Trucking History – December 2023/January 2024
Dec. 18, 1995
Under NAFTA’s original timeline, the United States and Mexico agreed to permit access to each other’s border states. Reciprocal access beyond the border states was promised by Jan. 1, 2000. In December 1995, President Bill Clinton postponed implementation of the NAFTA cross-border trucking provision. This postponement continued to limit Mexican trucks to operations in designated commercial zones in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. In 2001, a NAFTA arbitration panel concluded the U.S. refusal to process the applications of Mexican carriers seeking U.S. authority due to concerns over the carriers’ safety was in breach of its NAFTA obligations.
Jan. 28, 2011
OOIDA claims a major legal victory against the Minnesota State Patrol. U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled the patrol’s use of CVSA Level III inspections to determine fatigue violated truck drivers’ Fourth Amendment rights. Judge Frank’s ruling said that in order for Minnesota law enforcement to conduct a fatigue inspection, officers are required to have “reasonable articulable suspicion.” OOIDA and member plaintiff Stephen K. House filed the lawsuit in May 2009 on behalf of truck drivers placed out of service based upon a checklist used by the Minnesota State Patrol. The ruling also awarded OOIDA and member plaintiff House with attorney’s fees.
December 2015
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced its final rule on Dec. 15, 2015, mandating the use of electronic logs in all trucks manufactured in 2000 and later operating in interstate commerce. The very next day, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Despite the legal appeals of OOIDA and industry stakeholders as well as congressional petitions to delay implementation of the final rule, the mandate went into effect in December 2017. OOIDA has continued to oppose the mandate through research and regulatory comments. FMCSA’s own results, published in the Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics, showed crash stats have moved in the wrong direction since 2018.
Jan. 8, 2018
It was a sad day in OOIDA history as longtime Association President Jim Johnston succumbed to cancer.
Johnston started driving in the 1960s before moving into his role as president of OOIDA in 1975, just two years after the Association was formed.
Under Johnston’s leadership, OOIDA earned legal victories over the Tennessee Public Commission, the state of Pennsylvania and the Texas Railroad Commission, to name just a few. On Oct. 6, 2015, he was honored for his leadership and dedication to the industry on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Johnston was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016 and continued working full-time until just days before his passing. He served eight five-year terms and was serving his ninth at the time of his death. LL