Editor’s Page – July 2020
Confession time, I’m not real big on suspense. It’s not at all uncommon for me to actually read spoiler alerts about movies (I avoided them on “Avengers: Endgame”) or to flip to the back of a book to read the ending.
I kind of wish there were spoiler alerts that could tell us what’s coming at us next or where things will be in a month, two months, or next year. Frankly, 2020 has been exhausting. We are in a pandemic, which led to an economic downturn, and there is now civil unrest.
But the truth is we don’t know and won’t know what the future holds until it gets here.
So right now it’s about adapting and surviving. Especially for truckers. You all are out there trying to stay safe, maintain your health, find food to eat, find locations to take care of basic hygiene needs, and make a decent buck to stay afloat. All of that, while you’re expected to just keep trucking.
Not many days into the George Floyd protests around the country there was a video of a truck encountering protesters on the highway that really got the attention of truckers.
Johanne Couture, a member of OOIDA’s Board of Directors, wrote an email to her fellow board members and the media team here at Land Line and Land Line Now. She wrote of her decision to not take a load from Canada into the U.S. and asked what others were doing and if they were safe.
The thoughtful conversation that followed inspired us to put Scott Thompson, Land Line Now senior correspondent, on the case. He brought their stories of experience, advice and concern to Land Line Now and again here in the magazine, starting on Page 20.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc, not only with infection and death rates, but on the economy. Being a leading economic indicator, truckers know firsthand that the sudden collapse on freight rates earlier this year was potentially crippling for many operations and the nation was going to feel it.
The lingering effects of that collapse put brokers in the crosshairs for violating transparency regulations. Truckers protested in Washington, D.C. OOIDA called for enforcement of the regulations and pushed for more protections from Congress.
The Transportation Intermediaries Association President and CEO Bob Voltmann fought back and waged a war of misinformation and encouraged behavior that, at the least, violated the spirit of the regulations. Oddly enough, in the midst of the battle, Voltmann announced his retirement. Like I said, odd.
We don’t have a spoiler alert on the broker issue.
However, we delve into the issue on Page 12, where I break down the broker’s BS, and again on Page 46, where Staff Writer Tyson Fisher covers OOIDA’s advocacy efforts on transparency.
We have a couple of other big stories that we’re going to have to wait on until things shake out completely before we know what we’ve got.
There’s a new hours-of-service final rule. It was met with mixed reception, especially from those who want the 14-hour rule eliminated. (Spoiler alert: That’s never going to happen.) OOIDA views it as a starting point for change. It is the first rule in modern era that affords some flexibility. Senior Editor Mark Schremmer breaks it down on Page 16.
We also have a highway bill. This is where the regulatory future of trucking takes shape. Congress lays out marching orders for FMCSA in these bills. OOIDA will play as much offense as it does defense during the development of this bill.
Highway bills feel like living, breathing documents in the way things change. We bring you the kickoff proposal on Page 26. And like everything else right now, what the final bill will look like is a mystery, but OOIDA is on the job out there fighting for your rights.
In closing, I’ll leave the rest of this issue for you to discover. And, we’ll go back to sniffing out spoiler alerts to hopefully give us all a better sense of what lies ahead. LL