Some time back, Reed Black spoke with Land Line Magazine’s Keith Goble about an effort in Louisiana to crack down on speed traps.

But how effective are those laws? It’s a real question. And in this case, I’m betting they won’t be.

It’s all about the way the Louisiana law works.

It says, according to Keith, that in affected areas where tickets are issued for driving less than 10 mph over the speed limit revenues from the tickets would be routed to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

So how do they get around that?

One trucker familiar with the area says that they simply bring the speed they say you were going up to the 10 mph limit. In some counties, the officer’s word is enough to get that through court, and many folks will not fight it because of the hassle.

That’s both interesting and sad all at the same time. But I’m not really surprised.

Most of the speed trap towns I know of have stayed speed trap towns, even in states that have acted several times to stop them.

The one method I have seen that does work are those laws that restrict the percentage of a city’s income that can be derived from tickets.

When you have a city that gets 60 percent of its budget from speed trap tickets, restricting it to where the city can get no more than 40 percent does make a dent in this.

As I recall, one state even backed it up further, telling the city that every dollar over the set percentage would go to the state, not to the city. And not many cities are willing to spend police salaries just to send extra money to another government.

That’s not the case with this new law in Louisiana. Hopefully, at some point, they’ll realize that their solution won’t work so well – as you helpfully pointed out – and they’ll try the one method that has worked.

Every once in a while, I think it’s good to do some mea culpas.

I picked up the expression from a buddy of mine, a gentleman who comes from a Sicilian family.

And for those of you who haven’t heard that expression before – just like I hadn’t before my buddy turned me on to it – it’s one of those Latin phrases that somehow got into our language.

And in so many words, it means admitting that I screwed up.

And that’s what I did a while back.

In my enthusiasm, I agreed to something when I shouldn’t have. A trucker who was talking about Ohio when the split speed limit was in effect said those patrol officers giving tickets back then were “stealing from truckers.”

It’s an attitude a lot of truckers have. And because I’m pretty supportive of truckers, I jumped on the bandwagon.

So why do we think that way?

What I think spurred the attitude is the way the highway patrol there in Ohio continually pushed to keep the split speed limit, saying they wanted to use the trucks to force other drivers to slow down.

That was a dangerous point of view. They were counting on increased vehicle interaction – something they said in their own documents – to make that happen, even though that is the exact reason split speeds lead to more accidents.

The heavy enforcement in Ohio of that lower speed limit for truckers seemed to some folks like salt in the wound.

But we do need to remember how many of our law enforcement officers are out doing a good job and protecting the public.

And we need to remember that the best way to get what truckers want is to have all truckers run compliant – and that means with all laws and regulations, including the speed limit.

I can’t remember how many times I heard Woody Chambers – a lifelong trucker, OOIDA’s general vice president and a one-time resident of Illinois – say that if every trucker on I-55 did 55 mph, those lawmakers from Chicago would be so tired of passing them while on their way down to Springfield, that the split there would have been gone 10 years ago.

Even without that, it’s just good practice to obey the laws, and to not criticize police for enforcing them. They didn’t create those laws; the people we elected did.

We lose sight of that sometimes, and we need folks to remind us. Thanks to those who reminded me.

Here is the latest letter of thanks from soldiers who received OOIDA’s Truckers for Troops care packages, again addressed to OOIDA staffer Connie Becraft.

Dear Mrs. Becraft,

On behalf of the troops and myself of the 342nd MP Co. here on FOB Poliwoda, I want to thank you for the care package you and the OOIDA team have sent over.

These items are very useful and come in handy on long missions.

I want to thank you for all the hard work and support you have shown for us; it is much appreciated and we are all very grateful.

I am proud to serve you, the rest of the OOIDA members, and the United States of America.

Thank You,

PV2 Nathan Simpson

342nd MP Co.

In a recent conversation with Mike Joyce of OOIDA’s Washington, DC, office, Mike told me to remind people that during the August recess of Congress, truckers have a prime opportunity to get out and meet their members of Congress face to face.

This is even more of an opportunity than we made it out to be.

Most of the time, when you call your representative’s or senator’s office, you have to talk with a staff member. The member of Congress is far too hard to get on the phone; their schedules in DC are packed.

But when they’re on a monthlong recess, the purpose is to go home and meet with constituents. They have town halls; they go to festivals and parades and other events.

And one other place, as OOIDA member Scott Grenerth reminds us: the county fair.

He’s absolutely right.

It doesn’t just apply to members of Congress. State regulators, legislators and others all go to county fairs and also to state fairs.

You have these people trapped. They are behind that booth, and they are there to meet people. And frankly, most people at a fair aren’t there to meet a member of Congress. They’re at the fair for the Ferris wheel and the cotton candy. So some of these folks are frankly a little bored.

Let’s give them something to do – for example, talk to a trucker.

But remember the ground rules.

Be polite. Be professional. Don’t use bad language. Don’t yell. Explain why you hold this opinion, while remembering that they aren’t truckers. They don’t understand how this industry works. So be sure to explain why something is the right thing to do, how trucking works, and how that affects the issue you’re talking about.

Nothing beats the impact you can have by talking to a member of the House or Senate face to face.

So make sure you hit the nearest fair – and good luck!

To whom it may concern:

I received an e-mail from our nephew, and I am copying it and pasting it below.

He received your package, and I think you can tell by the e-mail it was greatly appreciated.

May God bless you and all the truckers who helped support this valiant effort.

Below is the e-mail from Keith Rosewaren.

Sincerely,

Rick Wrisinger

Rick and Laura,

Thank you again for the last package you sent. It arrived last week.

I also got the package from OOIDA, and it was pretty awesome.

They included about a dozen ball caps with their logos, so everyone is walking around with OOIDA hats on.

Thanks again,

Keith

One doesn’t often get the chance to make a connection between trucking and Libyan president Moammar Khadafy. And one might say I’m stretching it a bit by trying it here, but, hey, somebody’s gotta think of these things.

Next month is the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, a gathering of leaders who will bring their different perspectives together from all around the world under one roof in a stunning display of peace and cooperation and goodwill that will, in fact, accomplish absolutely nothing.

In spite of that, it should be fun to watch. It’s not even here yet and the spectacle is already beginning. Which brings me to our old buddy Moammar. Moammar, you may remember, was painted as a pretty big threat to the U.S. in the ’80s, what with his sunglasses and general’s uniform and all.

And then he went away. Well, I mean, he was still there; we just didn’t hear about him for many years, and it’s only really over the last couple of years that his name has begun popping up in the news again. He’s already been embroiled in two controversies this summer alone.

Last week, he was photographed giving a big ol’ friendly hug to the big ol’ friendly murderer who bombed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, back in the ’80s. The dude made headlines last week when he was released from prison because he was terminally ill. Aw, poor baby.

This week, the terrorist-hugging Moammar is making waves in New Jersey by planning to camp out in a suburban front yard during the aforementioned UN meeting. Not being content to just live up to the dictator-in-a-general’s-uniform stereotype, Mo has to go for the Arab stereotype as well and stay in an air-conditioned Bedouin tent wherever he travels.

Usually, whenever he comes to town, the UN has a special piece of its own property where he can pitch his tent, presumably a KOA campground somewhere on Long Island. However, it seems the UN digs are currently under construction, so they’ve shipped him off to New Jersey to a house owned by the Libyan Mission to the United Nations.

And rather than stay inside the house, like most normal folks would do, Mo is going to camp out in his tent in the front yard. Naturally, this has the neighbors a little upset.

So, by now you are sitting there reading this (assuming you have read this far, and bless you if you have) and thinking, “That’s all well and good, but where does the trucking angle fit in?”

Well, let’s face it, who knows more about angry neighbors than truck drivers who park their trucks in their own yards? The next time someone gets in your face – whether it’s a nosy neighbor or an entire city council or a county government (I’m looking at you, Antelope Valley), tell them the story of Moammar and his traveling tent and ask them which they would rather have in their neighborhood?

Suddenly a truck next door doesn’t seem so bad.

The controversy over cell phone use and texting in vehicles is gathering steam around the country. It involves some real safety concerns.

Congress and state lawmakers are trying to address the issue. But I’m not sure that the states or Congress or anyone else can really stop this trend.

It’s not truckers who are the problem. It’s the next generation, the teenagers now who are the adults of tomorrow. They’ve grown up with this, they’re used to it, and they don’t see a problem with it.

A friend of mine has an expression she uses frequently: Technology never moves backward.

What she means is that once we have something available and we as a public have accepted it, and grown accustomed to it, we are very unlikely to give it up.

She was referring at the time to getting music online. Record companies tried to stop it, especially back when it was all music copied from other people.

They didn’t stop it. The illegal trading continues – and even in the legal sphere, iTunes is one of the top places for selling music, while CD sales are in the toilet.

It is true what one trucker said recently: We all operated fine before we had cell phones. And we don’t have to use them in our vehicles.

But stopping it is a hard task and, boy, I wouldn’t want to be the person who has to tell people to cut it out.

Sometimes, when we run a call, we start a little debate, even if we don’t intend to.

That was the case recently when a trucker called to say she saw an RV dumping its waste tank into a storm sewer in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

I criticized that action. I criticized the store for blaming truckers.

But one trucker, who was also an RV owner, pointed out that gray water – meaning leftover water from washing dishes or taking a shower – is different from black water – which comes out of the RV toilet. So if it was gray water, that’s not as bad as it would be if you dumped your black water.

Well, you may not know it, but black water and gray water are big topics in the RV world. And they can inspire some pretty emotional responses.

My response was a little quick, and a little flip, especially when I virtually agreed – on the air – with a trucker who said dumping gray water in the parking lot was fine.

I’ve heard from people who weren’t too happy with that response. And I think I should clarify. So here goes.

I think you all have a point. I did point out that if you are going to dump gray water, storm sewers probably aren’t the best way to handle that.

But I didn’t completely object to what that trucker said about gray water. And that statement isn’t all bad.

After all, if you wash your truck in the driveway, the gray water that produces will put far more into the storm sewers than most RV tanks.

If you are going to dump outside a proper disposal tank, in fact, environmentalists say soapy water is best disposed of on a lawn, where the grass and dirt will filter it before it makes into streams or the water table.

That being said, that doesn’t mean I think people should go about dumping their gray water every which place they can.

An RV dump station is the only place that’s really a proper disposal site for gray or black water. Period.

For that RV in Wal-Mart, there really is no excuse, since most states have numerous dumping stations available for free to the public. Some interstate rest areas even have them, right along the highway.

So with that said, what say we let this issue die?

One of the unique difficulties faced by so many soldiers is their youth – some have never left their hometowns before joining the military; others have never left the country. And now, they find themselves in an entirely alien environment.

That’s why care packages mean so much, as this thank-you letter from a U.S. Marine points out.

Hi,

I received a large ‘care’ package from all the fine folks at OOIDA.

Thank you so very much. It is so nice to know that we are not forgotten, in particular the younger Marines who are making their 1st deployment away from home.

All of the items will be put to good use. Again thanks so much.

Semper Fi,

CWO-4 Edward M. Williams
Engineer,

Ordnance Maintenance Platoon Commander

One of the big problems in the trucking industry revolves around third-party testers.

These are often private companies that also run the truck driving schools where they’re located, and that have a vested interest in making sure their students pass the CDL test – even if they shouldn’t.

Some of the biggest CDL-for-sale scandals have involved third-party testers.

But even when that’s not the case, we often see things like what one OOIDA member saw while driving through Missouri.

Near I-44 on the north side of the highway, a third-party tester checks driver’s skills using a single axle tractor, with a window in the back, and a single, 20-foot overseas, empty container chassis on the back.

As that member pointed out, those drivers being tested can look out the back window, and follow the back of the chassis through the cones visually.

Sound very real-world to any of you?

It certainly doesn’t prepare you to back up a loaded 53-foot trailer, as our member pointed out.

It’s an incredibly important and valid point. And it’s really sad to see that this is happening in Missouri, which has had some real problems already with third-party testers, some of which have ended in criminal prosecutions.

So how do we fight things like this?

Call your elected representatives. Tell them what you saw. Explain, based on your own experience as a trucker, why this is bad.

If you called Missouri state representatives and told them exactly what you see at these facilities, I think you’d be surprised how some of them would react.

There’s always the odd one or two who just don’t care, but most of them realize that they drive on the same roads as truckers, their families do too, and they want those truckers to be safe drivers, just like all of us do.

If everyone who saw that kind of activity, who was aware of it, called their state representatives, we would make incredible progress toward getting them to work toward a solution.

And folks, this is one where the mainstream media is right with us. They’ve reported on these third-party testing disasters, and if you explain – in terms a non-trucker can understand – what is happening and why it’s a problem, you can get their attention.

A well-placed phone call or letter to the editor or two would go a long way toward safer roads.

One of the unique things about OOIDA’s Truckers for Troops care packages is that they go not to individual soldiers, but to entire platoons. That way, the Association is able to reach far more soldiers than it would otherwise.

That was the case with a box that went to Maj. Jim Reis.

Dear Connie,

I got your care package yesterday. The cool OOIDA hats went quick. The hot chocolate, peanut/pistachios were a big hit as well. In less than 24 hours, we only have a few items you sent left.

My entire section (about 25 Soldiers) thanks you and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association for your support.

Sincerely,

Maj. Jim Reis, MND-C 287th SB LNO

A little while back, we talked with Tom Weakley of the OOIDA Foundation about the push by the ATA and others for longer, heavier trucks.

And normally we express our opposition in terms of what this would do to safety and to the economic prospects of truckers.

But there’s another reason, which was brought up recently by an OOIDA member – and that’s the image of the trucking industry with the general public.

We already have enough trouble with trucking’s public image. And the public does not like this idea.

I’ll even go a step further. The way we handle larger vehicles now – with more experienced drivers and loads permitted or licensed specifically for their size – is sustainable. The public is used to it, and they won’t object if we continue the way we’re going.

But if we made the larger size the ATA is asking for universal, we could be looking at a big public backlash.

Only it isn’t the folks supporting this idea who’ll suffer from that backlash … it’s the truckers who will.

It’s just one more reason that this idea needs to die a quick and quiet death.

Over the past couple of years, sleep apnea has caused a lot of controversy in the trucking industry.

The condition, which involves waking up several times a night because your breathing has briefly stopped, can be serious. No one is doubting that.

But rather than those concerns leading to help for people who have it, apnea has instead become an excuse to punish truckers who have it, invading their privacy, threatening their livelihoods, and so on.

A lot of truckers don’t like that for a lot of obvious reasons.

But there’s an important public policy consideration here: If we continue to punish people for having apnea (and that is what is being done), then we will not cut its effect on the world – we will instead have the opposite effect.

The way this is being handled in the trucking industry is actively discouraging anyone who drives a truck from doing anything that would show they have the condition, or anything that would let anyone know they do.

Plus, a point that has been made clear over and over: There is no science anywhere linking sleep apnea to truck safety.

Most folks who try to make that link refer to studies on four-wheelers. Those drivers have less experience, are less acclimated to driving long distances, have already worked a full day before they get in the car, have less training, and on and on.

But even then, the studies that are out there refer not to actual safety statistics – they connect apnea to greater risk of drowsiness, reductions in specific skills they say are used in driving.

But at this point, no one has any information saying this wreck or that wreck was caused by apnea. No one. Period.

No one has any study that looks comprehensively, or even in a limited way, at a group of accidents with an eye toward the role that apnea played. No one. Period.

Why then with a lack of any science are we proposing punishing, and in some cases, actually cutting truck drivers off from their livelihoods?

The truckers don’t want to have this. No one who has apnea wants to have it. Most eagerly look for treatment once they’re diagnosed.

If we keep punishing anyone who even might have this illness, we will be doing far more harm than good.

This is much more about sleep labs, CPAP makers and others making money than it is about safety.

Don’t let anyone tell you any different.

We continue to bring you thank-you letters from our troops who received OOIDA care packages paid for by the Truckers for Troops Telethon.

Here is the latest, once again written to OOIDA staffer Connie Becraft.

Connie,

I received a very large surprise today. I received a huge care package from you on behalf of the OOIDA.

To say it was unexpected would be an understatement, but was welcomed by everyone here in the tent.

We almost had people fighting over the pistachios and peanuts. (Not really, but they are greatly appreciated.)

Anyway, I want to say thank you on behalf everyone who comes through our tent. We serve as the coordinators of training and movement of people through Kuwait into the country.

Again, thank you for your thoughtfulness and kindness.

Maj. Dallas Hewett, 287 SB LNO

For years, OOIDA has pressed federal officials to have truckers covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

That’s the act that forces employers to compensate hourly employees for time worked over 40 hours a week. Back when that law was first passed in the 1930s, truck drivers were exempted from its protection.

Why that was done, I can’t tell you. I suspect it was to keep the companies who hired them from paying the overtime they were owed. But that’s just my theory.

What I can say is how much I think truckers need to be included under that act.

If truckers were paid hourly and covered under that law, do you think carriers would stand for the docks holding you up for 4, 6 or 8 hours, waiting to unload or load?

No. They would charge the shipper or receiver for your time.

Would they permit a dock to force you to load or unload – or to have to pay for a lumper?

No. That would end up as an expense for them.

The fact is, all the free market advocates have missed this: Truckers’ time has value, but they are prohibited from charging for it.

Therefore, because of the government’s action in this case, the docks, the carriers – everyone involved is allowed to artificially treat the truckers’ time as if it has no value.

That is not free market. That is exploitation, pure and simple. And it plays directly into logbook compliance, safety and every other issue that these folks care about.

You want to fix the problems in trucking? Then fix the problems faced by truckers.

It’s that simple.

We continue to bring you the thank you’s we’ve received from soldiers since we started the OOIDA Truckers for Troops Telethon. As with several others, this was addressed to Connie Becraft, one of the OOIDA staffers leading the box packing, and who has kept in touch personally with many of the care package recipients.

Mrs. Becraft,

My team and I would like to thank you and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association very much for the care packages.

We really needed everything you sent. We are delighted that people appreciate what we are doing and going through on a daily basis.

Again, thank you for the care packages,

SSG Guenther, Dwayne

Some years back, when I was at the bargaining table as a representative of my TV newsroom’s union, the company negotiator tried to get us to agree to a two-tier wage system – decent pay for us veterans, but no chance for new-hires to ever reach our wage scale.

When we rejected the proposal, he said, “Why do you guys care so much about the unborn”? (i.e., future employees)

GM and Chrysler asked the United Auto Workers the same question, and the UAW decided it cares more about the born than the unborn – agreeing to a two-tier wage system.

I’m not blaming the UAW – just noting that that’s what it did.

Now, new assembly line workers at the plants make about half what the union scale once called for.

The “unborns” also get fewer benefits and no ongoing company contributions to their retirement health plans.

Ford is now seeking same deal from the UAW.

Flashback to 1914: Henry Ford announces he’ll more than double his worker’s pay to $5 a day.

Ford wants to attract hard-working, loyal employees and, he says, he wants his workers to be able to afford to buy his cars.

Today, 70 percent of U.S. economic activity consists of retail sales.

Our economic survival is predicated on a healthy and well-paid middle class that can afford to purchase houses, cars, TVs, etc.

But the unborns who are now beginning to show up for work at GM and Chrysler plants (and a lot of other places where the two-tier system has been adopted) will have about half the purchasing power that their moms and dads did.

At the bargaining table, we didn’t try telling all this to the company negotiator.

He didn’t want to hear it anyway.

But if consumer spending in this country – hence collective wealth – declines over the years, economists may not be able to place the blame entirely on recessions or consumer confidence.

They may have to cite the growing impact of the unborn.

In Ohio, truckers have recently noticed some real changes.

First, the state eliminated the split speed limit on all interstate highways there, something worthy of a few roses.

Then, a trucker noticed that they hadn’t changed the signs in time on some highways, something that smelled a little fishy, since some state bureaucrats had said publicly that they didn’t want the change.

Then, we heard that one interstate suddenly had a whole lot fewer state patrol officers pulling over truckers.

It was as if they were saying, now that we don’t have this law, we’re not interested in enforcing speed limits any more.

But we mustn’t forget – no matter how this is handled, no matter what the Highway Patrol does there in Ohio, we need to remember that this was a good thing the state’s elected officials did, and it deserves our thanks.

That’s two states in a row, Indiana and Ohio, that we normally don’t say much good about, but that have done something good lately for truckers. (We recently thanked Indiana for putting a truck stop thief behind bars.)

In this case, though, I’m going to take that thank-you one step better.

Ohio essentially gave truckers a pay raise (as one of our members pointed out) by letting truckers run more miles in a shorter time – and letting them do it legally. We believe in running compliant, and this, bluntly, helps.

Ohio also increased the chance that all truckers – and car drivers – will live longer, since uniform speed limits lead to far fewer accidents.

The state reduced congestion, which cuts emissions, which is good for the environment.

They made it less likely that idiotic four-wheelers will dash around trucks like a swarm of angry bees because the big rigs are going slower. (They didn’t eliminate that one, but hey, less is better.)

We need to call our elected officials to account when they do wrong. But by the same token, we need to let them know as well when they do right.

So once again, a big thank-you to the state of Ohio.

We continue to bring you letters of thanks from soldiers who received care packages courtesy of OOIDA’s Truckers for Troops Telethon.

Since the members are the ones who sacrificed out of their own hard-earned money to make this happen, this is for you:

Hello friends at OOIDA,

I got your package a few days ago. It was very heavy.

I would like to thank all the wonderful people involved in your support – everyone who gave, who sent money, and all the people responsible for putting it all together. We appreciate so much the hard work, sacrifice and dedication everyone involved has shown.

We, yet again, are reminded that there are still people in this country who stand for principles and beliefs that include people other than themselves, and that we are supported in the trials we face.

Things in Iraq are much better than before due to all the support we receive and the Americans who still believe that this place is worth liberating.

The love and support you all give is well received and helps us remember why we decided to enter into the Armed Services.

All my Marines asked me to extend their deepest appreciation, and I, too, would like to do the same.

Keep on truckin’ and we shall do the same. Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Sgt. Andrew Phelps

"Drew"

Even though I am now tweeting on a regular basis, I still don’t fully understand this whole Twitter thing. I think, as a writer, it’s the 140 character limit that bothers me the most. That’s characters, not words. How much can you meaningfully communicate in 140 characters?

I’m not good at it, I’ll admit that. I like words too much to have to abbreviate them just to get my point across. Look at the first paragraph in this post. If I were tweeting it, I only would have had enough room for the first sentence and a half. Hardly enough to get my point out there. I mean, here I am, two paragraphs in, and I still haven’t gotten to the point. Oh, stop rolling your eyes, it’s coming.

In spite of its shortcomings, there are many people who now can’t seem to live without Twitter. This was never more evident than on a recent Thursday morning when Twitter experienced an outage. It was called a “denial of service” attack, which is a fancy way of saying a bunch of hackers got their knickers in a twist and decided to flood the Twitter servers with so much traffic that nobody else could even get on.

That was when you could tell who the real addicts were. You’d see them sitting there, staring at their computer screen, eyes twitching, fingers hovering anxiously over the keyboard, waiting for some sign – any sign – that their precious Twitter was back online (presumably so they could write a post complaining about how Twitter had been gone all morning).

It’s amazing. Nobody had heard of this site a year or two ago, and now some folks can’t live without it. But I guess that’s how it is with technology. It’s also why, at 37 years of age, I feel like an old man already.

Oh sure, I tweet. I tweet to keep folks informed of what I’m up to on the radio show and to see what others are up to, but it doesn’t go much further than that. When the Great Twitter Outage of ’09 happened, it didn’t ruin my whole day.

I simply shrugged my shoulders and went back to work updating my Facebook page.

Guest Blog
By Joe Rajkovacz
Regulatory Affairs Specialist, OOIDA

For the past couple of years, the plight of owner-operators who dray containers from the nation’s ports has been a battleground pitting the interests of port authorities, motor carriers, retailers, organized labor, politicians, social activists, environmentalist – including state agencies and even one state Attorney General at each other’s throat.

This has happened under the guise of “cleaning the environment” and the supposed reasons why owner-operators who serve the ports don’t have the financial ability to afford a newer, cleaner emissions truck themselves.

All these parties basically fall into one of two camps: Some want everyone to be a company driver while others want to maintain the status quo of using owner-operators, albeit with tons of your money to support their business model.

So the choices are company drivers and eventual unionization, or dumping wads of subsidies at motor carriers – that is welfare trucking.

There have been more plots, twists and turns, political intrigue, you name it, to all of this than any Robert Ludlum novel. I’ve witnessed public hearings, driver rallies, political maneuvering, and court challenges just to name a few of the “yard markers” in this sordid tale.

The latest chapter has an alliance of ports, labor, and enviros running off to Congress in an attempt to have local drayage markets re-regulated by amending the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act.

If they succeed, it’s a good chance owner-operators plying the ports would end.

So how did we get in this fine mess? Well, look no further than the self-anointed protectors of owner-operators and many of the motor carrier members they represent – the ATA.

They portray themselves as the avant garde of “free market forces” and champions of laissez faire business. In their arrogance, they have disassociated themselves from the marketplace dysfunctions they created by not adhering to certain federal regulations and engaging in wholesale shoddy business practices to the detriment of owner-operators.

Nature abhors a vacuum and the void created by unscrupulous motor carrier practices is being filled by others who themselves are not fans of owner-operators.

Maybe it’s just me, but has the whole trucking industry lost their collective minds? I’m beginning to think so as I observe the obscenity of the ATA wrapping itself as the self-anointed protector of owner-operator status and continuing to use their services to dray containers out of the nation’s ports.

This is the same organization that derives most of its revenue from the biggest of the big in transportation. How sweet that they’re concerned about the little guy, huh?

News flash to the suit and tie crowd who’ve spent as little time actually in a truck as I’ve spent eating quiche and sipping vintage wine – not. Only an owner-operator who smoked copious quantities of bird dung could possibly buy your bilge that you care about improving their lives and economic standing.

In port trucking, even minimal adherence to Part 376 of the FMCSRs is a joke.

Illegal charge-backs to owner-operators for items such as the motor carriers primary liability insurance is commonplace. Completely bogus truck lease-purchase agreements create sham owner-operators who have zero chance of success which in-turn leads to improper classification of employment status as a dodge around work-place protections enjoyed by most Americans.

In short, most of this segment of the trucking industry through outright greed and illegal behavior has created its own cesspool of an ever downward economic spiral for owner-operators.

To all that, add the inefficient practices of ports that cause drivers to waste untold hours, uncompensated, attempting to make a single turn and you start to get the real picture of what’s wrong with port drayage.

The same self-anointed protectors of owner-operators also state they actually support “cleaning up the environment” with the purchase of newer, clean emissions trucks. Nice guys, eh?

Except they’re responsible for the debased economics of port drayage and are now getting us all to pay them BILLIONS in many various public subsidies to underwrite their business model to purchase those newer trucks or retrofit existing ones.

They want a handout, not the marketplace at work and that’s welfare trucking.

The business model used in port drayage is broke. Re-regulating is not the answer because it misses a much easier and less costly fix.

We simply need FMCSA to proactively enforce ALL regulations on the books, not those it has improperly and through political manipulations refused to enforce because the agency won’t acknowledge cause and effect between what they deem “economic” regulations and over-all highway safety.

The IRS needs to get serious about enforcing its own 20-point test regarding independent contractor status and Congress should eliminate the exemption for truckers from the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Marketplaces work when everyone must follow the same rules and they are enforced. You’d think that’d be an obvious lesson from our current economic meltdown.

Owner-operators deliver the best and safest service in the industry and need to be treated fairly and equitably – by motor carriers and port authorities.

Only then can they afford to purchase newer, cleaner emissions trucks on their own dime without government hand-outs or motor carriers yoking them through “the company store mentality”.

I guess I’ve been smoking something ‘cause that’s how I always thought a marketplace should work – my bad.

So by now, I expect everyone reading this is aware that Virginia carried out its plan to close 18 rest areas.

But they’re not the only state to do that. And how other states have chosen to spend money that could have been put into those rest areas has some truckers a little peeved.

One pointed out that Indiana, which also closed a number of rest areas, has – at the same time – opened new weigh stations, locations so nice and updated that he called them “super coops.”

Well, there’s something I’ve said on the air several times lately, and I’ll say it again here: Hypocrisy is never pretty.

Indiana’s government doesn’t exactly have a good record on that count.

How about this: Take some of the $3.8 billion the state pulled in from a private company to take over the Indiana Toll Road for the next generation or two, and use that money to keep the rest areas open.

Of course, if they did tap that money, they probably would just make nicer weigh stations.

Like I said: It’s never pretty.

One of the challenges OOIDA faced in sending out care packages was the special needs of female troops.

But the organizers of the box packing sessions rose to the challenge. And when those particular packages arrived, the thank-you notes starting making their way back to Grain Valley, MO.

To OOIDA:

Thank you very much for taking the time out to arrange these great care packages. Believe me they will be put to use.

It’s hard to come by much of anything out here. I’ve already handed out the hygiene products to the females, and they all were very appreciative.

There are not too many females here in our unit. There was more than enough to go around, so I have to figure out what I will do with the extras.

I’m actually enjoying one of the coffees right now. Not too bad at all.

They have me working nights, 14-hour shifts, so all the coffee that I can get my hands on really helps.

The boys loved the raviolis. I doubt they will last long.

Thank you, everyone who took part in this, for your support. It really helps to know that we have people back home thinking about us and trying to do something to make our stay here a little easier.

Fifteen months is a long time to be away from the ones you love. Don’t take for granted the time you have with your friends and family.

Thank you again.

SPC Whitney Parks

A while back, a lawyer in Massachusetts filed a legal action on behalf of thousands of drivers in the state – both with four wheels and 18 – against the state’s turnpike commission.

His contention is that the turnpike commission is supposed to use tolls collected on the MassPike on the MassPike. However, those funds have been diverted to other items, including paying off the debt of the Big Dig.

Diversion of Highway Trust Fund money to unrelated causes is something we’ve become used to, no matter how much we dislike it.

But this you might be tempted to think is a new wrinkle, diverting toll money off the toll road where it’s collected.

Well, unfortunately, it’s not. We know of other tolling agencies that have done the same thing.

We reported some years ago that the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission had diverted funds to projects wholly unrelated to bridge construction and maintenance. At one point, they even wanted to use toll money for developments along the river. However, thankfully, that was stopped.

And in Pennsylvania, the entire concept of the law known as Act 44 was to collect tolls on I-80 and use the money to work on other highways.

The Federal Highway Administration put the kibosh on that one, but some officials in Pennsylvania have made it clear that they want to move forward.

And meanwhile, the state’s turnpike commission – which makes its money collecting tolls on the turnpike, not I-80 – is making lease payments on I-80, since that part of the act is in force. And those payments, plus any maintenance the commission does on I-80, come out of turnpike tolls.

With all that said, as far as I know, no one else has filed an action like the suit in Massachusetts. But believe me, a lot of folks, including us, are watching that case to see how it comes out.

Which is another way of saying, stay tuned.

One of the unique things about the Truckers for Troops effort is that each of the packages is sent to one soldier, but with enough in the way of supplies to share with everyone in his or her unit.

We received this thank-you note from a soldier, noting that he paid it forward.

Dear OOIDA,

I wanted to thank you for the care package that you sent to me.

I am a Supply Sergeant that is based out of FOB Kalsu, but I have part of my unit in three different places.

I took the care package that you sent me and split it up between the three locations and sent it to them. The soldiers really appreciated it.

I wanted to thank you for sending it to me,

Sgt. Robert E. Bennett, U.S. Army