Truck drivers offer their 2 cents’ worth on variety of issues
More and more truck drivers are beginning to let the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration know what they think about a variety of trucking issues.
Here’s a compilation of some of the comments that truck drivers have submitted to the agency in recent months.
On UCR fees
UCR fees should not be used as a slush fund to finance meetings in fancy resort locations, splurging on lunch for state troopers at CVSA meetings, or subsidizing rainy-day spending accounts. Small-business truckers are already excessively taxed, tolled, and are now facing historically high diesel prices. FMCSA must keep UCR fees as low as the law requires.
– Andrew Hubbard
UCR fees should be set to only costs (that are) directly related – not for spending accounts.
– Roger Rohe
Please consider reducing UCR fees to only what the law allows. We are already facing so many increased taxes and fees as well as fuel costs. Thank you.
– Mike Fruge
The UCR fee needs to be kept as low as possible. Small-trucking owners face large tax rates now as compared to large fleets. In this current environment it is difficult with fuel, insurance, IFTA, HVUT, license, low to no freight, and a terrible economy to make a profit. Yet FMCSA seems to believe that trucking is an endless tax pool from which to continually withdraw money from. Stop spending the current funding in such a reckless manner.
– Mark Wiederhold
On driver training exemption requests
Why would an institution, which is supposed to teach future drivers, look to circumvent rules made for safety? The excuse of “driver shortage” is nothing more than an excuse for a company unwilling to pay experienced drivers what they are worth. These rules about experience are in order that the trainer themselves be proficient as an operator, so that they may themselves educate.
– John Brinegar
The FMCSA (should) deny the request for an exemption to the instructor experience requirements for SBL Truck Driving Academy.
These comments are submitted by a 19-year CMV driver with experience as a driver trainer. I also was active in comments on the ELDT rulemaking.
The two-year experience requirement came from a well-rounded negotiated rulemaking committee, which debated how much actual driving experience was needed. Two years was a minimum (that was) agreed to. Many on the committee and in comments wanted much more.
– Robert Stanton
There should be no exceptions to the mandatory two-year minimum experience requirement to be employed as a trainer under the ELDT program. It should be increased to at least five years.
– Brett Graves
On brokers
It does not make any sense there are so many regulations for truckers, but zero for brokers. Freight brokers should be organized and regulated. It does not make any sense that they get the top dollars for the load and we do not even get 50%.
Stop them from stealing our money! We need broker transparency law, and double brokering should be illegal.
– Rebin Karim
On speed limiters
Speed limiters put drivers’ lives in danger. Are you aware that in order to gain control of a vehicle when a tire blows out that you have to accelerate? When you have a blowout, the truck will pull hard in the direction of the blown tire.
You have to accelerate to overcome that pull and then gently brake to bring the vehicle back under control and safely to the side of the road. If the driver is already running at the governed speed, he/she has no ability to accelerate and regain control. That endangers not only that commercial motor vehicle driver but everyone around the truck. The effort to make the road safer in fact makes everyone less safe.
– Hamlin Raney LL