‘Still waiting’

For many truck drivers, the pain is real, and they are feeling that pain right now.

Plenty of truckers are consistently spending four, five or even more hours stuck at shipper or receiver facilities. Many are working 10, 20 or more uncompensated hours each week. Far too many struggle to find a safe place to park their truck at night.

The White House has acknowledged each of these problems and says it wants to help.

In December, the Biden administration launched the Trucking Action Plan to improve the supply chain and the truck driving profession itself.

In April, the White House updated the plan after receiving feedback from drivers and other industry stakeholders.

Although it includes steps regarding detention time, overall driver compensation and truck parking, there is nothing in the plan that guarantees any of these problems will be fixed in the immediate future.

The plan calls for separate studies on detention time and truck driver compensation. It is expected that each of these studies will take anywhere from 18 months to two years to be completed.

April’s updated version of the plan also addresses truck parking, but it does not dedicate any specific federal funding to create more parking spots. Instead, the administration points to programs that states can use to secure funding for truck parking.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association wants more concrete measures that will improve drivers’ lives now and in the future.

“OOIDA is pleased that the U.S. Department of Transportation, along with other federal agencies, has started gathering information on critical issues like detention time and driver compensation,” said Jay Grimes, OOIDA’s director of federal affairs. “However, drivers are still waiting on meaningful measures that will help address these problems. April’s update notes significant progress on establishing apprenticeship programs and plenty of funding to help states expedite CDLs, but we have yet to really see any substantive actions that can help keep new or current drivers in the industry long term.”

Trucking Action Plan

As part of the update to the plan, the White House hosted an event on April 4. President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg used that time to applaud truckers for their work and to acknowledge the obstacles they face on the job.

Both referred to truck drivers as essential workers and highlighted the value they provide to the nation.

“You all literally make the economy run,” Biden said. “If you all quit, everything comes to a halt. Think about it. I’m not joking. Think about it, things would come to a literal halt.”

Buttigieg put it in perspective by reminding the public that everything around them likely needed a truck to get there.

“If you enjoyed the food you ate for breakfast, the clothes you’re wearing right now, or the device you might be using to watch this event, you can thank a truck driver for getting that to you,” he said.

The Truck Action Plan released earlier that morning expedited the process for prospective truck drivers earning their CDLs and worked to create a bridge for military veterans to become truckers.

The Driving Good Jobs Initiative is the portion of the plan aimed at making truck driver a more attractive profession in order to attract recruits and retain existing drivers. That includes the compensation studies and the potential funding avenues for states to address truck parking, as well as efforts to make the profession more attractive to women and to protect drivers from predatory lease-purchase arrangements.

OOIDA said it appreciated the acknowledgment of truck parking and the creation of the advisory boards but also noted these steps should only be a start.

“The Biden Trucking Action Plan remains a mixed bag of policies intended to improve jobs and employment opportunities within the industry,” Grimes said. “We applaud the administration for adding truck parking to the plan and agree that the lack of parking across the country is about more than just inconvenience.”

Detention time and compensation studies

Over the next 18 months to two years, the Department of Transportation plans to conduct studies on detention and general driver compensation.

Biden said during the event that the average driver spends more than four hours per day at shipper or receiver facilities and noted that most are not paid for that time.

No doubt, the studies will reveal eye-opening information to those outside of the trucking industry about the unfair nature of how drivers are paid. However, two years is a long time to wait for drivers who are feeling the pinch right now.

Truck parking

After meeting with truck drivers and others in the industry for the past few months, the administration added the issue of truck parking to the Trucking Action Plan.

“Lack of truck parking across the country is about more than just inconvenience,” a White House news release said. “It impacts safety and retention as exhausted drivers have nowhere to rest.”

Although the infrastructure legislation didn’t provide any direct federal funding for truck parking, the administration points out that there are programs that states can use to address the issue. At a Senate hearing in March, Buttigieg suggested the Surface Transportation Block Grant, the National Highway Freight Program, Highway Safety Improvement Program, National Highway Performance Program, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement as possible routes for states to take.

What now?

The fact that the administration is acknowledging the problems truckers face and has outlined steps toward resolving those problems is admirable.

But if truckers want these problems fixed now, it will need to be done through Congress. The Department of Transportation and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s power is limited, and it should be noted that many of the steps in the Trucking Action Plan – including the compensation studies and the creation of the Truck Leasing Task Force – were mandated in the $1 trillion infrastructure legislation that passed last year.

Regarding compensation, OOIDA has pushed for the repeal of the overtime exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act so that truck drivers can be compensated for all of their time. In February, the Department of Transportation urged Congress “to eliminate the motor carrier overtime exemption” as part of its policy recommendations aimed at improving the supply chain.

As of press time in early April, OOIDA was still pushing to get legislation introduced on this issue.

Although studies on detention time and compensation will be useful, passing a law to end the overtime exemption will be one of the quickest ways to make driver pay more equitable.

In October, OOIDA told the Department of Transportation that exempting drivers from guaranteed overtime pay increases problems with detention time because shippers, receivers have no financial incentive to load and unload trucks quickly. The current by-the-mile pay method can have negative effects on safety, as well as the efficiency of the supply chain.

We can hope that states will take Buttigieg’s advice and begin using existing programs to request funding for truck parking.

Again, however, the surest way to get something done will be to pass a bill through Congress. Rep Mike Bost, R-Ill., introduced the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, HR2187, which would dedicate $755 million over five years to the expansion of truck parking capacity.

For truckers who want to see something done about compensation and truck parking, the best action plan is to call their lawmakers and ask them to support these bills. LL