“We appreciate some of the witnesses highlighting the truck parking crisis,” said Todd Spencer, OOIDA President. “For too long, Congress and federal transportation agencies have done very little to address this issue. Truckers need more safe places to park, not more studies that do nothing to increase or preserve capacity. This is a critical highway safety issue that deserves dedicated federal funding.”
Regarding another issue brought up during the hearing, OOIDA expressed objection.
The American Trucking Associations said that in order to address a driver “shortage,” that the age requirement to obtain a commercial driver’s license should be lowered from 21 to 18.
“If safety is the top priority when considering a change to a regulation, when it comes to age, the number should be raised, not lowered,” Spencer said. “We also disagree that there is a driver shortage. There is very high turnover, or churn, but no shortage.”
Spencer said OOIDA has long opposed efforts to lower the age for driving a large truck and refers to the claims of a driver shortage as mainly mythical.
OOIDA also contends that any issue with retention could be mitigated with other solutions that would be safer for all highway users.
For example, compensation has been shown to be tied directly to highway safety, as revealed in a study by Michael Belzer, an economics professor at Wayne State University, Spencer said, noting that Belzer’s study suggests there is a strong correlation between truck pay and highway safety.
“Most carriers with high turnover do so by design,” Spencer said. “They could deal with driver turnover by offering better wages and benefits and improved working conditions. But putting younger drivers behind the wheel of a truck isn’t the solution because it does nothing to address the underlying issues that push drivers out of the industry. It merely exacerbates the churn.”
OOIDA currently has more than 160,000 members nationwide.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
