Editor’s Page – March/April 2021
It was right at a year ago that the COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread shutdowns, which spurred panicked stockpiling of essential goods. People were freaked out. Store shelves were cleared out of everything from toilet paper and hand sanitizer to bread and canned goods.
Then, like you have every other day of your trucking lives, you delivered. In face of some of the most uncertain times truckers have ever experienced, you delivered.
Lawmakers punched into this fact and showered truckers with praise on social media. Heroes, they called you. To say that was a refreshing change from the vilification truckers typically faced is an enormous understatement.
While that was nice to hear and read, you never really got treated like heroes. They forgot about the empty shelves and moved on.
OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh didn’t hold back when he testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The February hearing focused on the hardships faced by the entire transportation sector. Lewie testified on behalf of truckers.
There’s a fundamental character trait of truckers. You dole out some pretty straightforward answers.
So, we all knew when it was Lewie’s turn to tell the committee members about the hardships truckers are facing he wasn’t going to hold back. And he didn’t. I promise you there was more than a time or two I was giving him an “amen” when he just told them like it is.
Perhaps one of my favorite lines Lewie dropped on the committee was when the attempt to increase insurance minimums last year came up.
“Truckers watched in disbelief as members of this panel went from patting them on the back on social media to kicking them while they were down.”
Ooof. That was a solid punch.
He delivered plenty more. Check out the report on the hearing starting on Page 14.
Speaking of raising the minimum insurance requirement, OOIDA isn’t wasting any time on rallying the opposition. The facts remain that the math doesn’t add up to an increase and the science doesn’t support any improvement in safety from an increase.
With that sort of ammo, it’s not hard to believe that OOIDA’s Director of Government Affairs Collin Long was able to whip together a coalition of more than 60 groups to oppose any increase. That’s a hefty coalition. But it needs more voices – specifically your voices. Read up on the issue on Page 18 and then call your representative and fill them in on your reality and how that will hurt your trucking business.
Shifting the narrative is a common tactic in politics. And it’s a tactic that the brokers are using right now in an effort to cloud OOIDA’s push for regulatory compliance on broker transparency. You can catch up on their latest shenanigans on Page 22. That’s one of the big reasons that frequent and consistent communication with lawmakers is so vital to truckers’ rights. So you’ll probably want to make a call to your lawmaker on that one, too.
One odd thing that happened starting about a year ago was the relentless firehose of information that needed digested and delivered to all of you. We have covered more news in the past 12 months than I would have thought humanly possible.
The firehose hasn’t let up, and this issue is packed with much more need-to-know news.
But if we’ve learned anything else in the past year, stories of hope and humor go a long way toward lightening the mood and uplifting spirits.
One such uplifting story was first reported on Land Line Now. Host Mark Reddig told the tale of the journey of a fallen flag honoring the Navajo Code Talkers back to its guardian. While that is remarkable enough, the journey was also one of healing. We had to share in Land Line as well. The amazing story starts on Page 44.
And finally, not many detours are fun. But our newest standing feature “Slight Detour” is meant to be a fun diversion. A palate cleanser for all the doom and gloom news. Digital Content Editor Greg Grisolano brings this issue’s edition, called “Close calls and cheese balls,” starting on Page 86. LL