Trucking History – August 2022
Way back in trucking history, “Truck Driver’s Blues,” which is considered the first original song about the trucking industry, was recorded by Cliff Bruner and His Boys on Aug. 26, 1939. A native of Texas City, Texas, Bruner was a fiddler with much of his music classified within the Western Swing genre.
AUG. 15, 1980 and AUG. 12, 1983
A popular month for the “Smokey and the Bandit” movie franchise as the second installment was released in August 1980, and “Smokey and the Bandit Part 3” hit theaters almost exactly three years later. “Smokey and the Bandit II” grossed nearly $11 million in its opening weekend, the second-highest figure ever at the time. However, reviews were largely negative with an approval rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Part 3” grossed $7 million, with a budget of $9 million.
AUG. 16, 2016
The Office of Management and Budget gave approval to a proposal to mandate speed limiters on heavy trucks. The 118-page proposal said limiting the speed of heavy vehicles would reduce the severity of crashes and the resulting injuries and fatalities. Efforts to implement the rulemaking stalled out after the comment period on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking closed in late 2016. Nearly six years later, OOIDA continues to oppose the mandate and has fought to keep it out of any highway bills.
Aug. 9, 2019
An OOIDA lawsuit against the state of Virginia for enforcing the federal 30-minute rest break rules without authority leads to thousands of violations being removed from the federal database, was a big win in trucking history. According to the lawsuit, Virginia State Police were enforcing a 2012 rule even though it wasn’t part of law for the Commonwealth of Virginia until Dec. 14, 2017. OOIDA filed the complaint in January 2018 against several state officials responsible for commercial motor vehicle enforcement.
The state removed the violations and acknowledged that it enforces Virginia law, not federal law, and that it must actively monitor and stay current with federal changes.
“This is an important win in how federal regulations are enforced by state officials,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said of the ruling. “They are supposed to adopt those rules into their state codes before handing out warnings or citations that go on permanent records.” LL