Utopia
A perfect world. We all know it doesn’t really exist except in our dreams, but we sure would like to think it’s possible.
I’ve said many, many times that I do not play the role of Pollyanna well at all. I’m not a hopeless optimist nor a chronic pessimist. Maybe it’s the years of dealing squarely in tangible facts that has me this way.
So, when I say that our cover story is 100% achievable, I’m not blowing smoke.
Hear me out.
The photo on the cover showed up in my email inbox a few weeks ago. It’s pretty cool isn’t it? The thing is, it was taken by an OOIDA member who isn’t, by his own admission, an avid photographer. He just captured a cool moment out trucking.
We had to know a little bit more about Travis Swisher. He’s always wanted to be a trucker and loves it. He hopes this photo sheds some light on the cool side of the gig. You can read more about him and the photo on Page 87.
I have to say that photo could not have crossed my virtual desk at a better time.
Senior Editor Mark Schremmer was working on our cover story and eviscerating the driver shortage myth perpetrated by the American Trucking Associations. I shared the photo with him, and he took it and ran with it.
We’re both sports fans, so the image clearly screamed Field of Dreams to us. But the theme really resonated with the piece he was working on.
Is it possible to have an industry of dreams? If mega fleets made the effort to prioritize drivers, it wouldn’t be impossible.
Schremmer lays out a pretty straightforward road map of what it will take to combat the chronic driver retention problem large fleets suffer from. The problems are self-inflicted, so they certainly can be corrected. Read about it on Page 16.
One huge step in the right direction would be paying company drivers for all of the time they work. That’s one of the biggest predatory practices by mega fleets. Max out the 14-hour clock but only pay for the portion while actually driving.
Find anyone, and I mean anyone, with a desk job who is paid hourly and tell them they have to be at work for 14 hours. But they will only get paid for 11 of them, at the most. And, oh yeah, they don’t get any overtime. They would tell you to shove it and hit the door.
History tells us fleets, universally speaking, are not going to do this willingly. There are a select few out there who do it right, but they are the exception. So, the only way to force the hand of mega fleets is to remove the overtime exemption for truck drivers.
Enter Sen. Alex Padilla. He has introduced the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act in the Senate just as we were going to press. His bill in the Senate partners up well with the House version introduced by Rep. Andy Levin in April. I’d venture to guess that ATA is sweating bullets and lobbying hard against these.
Read up on the bills on Page 22 and get on the horn with your representative and senators. Tell them to sign on as co-sponsors.
Speaking of lawmakers, midterm elections are right around the corner. Midterms don’t get all the hype of a presidential election, but they are huge. So many seats are up for grabs during a midterm that you really can’t afford to miss out. Our election guide by State Legislative Editor Keith Goble starts on Page 44.
While critical, you cannot walk out of the polls and consider your work here done until the next election. It takes work to achieve dreams. With things like the overtime bill, the possibility of more flexibility with the hours of service (check that out on Page 20), and so much more, you have to stay active.
Sure, trucking will never be a perfect utopia. But it sure has potential to be a heck of a lot better if we keep the pressure on lawmakers to do the right thing once they are in office. LL