OOIDA’s Pugh speaks up for drivers at forum

Bringing new truck drivers into the industry is important, but OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh wants there to be more focus placed on improving the profession for existing drivers.

As part of a truck driver forum on Thursday, Dec. 16 in Charleston, S.C., Pugh told Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg truck drivers are often apt to leave the industry because of a lack of compensation and truck parking, as well as because of overregulation.

“We definitely need to think about the future of the industry, but it has been brought up multiple times today that we need to think about the people in trucking right now,” Pugh said.

“Drivers are always on the hook. There’s a book with the thickness of the Bible full of regulations that truckers have to follow. Let’s look at these regulations, and keep the regulations that make sense. There are so many regulations that have nothing to do with safety whatsoever. Guys are so sick of being overregulated.”

The Department of Transportation and Department of Labor hosted the driver forum as part of a continuing effort to improve driver recruitment and retention and to make the supply chain more efficient. In addition to Pugh, the forum included several port drivers, as well as owner-operators.

Driver concerns relayed to Buttigieg and FMCSA acting Administrator Meera Joshi included unpaid work because of detention time or delays at ports, a lack of truck parking, unreasonable insurance costs, and poor working conditions.

“We’re essential workers, and we’re treated like we’re nothing,” one truck driver said. Another driver said it was common for truckers to have to use the restroom in a bottle while stuck at the ports.

Buttigieg, who attended the forum virtually because he was also taking part in a supply chain meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, said the administration will be working to make truck driving a better profession.

“My most important comment is a thank you,” Buttigieg said. “We’ve been counting on truck drivers to make sure our supply chains keep moving. You can’t do your job online. You can’t do it from home.

“It’s really important to us that this career is supported. We have to retain our truckers. Getting that right means improving the quality of life. It means showing a respect for this profession, and, obviously, a big part of that is wages and compensation … It’s important to us that we’re doing two things at once – encouraging people to get in a field that is really important and making sure that it really does pay.”

OOIDA has been active in relaying drivers’ concerns to the Biden administration.

In October, the Association submitted a 14-page letter that said the nation’s supply chain problems start with unfair compensation for truck drivers and told the administration that truck drivers should be paid for all of their time. Last month, OOIDA asked Buttigieg to dedicate $1 billion in discretionary funds to the construction of truck parking.

At the driver forum on Thursday, OOIDA’s Pugh asked the DOT to put more emphasis on training drivers and motor carriers and less emphasis on punishment alone.

“We don’t want to do the hard things,” Pugh said. “Unfortunately, it seems to me that that we continually legislate and enforce things after the fact instead of being ahead. We want to ticket after the fact. We want to write tickets after the fact, but let’s get ahead of this thing. Train these guys. These poor guys come into this industry and get no training. Guys get their own authority. If you have $600 or whatever, you can get your own authority and be a motor carrier without knowing anything about trucking. Then a year later, you’re going to come in and do an audit and give this guy all these fines because he didn’t know what he was doing. Why isn’t there a prerequisite for getting your authority?”

Buttigieg said the U.S. DOT will be proactive in evaluating regulations.

“Every year, we have a regulatory agenda, and we should be looking at what can be improved – that means adding and subtracting – to make sure that what’s in there really works.” LL