‘Work-life balance’
Leading up to Meera Joshi’s expected confirmation as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s next administrator, the OOIDA Board of Directors had the opportunity to give her the perspective from truckers on a variety of issues in the industry.
Joshi joined the final day of the OOIDA fall 2021 Board of Directors meetings via videoconference on Nov. 4. The OOIDA board also was joined virtually by FMCSA Executive Director and Chief Safety Officer Jack Van Steenburg and FMCSA Chief Counsel Earl Adams Jr.
OOIDA President Todd Spencer started the meeting by informing Joshi of the board members’ hundreds of years of trucking experience and emphasizing that improving highway safety starts with listening to the nation’s truck drivers.
“Too often, there is a pretty broad disconnect between the people on the front lines and the people in administrative or policy-making areas,” Spencer said. “Everyone in this room is going to place safety at the highest priority.
“We take highway safety very seriously, and we believe that if any policies are going to actually improve highway safety then they have to be policies that are embraced by drivers. And they have to be practical in terms of meeting the needs of the folks who are actually out there. Our guys don’t do discretionary driving. They are out there for a reason. Now more than ever, we all realize how important what these folks do is to our very existence of living.”
Joshi opened her comments by thanking truck drivers for all they’ve done throughout the pandemic as well as on a daily basis.
“I want to start with what was obvious to the trucking industry and made even more obvious in 2020 … the indebtedness the nation has to truck drivers,” Joshi said. “In good times and in bad … (truckers) are resoundingly there. The nation – you can just read the headlines – is becoming much more aware of this.”
Joshi became FMCSA’s acting administrator in January and was expected to be confirmed as the agency’s permanent administrator later in November. During her time at FMCSA, she has made driver retention and the lack of compensation for detention time a focus.
In July, Joshi joined Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh for a trucking roundtable to discuss driver recruitment and retention.
During her Senate nomination hearing in September, Joshi said that driver retention and highway safety are linked and that unpaid detention time leads to problems with the supply chain.
Joshi told the OOIDA board members that the administration is focused on making the career of truck driver more attractive.
“Some of the items that continuously come up since I started in January are all focused around the work-life balance of a truck driver,” she said. “We’re focused on safety, and to the extent that the work-life conditions aren’t there or they are not habitable, it does have a tremendous impact on safety. Overworked truck drivers, drivers who are dealing with roads and bridges that aren’t kept up, not having an adequate parking area, not having clean bathrooms, having to wait excessively while loading or unloading and not being paid.
“These are all stressors that we believe – and I think we will find agreement within this room – that have a direct connection to safety. So we’re focused on addressing some of these critical issues that underpin the ability of the industry to function safely on the nation’s roadways.”
Joshi told the OOIDA board members that the administration wants more data regarding driver’s detention time and unpaid hours.
“What is the drivers’ experience on the road? What is their work life like and how does that affect safety?”
Joshi said she believes the way to get that data is through electronic logging devices. However, current law prohibits the use of ELDs for anything other than monitoring hours of service. Joshi mentioned the possibility of a volunteer research group to get the information.
“We want to be able to put a number on that,” she said. “What percentage of the week is unpaid time? Right now, the agency is not allowed to use ELDs for research … It would be the one factor that would give us absolute insight.”
Although most truckers would want something to be done about unpaid detention time, there is concern that allowing the government to expand the use of ELDs would be opening a can of worms. For instance, some lawmakers have suggested using ELDs as a way to determine the miles for a truck-only mileage tax. OOIDA has been a major opponent of ELDs being required and petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in opposition of the initial mandate.
OOIDA President Todd Spencer said that in order to get truck drivers to volunteer, they would need to know the devices wouldn’t be used in other ways.
“The key thing here would be providing a level of assurance of what it would be used for and what it can’t be used for,” Spencer said.
Members of OOIDA’s board discussed a broad range of trucking topics during the nearly three-hour meeting.
Stringent regulations
OOIDA Board Member Danny Schnautz gave Joshi some examples of what he believes are instances of truck drivers being held to too high of a standard. One example was when a tail light goes out on the truck.
“He’s held accountable for that light not working even though it may have gone out three minutes after he checked it,” Schnautz said. “The driver could have done everything possible that he or she could have done, yet the driver is held responsible. Airline pilots aren’t. They’re responsible for the checking, not for the operation. It goes on the driver’s report as if they don’t care that the light is out. We all want our lights to work.”
Joshi and Van Steenburg said that while regulations regarding functioning lights are necessary, they will look into other ways it can be handled, including giving a deadline for the light to be fixed.
Driver training
OOIDA Board Member Bryan Spoon told Joshi he is disappointed that the forthcoming entry-level driver training rule does not include any minimum number of behind-the-wheel training hours.
“Training is the key to having a safe workforce and having a higher level of safety with the motoring public,” Spoon said.
Joshi said the rule, which goes into effect on Feb. 7, is performance based. However, she agreed that training is crucial and that there is a direct tie to driver retention.
“I think it’s something we certainly need to monitor as the new rule is rolled out,” Joshi said. “If you put people into a career without the proper training – especially trucking – they are not going to stay. They’ll have enough bad experiences quickly, and they’ll soon decide to leave. That’s not good for roadway safety, and it’s not good because to generate safe drivers you need to have retention and you need to have experienced drivers. We’re setting them up for failure rather than for success.”
After the new rule is able to be assessed, it is possible that changes will be made to enhance the training.
Spencer said he is in favor of a graduated licensing system.
“We think any training is better than no training,” Spencer said. “We’re hoping we can help make the training better.
“We certainly should move to a graduated licensing system, where people have the opportunity to learn in an environment that nurtures them. Improving the professionalism will help keep drivers in our industry longer, and drivers will certainly be essential for a long time to come.”
Autonomous trucks
OOIDA Board Member Terry Button asked Joshi how the FMCSA will make sure that autonomous vehicles comply with law enforcement on the highways.
Joshi admitted that the headlines associated with autonomous trucking is that they will be safer but noted that the “risks are great and real.”
She said the agency’s regulatory agenda includes a rulemaking regarding autonomous trucking.
“There has to be accountability,” Joshi said. “There must be proven plans and requirements to how they will respond to law enforcement. There has to be the … spontaneous ability for law enforcement to interfere – something they can do today with a truck driven by a human. Those are real concerns and real points of conflict between government and industry.” LL