Election 2020: OOIDA says Trump a net positive for small-business truckers

After eight years of being aggressively regulated by the Obama administration, small-business truckers reckoned that, even when it did nothing for 4 years, a Trump administration must be an enchancment.

That view has, for probably the most half, been borne out. The Proprietor-Operator Unbiased Drivers Affiliation (OOIDA), which represents about 160,000 small-business truckers, provides the Trump Division of Transportation (DOT) excessive marks for, amongst different issues, proposing that drivers nearing the tip of their authorized behind-the-wheel hours whereas nonetheless on the street be allowed to make use of their autos as “private conveyances” to find the closest relaxation space. OOIDA was additionally gratified by the U.S. DOT’s push for higher transparency into the charges that shippers pay freight brokers, particularly after spot charges plummeted to five-year lows within the spring as companies shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OOIDA praised federal trucking officers for his or her frequent outreach over the previous three-plus years, noting that Federal Motor Service Security Administration (FMCSA) officers have been extra seen at trade gatherings than their Obama-era predecessors. OOIDA cited former FMCSA Administrator Raymond P. Martinez for his “” engagement with the owner-operator group throughout his tenure, which ended along with his resignation in October 2019.

“All issues thought of, the Trump administration has executed fairly effectively” by owner-operators, stated Michael Matousek, OOIDA’s supervisor of presidency affairs. These sentiments would seemingly be decisively seconded by the group’s membership, which leans conservative and would tilt towards Trump anyway.

That’s to not say OOIDA was thrilled with every little thing that has come from the administration. It was aggravated when the White Home early on determined to carry photograph alternatives with executives of huge truckers represented by the American Trucking Associations (ATA), whose agenda diverges enormously from OOIDA’s. The occasions prompted a February 2018 letter to Trump from OOIDA President Todd Spencer urging him to go to the “People who really drive for a residing” and “who helped get you elected” to know their wants and considerations. The Trump 2016 marketing campaign targeted a lot consideration on truck drivers because the forgotten People who would profit from his “America First” insurance policies.

OOIDA has no visibility into what a second Trump administration, or a brand new Biden administration, would imply for its members, Matousek stated. However he made some assumptions. A Biden White Home could be extra favorable to employee pursuits and will favor drivers who’ve lengthy chafed underneath onerous detention instances that hold them from maximizing their incomes energy, Matousek stated.

A Biden victory, together with the Home retaining its Democratic majority and a blue-wave flip within the Senate, would jump-start negotiations towards attaining the primary federal floor transportation spending regulation for the reason that FAST Act’s passage in 2015, Matousek predicted. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chair of the Home Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and an OOIDA ally, would have a tailwind on the different finish of Pennsylvania Avenue. DeFazio would work intently with Biden to trend a spending invoice, Matousek stated.

Nonetheless, a Trump reelection, mixed with Democrats retaining their Home majority and probably capturing the Senate, would create such immovable gridlock that one other four-year presidential time period might cross and not using a transport-spending regulation, Matousek stated. The Freeway Belief Fund, which funds street initiatives largely by means of fuel-tax collections, would limp together with one other multiyear string of short-term funding extensions.

OOIDA is probably going extra involved with the form of a brand new Congress than with who holds the ability levers within the govt department. That’s as a result of the group has been always annoyed with the legislative course of because it has affected its members.

“We don’t bear in mind the final time we’ve supported a last model of a freeway invoice,” stated Lewie Pugh, OOIDA’s govt vp and a small-business trucker for greater than 20 years.

The most recent disappointment got here a number of months in the past, when DeFazio launched a transport-spending invoice that OOIDA lauded as favorable on varied fronts, akin to offering $250 million in funding for truck-parking capability. Simply as essential from OOIDA’s perspective, although, was that the invoice didn’t include language poisonous to its pursuits, notably a close to tripling in minimal insurance coverage necessities to $2 million in protection from $750,000.

Two weeks later throughout the invoice’s first markup, DeFazio reversed course and backed language mandating the upper premiums, in accordance with Matousek. OOIDA’s assist for the invoice shortly turned to opposition. The invoice finally handed the Home however was declared useless on arrival within the Senate. Confronted with the necessity to reauthorize the five-year FAST Act earlier than Sept. 30, Congress voted to increase its funding till September 2021.

OOIDA is aware of it is going to by no means get what it considers an ideal invoice. Democrats assist initiatives akin to increased insurance coverage premiums, set up of underride guards on each aspect of a business automobile and obligatory velocity limiters. All of these are nonstarters for OOIDA. In the meantime, Republicans typically assist the deployment of longer twin-trailers, in addition to language permitting drivers between 18 and 21 years of age to function business autos in interstate commerce, measures that OOIDA opposes.

Pugh stated that OOIDA would nearly welcome continued gridlock on Capitol Hill as a result of it will reduce the probabilities of language being handed that might be dangerous to its members. “Congress is all the time the frustration,” he stated.