Press Release

For Immediate Release

Truckers send policy priorities letter to president-elect Biden

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s president and CEO, Todd Spencer, sent a letter with a list of policy priorities to President-elect Joe Biden today.

The letter outlines various strategies the Association hopes the new Administration will embrace, as well as several proposals owner-operators and professional drivers oppose.

“President-elect Biden and his team at the Department of Transportation have an opportunity to advance policies that not only support small-business truckers, but promote highway safety,” said Spencer. “We’ve outlined several ways the new Administration can achieve these two critical goals, including expanding truck parking capacity, reducing excessive detention time, ensuring the safe and transparent development of automated vehicles and many others.”

OOIDA also recommends the new Administration work to improve the manner in which carriers’ safety performance is measured, specifically highlighting the need to more accurately assess crash risk and crash causation. The Association also strongly encourages the President-elect to improve driver training standards and explore how driver compensation affects safety.

“Too many new drivers enter the industry without the basic skills to safely operate a CMV,” said Spencer. “And too many folks in our industry are pushing policies that make careers in trucking less appealing and less sustainable, which we know is contributing to today’s precariously high driver turnover rates.”

Additionally, the letter discourages the Biden Administration from pursuing costly new mandates and regulations that miss the mark.

“There are more regulations in place today than ever, and there is more enforcement and compliance with those regulations, yet highway safety isn’t improving,” said Spencer. “The Biden Administration has an opportunity to embrace a fresh approach to promoting highway safety. And that must start with listening to American truckers and trusting their experience.”

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