even says the U.S. can impose stricter limits in some cases.

So a certain Mexican official – who recently spoke out to say the border must open wide – is absolutely wrong. The tariffs are illegal, period.

Should we impose our own tariffs? Well, that would be justified, I think. But it’s not really the answer. We should be insisting that Mexico remove theirs, not just playing tit for tat.

What’s really irritating here is that we have a person who is supposed to point these things out, who is supposed to represent U.S. interests in cases like this.

His name is Ron Kirk, and he’s the current U.S. Trade Representative.

However, Mr. Kirk is not representing his nation, or its citizens, right now. Like his predecessor in the Bush administration, President Obama’s trade rep is instead pushing the agenda of Mexico, pushing to open the border even if it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, even if the U.S. is under NO obligation to open the border under existing circumstances.

Mexico does not have the same regulations. They do not have the same equipment, driver training, drug testing, hours of service, hazmat requirements, TWIC cards or any other thing U.S. drivers have to deal with. None of it burdens them; none of it runs up their expenses as it does for you.

That’s not fair or free trade. That is the U.S. government caving in to a foreign interest and helping them while hurting U.S. citizens.

OOIDA had a call to action just a short time ago about this.

We urged all of you to call your members of Congress, to call and write the U.S. trade representative, to call and write the U.S. Department of Commerce, to call and write the U.S. transportation secretary, to call and write the FMCSA.

It’s time to take action, people. It’s time to make those calls and write those letters.

We need to act now, or the huge multinational corporations, who could give a damn less about America or its citizens, will win this round, the border will be opened, and American truckers will be damaged forever.

Make that call today.

by Mark Reddig

 When the Bush administration threw the border open to a select group of Mexico-based domiciled motor carriers in 2008, the screaming commenced.

 Every argument under the sun against the program was tossed to the side and determined to be irrational, inflammatory or downright wrong.

Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and the program was shut down before any damage could be done. Now, the debate is brewing again.

 One argument that intrigued me was the potential loss of U.S. jobs and how the U.S. should not exercise “protectionism.” The free traders in the world said it was big, bad, evil wrong to even mention that U.S. jobs could be lost by opening the border to long-haul trucks from Mexico.

 “Free trade, it’s the only way to go. It makes all markets stronger,” was their basic argument.

 For argument’s sake, let’s try this on for size now that a wide sweeping, devastating recession has knocked the U.S. ego down a notch.

 Small and mid-size motor carriers sustained a serious blow. Those who lost their jobs in this mess would probably say it was more like a sucking chest wound.

There are families who are living on life support. Families have lost their homes (even though they didn’t have a gimmick mortgage). Families are struggling to feed kids; forget sending them to college. The far-reaching impact of this recession has yet to even be felt.

 Now, here we are, just starting to stand up – check that – sit up.

 And the debate over opening the border is brewing like Hurricane Katrina off the coast.

 It’s all because the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will not exercise rights given to the U.S. in the North American Free Trade Agreement to fight retaliatory tariffs (see more about that here), and we’re supposed to cower to Mexico and ship trucking jobs south of the border – all in the name of free trade, of course.

 Trucking is a leading economic indicator. When freight bounces back, you can bet jobs are right behind. When freight levels drop, see ya, steady paycheck.

 Here we are on the cusp of what most of us want to believe is the end to this hellish run, and we’re talking about opening the border.

 U.S. companies with operations right on the border will shut down the U.S. side and opt for locating in Mexico, where higher pay, taxes, workers’ rights, etc., are nonexistent.

 Then they can hire Mexican truckers who think 22 cents a mile is sweet.

 It’s not the fault of the Mexican citizens taking these jobs. It’s simply better than what they have. But we have to remember the effect this will have on U.S. truckers. Can we, as a country, afford to have taxpaying U.S. truckers losing their jobs?

 This recession knocked pay rates and benefits down for the blue-collar working folks. So much that people are doing what their ancestors did and are working extra jobs and fighting for a better day.

 So, it bears to ask the question now, when Mexico has made no efforts to fix the problems that ended the first cross-border program, why are we running with scissors and flirting with launching yet another dangerous program. One that will not only threaten highway safety, but U.S. jobs?

 I think the question deserves a real answer this time.

 Posted by Jami Jones

A while back, a trucker called our Listener Comment Line to tell us a story. He was at a truck stop, and heard a group of his fellow truck drivers griping about the state of things. Over and over, each one of them said that someone needed to stand up for truckers.

Our caller jumped in, saying there is someone – OOIDA.

And right away, the other truckers – the ones who were griping – proceeded to bad-mouth the association, saying OOIDA doesn’t do anything.

The day I ran his call on the air, I responded with just a few examples of what OOIDA has done very recently. Not even in the past year, but recently. And those were just the ones I could recall off the top of my head.

After I ran that list on the air, we had a number of calls from truckers asking that we publish it so they could pass out copies to other truckers. Here is exactly what I said OOIDA has done recently for truck drivers:

• Exposed a lousy ARC loan program by SBA that wasn’t helping truckers as required
• Worked with Congress and the Administration to stop the cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico;
• Got two split speed limits overturned, in Ohio and Illinois, working with other groups like Midwest Truckers;
• Secured grants and low-interest loans for truckers to purchase APUs or update their engines;
• Worked with lawmakers to secure a required pass-through of the fuel surcharges of Defense Department loads;
• Fought and stopped a proposed mandatory EOBR requirement for all truckers in the U.S. Senate;
• Assisted former Arrow truckers get help and accurate post-employment information after the carrier abruptly shut down, leaving hundreds under dispatch;
• Fought efforts to toll I-80 in Pennsylvania;
• Helped find stolen trucks through TRACER;
• Exposed and sued over the Minnesota Fatigued Driver Evaluation Checklist;
• Discovered and sued over Minnesota’s lack of authority to issue any ticket based on federal trucking regulations;
• Continued to fight efforts to allow larger, heavier trucks on all roads all the time;
• Pushed for and sued for more and better driver training – which due to those efforts is now in the rulemaking process;
• Collected millions of dollars owed truckers by state governments, carriers and others, and put that money back in truckers’ hands;
• Raised funds to send care packages to our troops overseas, nearly all of whom are either truckers themselves or the husbands, wives, sons and daughters of truckers;

And again, folks, those are just a few of the recent things the association has done.

Earlier, I offered another list – a list of what the association does for company drivers. That’s an important part of what we do for our members as well. Here’s that list:

• Land Line Magazine – more than 100 pages of information designed specifically for truckers, including the latest news, analysis of what it means to you, information about equipment and maintenance, business and tax advice, and other useful content;
• Representation in Congress, with regulatory agencies that write rules like the Hours of Service and hazmat regs, and with state governments. You have to follow the same Hours of Service, the same hazmat regs, get the same TWIC card, and deal with the same problems as other truckers when it comes to regulation or new laws. And OOIDA is the only voice out there that speaks for you.
• Help with contacting legislators, looking up state lawmakers’ contact information, and the OOIDA Political Action Committee, all of which are part of the effort to represent you.
• Alerts and notifications – including Call to Action and Information Updates on legislation in your state, so you know when you need to call lawmakers. It includes daily e-news delivered directly to your e-mail account.
• The TRACER program, which will send you law-enforcement BOLOs (be on the lookout notices), Amber Alerts, transportation security notices, alerts on missing or overdue drivers, information about stolen trucks, food product recalls and others.
• Compliance assistance through our Business Services Department, including answering questions about the Hours of Service, logbooks, and any other regulatory information you need as a company driver.
• Referrals to trusted companies we work with for problems with tickets, taxes and other common concerns – companies that deal specifically with truckers.
• Access to the OOIDA members’ only forum, which has a specific forum just for company drivers, but also others for several other topics, where you can discuss issues with and ask questions of your fellow drivers.
• Land Line Now, the first daily news and information program specifically for truckers;
• A number of informative Web sites, all updating our members on important issues for all truckers.
• The OOIDA Mary Johnston Scholarship, which helps pay for a college education for the children or grandchildren of truckers;
• The Advantage Medical Plans;
• Major medical insurance through Assurant;
• Dental plans and vision plans;
• Term life insurance;
• Short-term disability insurance;
• A prescription drug discount card.
• A $1,000 Accidental Death and Dismemberment Plan to each current dues-paying member at no cost;
• The option to purchase up to $400,000 additional coverage for you as well as coverage for your family.
• And, if you want to carry passengers in your company truck, and you want them insured, OOIDA offers a passenger accident plan.
• A number of discount and rebate programs that apply just as much to company drivers as they do to any other trucker, such as:
  • Residential long-distance;
  • Toll-free phone service;
  • High-speed Internet access;
  • A calling card;
  • Sprint cell phone service;
  • Online college courses through Grantham University;
  • RavelCo anti-theft devices, including products for personal cars;
  • XM radio (for the purchase of the actual radio);
  • Several hotels chains nationwide;
  • Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles;
  • Dell computers;
  • Hertz rental cars;

And numerous other discounts or rebates.

Again, this isn’t even a complete list of the services that OOIDA offers company drivers, much less the benefits and services that the association offers to owner-operators, both leased and on their own authority.

So do you still think no one is doing anything to stand up for the average truck driver? The proof is in the pudding, my friends. And I think this case is officially closed.

~Mark Reddig, LLN

Happy New Year! With the calendar turning over to 2010, there are a lot of new things happening in states right now. About a half-dozen states are working in new rules that lawmakers endorsed during the past year. The most notable change is probably in Illinois where, with the help of OOIDA and truckers in the state, trucks now are allowed to travel at the same speed as other vehicles on most interstates.

This is a great time to open up the line of communication with your elected officials. In the months ahead, much more discussion is expected to take place about changes affecting transportation and the trucking industry in statehouses around the country.

States are not easing back into the swing of things either. Lawmakers from California to Maine are scheduled to be back at work by the middle of this week. In all, more than two-thirds of the nation’s state legislatures will have convened their 2010 sessions by mid-January.

This is a big election year. It is likely to create some increased urgency among elected officials to reach out to their constituents as they work to secure votes for the fall. This year’s legislative labors are certain to be critical to the way you conduct your trucking business, which is an opportunity to use to your advantage. Issues likely to receive attention in state legislatures across the country include highway tolls, privatization, transportation funding, fees and fuel taxes, to name a few.

Ideally we could rely on lawmakers to look out for our best interests, but for the most part they have no idea what those issues are. It’s your responsibility to clue them in.

You may feel as though you are one small voice in our big country, but if you don’t speak up, who is going to do it for you?

OOIDA has a membership of about 158,000 professionals in the trucking industry. If all members did their part to contact their elected officials, it would have a dramatic effect on the decisions lawmakers make.

There are several ways to educate your lawmakers: Make a phone call to their offices, send them e-mail, write a letter to them, send them a fax or meet with them in person.

The preferred method of communication depends on the office. A growing number of lawmakers rely heavily on social networking sites. It is a good idea to call their office and ask for the best way to correspond with the lawmaker. This also serves as a good way for you to introduce yourself to the lawmaker and their staff.

You can monitor the Web sites at ooida.com, landlinemag.com and landlinenow.com daily or tune in to Land Line Now on Sirius-XM for updates on legislative action in your state. For in-depth coverage and a state-by-state accounting of action that relates to your business, read “OOIDA’s State Watch” in every issue of Land Line Magazine. And the most complete roundup of state legislative efforts can be found here.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Contact your elected officials and express your concerns.

Editor’s Note: If you become aware of a new law proposed in your home state that would affect trucking, call Land Line at 800-444-5791 and ask State Legislative Editor Keith Goble to place it on the Association’s watch list. You can also e-mail the information to statelegislativedesk@ooida.com

A while back, public officials, industry experts and others gathered to discuss the topic of distracted driving.

That summit meeting has lit a fire under public officials across the nation, and suddenly everyone’s on the topic.

And while truckers can talk about all kinds of distractions down in the four-wheelers they’ve seen from the cab, most of the focus is on a very limited number of distractions – including texting and cell phones.

All of that discussion about texting ignores an important question: Is texting really the biggest problem we have on our highways?

Personally, I think texting in a moving vehicle is a whole different world than other distractions. A lot of us have trouble typing at all. Now, we’re talking about typing with just your thumbs. Not good at all when you’re behind the wheel.

But, that aside, we have a far more serious and important problem to solve here. We don’t even offer driver’s education as a regular school class in most parts of this country.

How can we expect our young people to know how to drive if we don’t teach them.

And please don’t give me the “parents will do it” line. Yes, many of us will be responsible and spend real time with our kids teaching them what we need to know.

But unlike all you of you reading this, most of those parents are not professional drivers. Many have enormous lists of bad driving habits themselves, and only a handful are good teachers.

We’ve come to expect the lack of driver’s education, to accept it as normal.

But honestly, folks – we teach sex education so kids don’t get pregnant, we teach home economics (or whatever they call it these days) so they can feed themselves, we teach math so they can add, we teach all kinds of subjects that we think are good general knowledge that they may never use again (dissect a frog lately, anyone?).

But we don’t teach them the one subject that could save them from the No. 1 cause of young people dying.

In what world does that make sense?

It’s easy to scapegoat truckers and others for problems on our roads, but we have a bigger problem that we’re ignoring. Until we get really serious about training our drivers, what makes us think they’ll obey the latest restriction or rule?

Folks, most four-wheelers can’t pass a simple driver’s test on their first try. Some states even offer it now open book.

Let’s solve the real problem, and stop spending so much time on what amounts to a distraction.

~Mark Reddig, Land Line Now