KEN'S KORNER - FEBRUARY 2009
STRANGE DAYS INDEED
BY AUTHOR, EDUCATOR & DRIVER KEN SKAGGS
I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe. It’s like something out of a bad science-fiction movie. I’m sitting here surfing the web, reading the latest trucking news like I always do, but this time it’s different. Everywhere I look its doom and gloom.
I’ve always been an optimistic guy, and I’ve never bought into any doomsday scenario. In fact, I often brag about how awesome it is working in the trucking industry – the freedom, the opportunities, etc. When other areas of the economy struggle, trucking always survives, right? No matter what happens, people still need stuff. But what can I say when every trucking publication I see (except 10-4 of course) has nothing but bad news? What the heck is going on? Is this real?
It’s not just economics – there are so many new regulations popping up all over, it’s downright crazy. I’ve never seen such a flurry of laws being passed left and right, restricting business as usual, in a time when business is having enough trouble just trying to survive. Is there no end to the insanity? The pie is getting smaller, more fingers are dipping into it, and more limitations are being placed on it – all at the same time. By the time you get the plastic lid off, the foil, the Saran wrap, give a piece to the government, the broker, the billing company and the insurance company, you’re lucky if there is enough left to even get your finger wet.
Take Canada for example. As of January 1, 2009 they have a law in Ontario and Quebec requiring speed limiters to be installed on every truck, forcing them to be set at 105 kph (65 mph). And that goes for any truck passing through those states, not just those that are registered there. Transportation Minister Julie Boulet promised a year ago that she would not implement the mandate until Transport Canada completed a study on the issue, and that she wouldn’t implement it all if the provinces didn’t agree. Well, they didn’t complete the study, the other provinces didn’t agree, and yet it still became law. OOIDA has claimed that the big corporations are pushing for this, trying to once again hinder the smaller competition, but I don’t know.
Then there’s the TWIC (Transport Worker Identification Credential) program. All port workers, including truckers going in and out of ports, are required to have a TWIC card by a certain date (dates vary from port to port), and will not be able to enter without it. You’ll have to clear an FBI check to get one. Considering Homeland Security and terrorism, this is probably a good idea, but it’s just one in a long list of new hassles for truckers in this day and age.
Ohio raised its oversize load permit fees by an average of 1,200 percent – up to 36 times higher in some cases. Their 90-day permit two months ago cost $20. By July it will cost $750! I fully expect fees to go up a little here and there, but this one is ridiculous. Most states are $50 to $180, give or take a little. Ohio went from being one of the cheapest states to being possibly the most expensive.
Pennsylvania has now joined the anti-idling bandwagon, adding their state to the growing list. But at least they had the decency to make exceptions for temperatures under 40 and over 75 degrees. Being one of the few drivers left who does not have an APU (auxiliary power unit), I am glad that I can still idle when the weather requires it. I’m all for clean air, but not everyone can afford all of this expensive equipment to comply with all of the new laws. So, many of us are simply avoiding a few states right now.
And how about the hours-of-service mess? The 34-hour restart and 11-hour driving day are still in effect (as of January 2009), but you never know when that will change again. I like to call the current regulation the No-Nap rule, since drivers are no longer allowed to take a decent nap under this rule. I can understand how it happened and why it turned out that way – because a lot of trucking companies were expecting drivers to spend countless hours at a shipper and then drive all day – and it does protect drivers from that, but for safety’s sake, a driver (especially an OTR driver) should be able to stop and take a four or five hour nap when he feels tired. It just makes no sense to me that we can’t. Again, safety really isn’t the concern.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is fighting to have electronic on-board recorders (commonly referred to as EOBR’s or black boxes) installed on trucks. Unlike the ones found in airplanes, which only report accident information after the fact, these recorders would be used to catch truckers cheating on their logs.
Kansas is currently trying to pass a bill that would link toll times to collect speeding fines. Talk about lazy. This could develop into a fully automated money-making machine that automatically sends a speeding ticket to unsuspecting travelers. And it just goes on and on.
Every trucking publication and website out there is chock-full of new regulations that restrict trucking in some way – heck, I could spend two articles on California alone. There are new toll roads popping up, talk of fuel tax increases in at least two states, and more states are passing anti-idling laws and a barrage of parking restrictions for trucks. We can’t idle, we can’t drive too long, and now we can’t even park! What’s a trucker to do?
I’m not worried about the economy all that much – we always rebound. Of course, all these regulations can ruin a small company’s economy very quickly, and I think a lot of the bigger companies would like nothing better. It is true that more trucks (not more trucking companies, just bigger companies with more trucks) went out of business in 2008 than any other year, but I think we will get through this pretty soon. Well, at least those of us who can afford speed limiters, auxiliary power units, more tolls, FBI checks for TWIC cards, higher fees for over-dimensional loads, pollution control devices, fuel tax increases and can drive all day, every day, without a nap.