‘Live From Exit 24’ looks at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance

Host Mike Matousek, OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh and Doug Morris, OOIDA director of safety and security operations, discussed the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and how it affects you, on the latest “Live From Exit 24.”

“They’re really trying to make things better and clean up gray areas,” Pugh said. “I don’t always agree with what they want to do, but at least if it’s in black and white you know if you have a chance to fight it or if you don’t.”

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While important for commercial drivers, keeping up with CVSA presents an added cost with attending conferences, the price of becoming an affiliate, purchasing out-of-service bulletins, and more.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of truckers out there who don’t even know what CVSA is,” Pugh said. “You need to pay attention to them, because they are making out-of-service rules, inspection bulletins and things like that. Whether you agree with the regulation or disagree with the regulation, you at least need to know what the regulation is.”

So, what authority does CVSA have?

“It’s not a regulatory agency. It’s an alliance of agencies,” Morris said. “We (OOIDA) have been advocating for years that their out-of-service criteria should go through the rulemaking process. Obviously, FMCSA and folks in Congress have not seen it that way. CVSA will continue to make money off something we don’t think they should be making money off of because it’s something the truckers have to abide by.”

However, every regulation out there is not in the out-of-service book, Morris said.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Morris said. “In some respects it’s good to have an out-of-service criteria book. It shows a law enforcement officer what can and can’t be put out of service, as opposed to saying you violated regulations here, you’re out of service.”

This raised the question of shouldn’t FMCSA, and not CVSA, be setting the criteria for out of service?

“This goes back to what Doug was saying – there’s good and bad both ways,” Pugh said. “Yeah, they probably should be, and a lot of this stuff should be going through rulemaking processes. Unfortunately, it is not, and doesn’t, and probably won’t if we want to be realistic. If this is all we have, is it better to let FMCSA make this stuff up or at least have industry and law enforcement get together and try to work something out?”

As with many trucking issues, Pugh reiterated the importance of contacting your government representatives to spark any change.

“The only thing we have is our grassroots. That’s what we need to do,” Pugh said.

OOIDA talk show

“Live From Exit 24” is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central every other Wednesday. Listeners can tune in to the show on the Live From Exit 24 website, OOIDA Facebook page or on OOIDA’s YouTube channel. The next episode airs Wednesday, Sept. 22.

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“Live From Exit 24” launched as a way to expand OOIDA’s communication with members and to hear directly from drivers across the industry. OOIDA is asking for truck drivers to fill out a survey to let the Association know how you are liking the show so far. Help guide what’s addressed during the program. The survey is here. LL