Taking The Lead

Today's Thoughts 10/03/11 Taking The Lead

Ok peeps, time to take another look at the wonderful world of trucking according to me. I know, I know. Is this guy ever going to shut his yap up? No. That's probably never going to happen. But that’s ok, because every now and then I actually hit on something worth talking about. Like today's subject. "Taking the lead", but from whom? Well from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) of course. Remember those guys, the ones that were supposed to be making the highways safe from us truck drivers.

I was sitting there at the breakfast table today looking through some of the trucking rags when one particular story from the "The Trucker" caught my eye. The story relates how Representative Peter DeFazio has written a letter to the FMCSA asking basically just how it was that they justified skirting around the law and were now allowing Mexican trucks into America. Just about everyone in trucking can sit here and tell you about ten different ways the FMCSA did this illegally so I won't go into them. That’s not the point I'm trying to reach here. My point is that if the very government organization that is demanding the truckers it regulates follows the laws and regulations set forth for them, why is it that they can ignore the laws and regulations set forth for them, The FMCSA.

NAFTA has very clearly marked out a path that must be followed before the Mexican trucks can cross our borders and start traveling our highways. That’s clear enough for anyone to see. The FMCSA simply ignored them to do what they wanted to do. So my question is this, why should we not take a lesson from them and just do what we want to do. Why bother to follow any law that they might want to impose on us? Seems to me that if I simply justify my running unsafe and illegal because I think that making a profit as a small businessman is for the greater good of the country, I did the same thing the FMCSA  did and should not suffer any consequences for my actions. After all, if the FMCSA can toss the rules out, why should the people they regulate not be able to toss out the rules also?

Because truckers are better than they are, the FMCSA that is. That's the answer. Because when it comes to highway safety and running legal we truckers have taking the lead. That's the simple truth to it. While the FMCSA has been sitting up there on their duffs trying to play politics and gather power from anywhere they can, we the drivers of the trucking industry have taking the lead on such issues as highway safety and drivers being able to run our trucks legal.

Since the invention of Social Media we have been able to come together and put together not only the true and actual concerns that need to be addressed for safer highways and drivers, but also are now in the process of putting forth actual fixes for these concerns that will work in the real world that the truckers have to live in. The FMCSA is still sitting up there trying to figure out that we have to live and work in a real world. We Have taken the lead form them.  

So what do we do with that lead? Well it ours to lose for sure, that much I know. Unfortunately for America and her highways, the FMCSA is still in charge. I honestly do not believe that we need to get rid of them. Could you imagine what the trucking industry would be like if we did not have the FMCSA and all it has done in the past for us drivers? Could you imagine what you would be doing if the log book did not exist? What shape your trucks would be in? No, I'm quite convinced that the FMCSA is a very necessary thing to have about.

But change is needed. We need to Partner with the FMCSA and bring them back to where they actually help drivers in their quest to be safe and legal out on that highway. We need them to help us with better training for the industry, not only the drivers, but those that direct the driver's daily movements. We need the FMCSA to partner with us on educating the general public as to how to share the roads with us safely, the need  to respect our size and weight, not use our size and weight to scare them for political gains.

So yes, that's my opinion, we have taking the lead right out from under the very people that were supposed to be improving highway safety for all of America, the FMCSA. The very fact that we as an industry are begging to be allowed to follow the laws while they insist on breaking them proves that. But I'm a nice guy, willing to share. If the FMCSA is willing to actually start following the laws just like they demand that we truckers follow them, then I am perfectly willing to work alongside of them and let them share in taking the lead to highway safety.

I know and I truly hope that the FMCSA comes to understand that the answer to highway safety is in a partnership between them and the drivers it regulates. We have to come to know each other on a more personal level. We have to be able to trust that each is doing their job not only in committing to safety, but to each others survival. United as a team we will create out on that highway a top notch safety environment that no other can match. Divided, well that answer will be found in unemployed American truck drivers and whatever Mexico and the FMCSA allow to take our place.

Be safe peeps …

Jeff Head.
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