OOIDA scores huge wins for truck drivers with DOT announcement » Land Line Media

Eventually, the message can break through.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has spent years – and sometimes decades – advocating for issues that affect the lives of professional truck drivers. Those issues include tackling the truck parking crisis, providing hours-of-service flexibility to America’s truckers and stopping a speed limiter mandate.

On Friday, June 27, the White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation announced plans toward all of those goals – and more.

“OOIDA and the 150,000 truckers we proudly represent welcome these transformational actions from President Donald Trump and Secretary Sean Duffy,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said.

“These steps not only improve the daily lives of truckers across America but also enhance safety for everyone on the road. For years, truckers have urged Washington to address the severe shortage of truck parking, eliminate the dangers posed by a national speed limiter mandate and give drivers greater control over their hours of service.

“We thank President Trump and Secretary Duffy for listening to the men and women behind the wheel who keep America’s economy moving.”

In all, the DOT unveiled nine initiatives aimed at improving the truck driving profession. All nine are issues that OOIDA has advocated for over the years. In fact, OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh addressed at least seven of the issues at a House subcommittee hearing in March.

The nine initiatives

The package includes millions to expand truck parking as well as initiatives to remove one-size-fits-all mandates, modernize driver resources, slash red tape and crack down on bad actors.

1. Increase truck parking capacity
2. Withdraw speed limiter rulemaking
3. Increase hours-of-service flexibility
4. Improve driver resource page
5. Reform DataQ
6. Modernize National Consumer Complaint Database
7. Address unlawful brokering
8. Maintain ELD exemption on pre-2000 engines
9. Remove “needless” regulations

“Truckers keep America running,” Duffy said in a news release. “While the country sleeps, truckers grind through the night to help keep shelves stocked, families fed and businesses humming. It’s a job that requires grit and dedication. But for too long, Washington, D.C., has made work harder for truckers. That ends today. Thanks to President Trump, we’re getting Washington out of your trucks and your business.”

Pugh said that the DOT initiatives prove that all those calls and meetings with lawmakers and regulators really can push things in the right direction.

“These are all things that OOIDA has been fighting for,” Pugh said. “Again, this is just out there. This is fresh. This is a 3,000-foot level, maybe a 30,000-foot level of what’s to come.

“This is not just a win for the Association. It’s a win for all truckers and members out there who are active and belong to OOIDA. This is what happens when members answer our Calls to Action and make their voices heard. It can take a long time, but this really does work. Like OOIDA President Todd Spencer always says, ‘We’re stronger together.’”

Truck parking

The DOT is advancing more than $275 million in grant funding to expand truck parking availability. A memo also will be issued affirming that truck parking is a national priority under “Jason’s Law.”

OOIDA has been out in front of the truck parking issue for years and helped Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., craft the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act when it was first introduced in 2020. The current version of the bill would dedicate $755 million to expanding parking capacity.

“Alleviating the truck parking shortage has been the top safety concern for American truckers for more than a decade,” Pugh wrote in his submitted testimony in March. “Members of Congress from every corner of the country and across the political spectrum have supported this legislation over the years because they understand the truck parking crisis is negatively affecting their constituents who make a living behind the wheel. A lack of available parking spaces forces truckers to choose between parking in a potentially unsafe location, such as a highway shoulder, or continuing to drive while they feel fatigued or are out of available driving hours under federally mandated hours-of-service regulations.”

Speed limiters

For the second time, the Trump administration is shelving a rulemaking that would have required most commercial motor vehicles to be equipped with speed limiting devices.

OOIDA and individual truckers told regulators that the requirement would create dangerous speed differentials and hinder safety. The most recent notice from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration received more than 15,000 comments. The majority of the comments came from truck drivers who are opposed to a mandate.

“Studies and research have already proven what we were all taught long ago in driver’s ed classes – that traffic is safest when vehicles all travel at the same relative speed,” Spencer said in 2022. “Limiting trucks to speeds below the flow of traffic increases interactions between vehicles, which can lead to more crashes.”

The American Trucking Associations, meanwhile, supported a speed limiter mandate that called for all trucks without automatic emergency brakes and adaptive cruise control to be limited to 65 mph.

Hours-of-service flexibility

The DOT initiative calls for a pair of pilot programs that would provide truck drivers more control over their hours. The first pilot program would allow truckers to pause their clock for up to three hours, and the second would allow additional split sleeper berth options, including 6/4 and 5/5 splits.

Pugh asked for both of these provisions at the House hearing in March.

“For years, our members have told lawmakers and FMCSA that existing hours-of-service rules are not sensible for today’s trucking industry,” Pugh said. “Hours-of-service regulations that dictate a truck driver’s work schedule are overly complex, provide little flexibility and in no way reflect the physical capabilities or limitations of individual drivers.”

Driver resources

FMCSA is upgrading its digital tools to provide better support for drivers and to make the tools mobile accessible.

FMCSA’s Driver Resource page is designed to provide truck drivers with important information about many of OOIDA’s core issues, such as entry-level driver training.

DataQ

The agency is proposing revisions to the DataQ requirements for grant funding to ensure proper due process for drivers. The goal is to improve the impartiality, timeliness and fairness of the data review process.

For years, OOIDA has advocated for DataQ reform.

“The current Requests for Data Review process, or DataQ, is broken,” Pugh testified in March. “This system is supposed to provide carriers and drivers a fair way to challenge potentially incorrect citations or FMCSA data. Unfortunately, determinations are not made in a timely or consistent manner, and too often a determination is made by the same person who issued the initial violation, which creates an inherent conflict of interest. This is problematic, because unmerited violations and inaccurate information on an owner-operator or professional driver’s safety record can negatively affect their employment or increase their insurance costs, among other consequences.”

National Consumer Complaint Database

The National Consumer Complaint Database was created as a way for truckers to file complaints to FMCSA about coercion, fraud and unsafe practices. Under the DOT’s initiative, the NCCDB is being migrated to a modern customer service platform to be user-friendly and mobile-friendly.

OOIDA told Congress and regulators that the system needs a complete overhaul, as it is unresponsive to the complaints. The Association also asked for the name to be changed, as truck drivers often don’t even realize that the database was designed for them.

Double brokering

To promote fairness and stability of the industry, FMCSA said it is renewing its focus on combating unlawful double brokering – a practice that directly harms drivers.

OOIDA has been a leader in the fight against broker fraud and general freight fraud. At House and Senate hearings this year, Pugh spoke out about the problems truckers face with double brokering and other criminal activities. OOIDA petitioned FMCSA to create a broker transparency rule as one way to combat the problem.

“As motor carriers are increasingly victimized by freight fraud, unpaid claims, dubious charges, unpaid loads and double brokered loads, the current lack of transparency has left them little to no means to defend themselves from these schemes,” Pugh said.

ELDs

When the controversial electronic logging device mandate took effect in 2017, pre-2000 trucks were exempt and could continue to use paper logs to track hours of service.

The DOT confirmed that it has no plans to remove that exemption despite hints of efforts in that direction from the previous administration.

OOIDA opposed the original ELD mandate and has continued to fight for the exemption to remain.

“Our members have vigorously opposed the ELD mandate since its inception,” OOIDA wrote in comments signed by President Todd Spencer in 2022. “There was never sufficient research indicating the mandate would improve highway safety, and the agency still lacks data demonstrating any positive safety results since its full implementation.”

Deregulatory actions

The DOT already has been in the process of removing “needless” regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

For years, OOIDA has pushed for more focus on actual safety rather than compliance with regulations that often have nothing to do with the likelihood of a crash.

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