Press Release

For Immediate Release

OOIDA testifies at Senate hearing urging support for Administration’s Pro Trucker Package

Next highway bill should prioritize DOT initiatives

Today before the Senate Surface Transportation Subcommittee, the OOIDA called on Congress to prioritize truck drivers’ needs in the next surface transportation reauthorization. OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh testified that last month’s U.S. Department of Transportation announcement of nine driver‑focused initiatives must be matched by lawmakers in federal highway legislation.

The hearing, “Shifting Gears: Issues Impacting the Trucking and Commercial Bus Industries in the U.S.,” was an opportunity to bring forward challenges for small-business truckers.

“Truckers now need lawmakers to embrace the new approach taken by the White House with as much energy and resolve,” Pugh said. “A highway bill built around ‘pro‑trucker’ priorities is the best way to create a safe and efficient trucking industry—and it can be done in a bipartisan manner that promotes highway safety, improves driver recruitment and retention and increases supply chain efficiency.”

OOIDA supports these initiatives:
-Enhance entry‑level driver training standards.
-Improve truck parking capacity and restroom access nationwide.
-Guarantee overtime wages for drivers to protect long‑haul careers.
-Prevent unsafe increases to truck size and weight that jeopardize road safety.
-Reject mandatory inward‑facing cameras and hair‑testing protocols that raise privacy and equity concerns.

-Prioritize English language proficiency, non-domiciled CDLs and cabotage.

-Reject national speed limiter mandates.

-Broker transparency, freight fraud and cargo theft.

On the interstate driving age debate, OOIDA opposes lowering the required age from 21 to 18 without geographic or training limits. “The solution is not suddenly permitting inexperienced drivers to cross the country without limitations,” Pugh testified, urging a commonsense pilot radius. He also warned against expanding inward‑facing cameras: “It’s ironic to reject them for teen drivers but propose them for independent owner‑operators with decades of experience.”

Addressing mandatory hair drug testing, Pugh highlighted scientific shortcomings: “Environmental contamination, cosmetic treatments, and hair‑type variances can produce false positives and discriminatory outcomes. Urinalysis remains the proven standard.”

OOIDA’s testimony also challenged the long-purported myth of a truck driver shortage. Pointing to Department of Labor and National Academies studies, Pugh noted that turnover rates exceeding 90 percent—compared to 10–15 percent at union carriers—reflect low wages and harsh conditions, not a lack of willing entrants.

“Congress has the ability to make the next highway bill the most pro‑trucker in history, but only if you commit to prioritizing their needs,” Pugh concluded.

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