Driving toward change

Finding success in business isn’t guaranteed. As many in the trucking industry can attest, the margin for error between success and failure is razor-thin. While finding success may be tricky, achieving longevity can be downright elusive. As the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association enters into its 50th anniversary year of fighting for the rights of all truckers, there are some keys to longevity that can be gleaned from its five decades of experience.

OOIDA President Todd Spencer – who has spent the past 41 years working for the Association – is a testament to longevity in the industry in his own respect. With more than four decades dedicated to OOIDA, Spencer has an immense amount of pride in the Association and its growth over the years.

“For me, it’s still a marvel,” he said, “because it started from nothing – from scratch.”

Starting something from nothing – especially a movement as impactful as OOIDA – can be quite the undertaking. Which brings us to the first key to longevity – having a passion for what you do. Without that, it would be nearly impossible to overcome the innumerable hurdles that await. For Spencer, the passion to give a voice to all truckers is one he still has over four decades later.

“It’s a cause that I’ve always been proud to be associated with and always will be,” he said.

It was that same passion that the Association was founded on in 1973. Spencer says while the Association’s success wouldn’t have been possible without the group of truckers who recognized the need for change and to have a unified voice, it wasn’t just the passion of OOIDA’s founders that helped the Association get off the ground.

“We’re also fortunate that there were enough truckers out there on the road who recognized this is something worth investing in and put their support behind it,” Spencer said. “The engagement and involvement from the members – in the role of activists, communicating where it needed to be and showing support when they needed to – that was the key to the success.”

However, being passionate can only carry you so far. Another key to longevity is consistency. This applies to both your approach and your message. Spencer says that despite the changes in the industry over the past five decades, there is one constant that has been integral to the Association’s success.

“The other reason that OOIDA was successful when others aren’t is that the interests of the folks behind the wheel were always top of mind.”

Keeping the interests of drivers at the forefront has always been at the heart of the Association’s efforts. To ensure that, all OOIDA officers and directors are current or retired truckers. The 22-member board – elected from the membership and by the membership – helps define the Association’s position on all major trucking issues. The real-world experience of the board helps to echo the interest of drivers on the road, something Spencer says is critical to the industry.

“The most important people in trucking are those behind the wheel. They’re key to any successful endeavor in trucking,” he said. “You’ve got to listen to what they have to say, because they’re going to be the real experts. They deal with these issues every day. Listen to them, take their concerns seriously, and act on them, and we may see some real, meaningful gains.”

While being consistent in your approach can help to achieve longevity, being able to reinvent yourself – without straying from those core values – can be equally important. As evidence of this, Spencer points to the founding members of OOIDA.

He said that, despite their best intentions, the group was naive to the ways Washington, D.C., and other legislative arenas worked.

“It’s foolhardy to think someone else is going to accurately and adequately share your concerns in the policymaking arena,” he said. “They don’t. Their concerns are their priorities.”

Recognizing the need for a greater understanding of policymaking, the Association began to build its team. Today, OOIDA has a fully staffed Government Affairs Office in Washington, D.C. It is dedicated to helping small business truckers and professional drivers participate in the legislative and regulatory process.

OOIDA’s D.C. team does this in a couple of ways. First, the office maintains an active grassroots advocacy effort, alerting members about legislative or regulatory developments. Secondly, the Association’s website, FightingForTruckers.com, gives all drivers an easy platform to voice their opinions and concerns to policymakers.

“The number of interest groups that are now vying for focus and attention and favorable treatment and things like that in D.C., that’s grown exponentially. Virtually every entity is an interest group and they’re at the table and they want theirs, and they’re not especially concerned about your interests,” Spencer said. “Small business is always going to have to work harder and always going to have to struggle. What OOIDA offers is that, ‘Hey, guys, come on, let’s sing out of the same hymn book … let’s push in the same direction.’ And if we do, we will be much more likely to get the consideration that we should.”

While the success of the Association over the past 50 years is certainly worth applauding, all that progress means very little if the future success of the industry isn’t guaranteed.

As OOIDA looks back on five decades of advocating for all drivers, they are not taking a victory lap. There are still plenty of battles to be fought, such as addressing the truck parking crisis, increasing broker transparency, getting drivers access to restrooms, and fighting for higher pay. The Association is putting its weight behind those issues and making progress.

The strength-in-numbers approach has served OOIDA well, with more than 150,000 members throughout the U.S. and Canada, but that progress can be helped along with an increase of support. While the Association’s unified voice is as strong as ever, Spencer encourages all truckers to join the fight.

“If you want the system to treat you fairly, you’ve got to be a participant. You’ve got to be a player. You’ve got to be involved,” he said. “OOIDA has always made it a priority to create an atmosphere where truckers could get behind and show their support. And if enough do it – and we’re persistent enough – you’re going to make some progress.” LL