Gearing up for 2023

As the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association enters its 50th anniversary year, there’s no time for the longtime trucking group to rest on its laurels.

The new year promises to be a busy one – and a crucial one.

OOIDA will continue advocating for truck drivers’ rights by working to secure more truck parking, increase broker transparency, improve driver pay and ensure that truckers have access to a restroom.

At the same time, OOIDA will be forced to play plenty of defense. The Association will be asking truckers to unite against potential mandates for speed limiters, electronic IDs and ELDs for pre-2000 trucks. In the courts, OOIDA will continue to battle California’s AB5.

The Association made progress on several issues in 2022. It helped the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act inch closer to reality, and it assisted in the introduction of the GOT Truckers Act in the House and Senate. OOIDA also helped rally more than 15,000 people – the majority of them were truckers in opposition – to comment on a proposal to mandate speed limiters on commercial motor vehicles.

However, OOIDA knows there’s even more work to do in 2023.

“Our accomplishments in 2022 will serve as a launching pad for 2023,” said Collin Long, OOIDA’s director of government affairs. “Progress can be slow in Washington, but we feel as though we’re on the verge of breaking through on several fronts next year.

“While we’re excited about advancing policies that will make careers in trucking more appealing and sustainable, we’re also preparing to fight like hell against proposals that move our industry in the wrong direction. With the help of our members, I believe OOIDA is well-positioned to make 2023 one of our most successful years in Washington, D.C.”

Fighting for

Truck parking

With the assistance of OOIDA, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., first introduced the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act in 2020 and then reintroduced it in 2021.

Then this past July, the bipartisan bill, which would allocate $755 million over four years to truck parking projects, cleared a major hurdle in Congress. The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure passed HR2187 through the markup process by unanimous vote. The next step is for the bill to go to the House floor.

Additionally, OOIDA has been working with lawmakers to also introduce the bill in the Senate.

The Association is hopeful that the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act will eventually make it across the finish line.

“Truck drivers consistently rank truck parking availability as a top industry concern in annual driver surveys, yet little has been done to address this challenge,” OOIDA and ATA wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation in February. “It is difficult to conceptualize a workplace without reliable access to restrooms, food and well-lit facilities, but this is the unfortunate reality for truck drivers in America.

Broker transparency

In 2020, OOIDA petitioned FMCSA to begin the rulemaking process for more transparency in transactions with brokers.

The petition asks the agency:

• To require brokers to automatically provide an electronic copy of each transaction record within 48 hours after the contractual service has been completed.
• To explicitly prohibit brokers from including any provision that requires a carrier to waive their rights to access the transaction records.

CFR 371.3 already requires that brokers keep records of each transaction with a carrier and that each party to the transaction has a right to view these records.

In September, OOIDA wrote to FMCSA and asked for an update.

FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson told Land Line in October that the agency plans to address the petition soon.

“We have been considering the issues raised by the petition for rulemaking, and based on that work we are targeting early 2023 to issue a decision,” she said.

Driver compensation

Through the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, OOIDA hopes to force the industry to value a truck driver’s time.

The Association helped craft the bill, which would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to remove motor carriers’ exemption from having to pay overtime. The exemption has been in effect since 1938.

Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., introduced HR7517 in April. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., introduced S4823 in September. Without an overtime requirement and with most drivers paid by the mile, it is common for truckers to sit for hours at loading or unloading facilities.

OOIDA encourages its members to contact their lawmakers and ask them to become a co-sponsor.

“The overtime exemption devalues truckers’ time,” said Bryce Mongeon, OOIDA’s director of federal affairs. “It makes it so truckers are treated differently than most other blue-collar workers. The GOT Truckers Act would eliminate that exemption. (It would) make sure that truckers are treated like everyone else, and it will solve a lot of the issues we see in the industry with pay, working conditions and a lot of other things.”

The bill would directly affect company drivers, but OOIDA believes it would create benefits for all truckers.

OOIDA also views the bill as a deregulatory action, simply removing an “outdated and unfair” rule from the books.

Restroom access

OOIDA supported a Washington state bill that requires shippers and receivers to provide restroom access to truck drivers. That bill became law in 2022.

With the help of OOIDA, a federal version of the bill is expected soon.

“I can’t tell you how many shippers and receivers I’ve been at over the years that had no place for truck drivers to use the restroom,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh testified to Washington lawmakers. “Let me rephrase that – most places had restrooms, many just didn’t let me use it.”

Fighting back

Speed limiters

The fight with speed limiters is still in the early stages.

In May, FMCSA issued a supplemental advance notice of proposed rulemaking to get feedback on a potential mandate. Under the initial proposal, commercial motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 26,001 pounds or more and that are equipped with an electronic engine control unit capable of being governed would be subject to the mandate.

Truckers responded in a big way. More than 15,000 comments were submitted to the docket. The majority were opposed.

According to a U.S. DOT report, FMCSA targeted June 2023 for the release of its notice of proposed rulemaking. But that’s just an estimate, and it would not be a surprise if the notice didn’t hit the Federal Register until later in the summer.

Either way, OOIDA will be working to stop a speed limiter mandate from becoming a reality.

“We unequivocally oppose any action that would mandate speed limiters,” OOIDA wrote.

Electronic IDs

Saying the proposal sends up “red flags,” OOIDA is asking its members to actively oppose efforts to mandate electronic identification technology on commercial motor vehicles.

Earlier in the fall, FMCSA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking regarding the possibility of requiring interstate commercial motor vehicles to have electronic IDs. No formal proposal has been made, but the public was given through Nov. 22 to tell the agency if the requirement is a good idea.

OOIDA says it is not.

“This proposal sends up red flags about privacy, information security, enforcement fairness, cost to truckers and more,” the Association wrote.

Like speed limiters, the efforts to create a mandate for electronic IDs is in the early stages.

However, OOIDA encourages truckers to remain persistent in the fight against another burdensome mandate.

ELDs

Another advance notice of proposed rulemaking regards potential updates to the existing ELD mandate.

The notice involves several aspects of the regulation.However, the part of the notice that caught the attention of many truck drivers was about the mandate’s applicability to pre-2000 engines. The current ELD mandate, which took effect in 2017, includes an exemption for trucks with pre-2000 engines.

FMCSA is not proposing a rule change at this point but requested feedback on whether or not the exemption should be renewed. The agency accepted comments through Nov. 15.

OOIDA opposed the original ELD mandate and will fight against attempts to remove the exemption for older trucks.

“As we approach five years since the original implementation date, it’s clear the ELD mandate has not been the silver bullet solution for improving highway safety that federal regulators and other supporters claimed it would be,” said Jay Grimes, OOIDA’s director of federal affairs.

“The agency must not attempt to alter the current rules regarding pre-2000 engines. Modifying this provision would be pulling out the rug from drivers who have maintained older vehicles or have invested in glider kits.”

AB5

While most of OOIDA’s fights are in the congressional or regulatory arenas, the Association will be fighting against California’s one-size-fits-all worker classification law in the courts.

Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California allowed OOIDA to serve as an intervenor in the California Trucking Association’s lawsuit against AB5.

OOIDA contends that AB5 violates the Commerce Clause because it places an undue burden on interstate truckers coming into California.

The Commerce Clause protects the right to engage in interstate commerce free of undue burdens and discrimination by state governments.

“Our issue is a little different than the California Trucking Association’s in that their interest is primarily in-state,” OOIDA President Todd said. “For us, the majority of our members are from outside the state. If one state’s laws impact everything else, then you look at whether it’s a violation of the Commerce Clause. These issues are very much interstate, and that’s where the Commerce Clause comes into play.” LL

Land Line’s Tyson Fisher and Keith Goble contributed to this report.