OOIDA on the Road – July 2024

OOIDA has about 150,000 members.

This number includes members from all over the United States and in Canada. Considering that many of the members have been driving a decade or more, it would be amazing to learn the combined number of years or miles logged by OOIDA membership.

That’s why OOIDA always reminds the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and other government officials that truck drivers are the industry’s true experts. If you want to find ways to improve highway safety, there is no better group of people to ask.

Testifying in front of a House subcommittee about supply chain issues in 2023, OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh reminded lawmakers that truckers will offer the most insight on how to fix the problem.

“I strongly encourage you to listen to the men and women who are out there on the road every day,” Pugh said in his testimony.”

Marty Ellis, driver for OOIDA’s tour truck, travels around the nation to get this feedback directly from the men and women the Association represents. Several of the recent visitors boast decades of trucking experience.

William “Bill” Baker, a member from Hebron, Ohio, has been a trucker for nearly 40 years and got into the industry through his family. He operates a 1999 Peterbilt and has worked the past few years for Ace Doran.

David “DC” Kincaid, a life member from Yukon, Okla., started his trucking career in 1974. He pulls a flatbed and mainly hauls for oil rigs.

David Parker, a life member from Huntington, W.Va., has been a trucker for about 56 years. He drives a 2004 Freightliner with a Mercedes engine and has been leased on with Quality Carrier for about 13 years.

Carmen Anderson, a life member from Sioux Falls, S.D., has been a truck driver for more than a quarter century and has logged more than 2.5 million safe miles. In March, the Women in Trucking Association named her one of its 2024 Drivers of the Year. For her recent visit to The Spirit, she brought her fur babies, Rodney and Otis. LL