‘This is it’

Speaking up and reaching out to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and its leadership usually happens in the virtual world, usually on the Federal Register.

That’s a one-sided discussion.

Much rarer are the cases in which you can actually sit side by side and speak to FMCSA leadership directly.

But that’s where OOIDA life member Carmen Anderson found herself earlier this year.

She was in the driver’s seat of her truck, with FMCSA Administrator Robin Hutcheson riding shotgun.

Anderson was nominated and ultimately selected to give Hutcheson a ride-along.

And Anderson says this wasn’t a “hop in the truck and we’ll go down the block a ways” type thing.

“She met me up in Maryland, and I did the first drop in Maryland, and then my last drop was in Washington, D.C.,” Anderson said. “And she rode down from Maryland down into Washington, D.C.”

The ride-along was part of promoting FMCSA’s Women of Trucking Advisory Board, which is looking into recruiting more women into the industry – and supporting them along the way.

Highlights from their trip together have since been posted on FMCSA’s YouTube page, with snippets of their conversation included.

Anderson said she and Hutcheson spent about two-and-a-half hours together and touched on a number of topics throughout.

“When she was riding, she’s like, you can really see everything. And I said, yes, you can … We were in bumper-to-bumper traffic on U.S. 50 going into Washington, D.C., and she was just surprised at how the cars would go on the right-hand side on the shoulders and cut you off. She was just totally amazed … She goes, ‘Is this what you have to deal with on a daily basis?’ And I said, ‘Yes, yes, this is it.’”

From observations from the cab – to larger problems at hand, Anderson did what she could to give Hutcheson a snapshot of what it’s like to be a trucker. One of the discussions was about shippers and receivers that refuse to let truckers use the restroom.

“At the first place, she wanted to use the bathroom, and I was waiting for them to say no,” Anderson said. “But they actually told her yes. Of course, our company had called and said that somebody would be filming … I told her that a big pet peeve of mine out here is not having facilities for us.”

Anderson said she gets the sense that the FMCSA administrator has good intentions.

“She is really willing to learn and listen you know and hopefully through the bureaucracy, she can get some things accomplished. She said she understands the parking situation.” LL