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Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 7/17/12 Results

It is always nice when a plan comes together. You do your research; write a nice and respectable letter full of the facts and nothing but the facts. Put together a nice package including my book "Running Legal Blues", a police report, my report and the respectable letter that I wrote and then mail it off. Then the time goes by. Did they get the package? If so, did they actually look at it and understand my points? Is it going to be the talk of the Christmas party this year up there on Capitol Hill? All these things go through your head wondering what has become of your work until one day, like today, the phone rings.

Some of you might remember all this about a month or so ago when I found myself with points on my CSA 2010 score just for being involved in an accident, not being charged in any way or at any fault but points just for being there. Well imagine the fact that I got my dander up and off went that package to all of my representatives and today, yes today I received a call from my Congressman. Well, his representative anyway and that was close enough for me though. We spent about twenty minutes on the phone talking about not only the problems with CSA, but also many different problems in the trucking industry.

One of the first things he said was that before he called me about my problem that he called OOIDA and talked with them about it. I thought that was awesome because now he is doing research and OOIDA filled him in on many different aspects and different cases like mine. So, while we agreed that CSA 2010 does have its good points, this is a problem that does need to be looked into. I was assured that several different congressional representatives are looking to fix this problem. My case will be discussed now and used as an example, and then hopefully help with the final outcome.

Of course, while I have you on the line, we went on to talk about other problems with the CSA 2010 and just dealing with the DOT in general. One point I was able to make was the difference on how different regulations are interpreted state to state. I explained that on any given item, to make Georgia happy would create a problem with the way California interpreted the same law. That even in the same state, from officer to officer, any driver could be written up just on the fact of how each different officer understood what it was they were looking at. Apply this to how CSA 2010 points affect a driver's career and we have a big problem here. I also made it perfectly clear that even though I had many problems with the DOT in general, I would in no way want to do without them. They were very much needed in this industry to keep the shippers and receivers in check. However, we need a balance here, as of now it was to one sided against truckers.

This led us down the path of over regulation of the trucking industry. How it affects drivers that try to run safe and legal. We talked about the cost to safe and legal drivers as opposed to drivers that just ignore the regulations. I helped him understand, I hope, that they could add a thousand new regulations this year alone and all it would do to make the highways safer is to bankrupt the good people. That the renegades will just continue to ignore the regulations and continue without the extra cost and drivers like me end up bankrupt due to the fact that we just cannot compete with the renegades.

We talked about the numbers of deaths out on the highway. I for one found that even one death was too many but given the fact that trucks supply America, that there was just no way possible to do our job and expect zero deaths. As long as there are humans involved, accidents will happen. Again, there has to be middle ground here, that the only way to have zero deaths is to remove all trucks from the highway. Then, as you may well know, America starves this way, that perhaps educating the general public on how to safely drive around trucks might be an option to consider.

As we talked, we covered many different subjects. I think the last one; the most important one for me was the one I drove home I hope. I explained to him all the different drivers out here that are busting their butts to run safe and legal. I explained about all the different ways and avenues that us truckers ourselves are working to better our industry and were demanding more and more each day to run safe and legal. I explained to him I hope successfully, that if they wanted safe and legal drivers out here on the highway to survive, that two things needed to happen. First, was the fact they needed to recognize that safe and legal drivers do exist. Secondly, that they must stand up and support them. Not just behind closed doors but out in the open, out where the public could see also.

Letters do work. I have only said this about a million times. The words I wrote a month ago led to twenty minutes of telephone time with a congressional representative. Who knows where the words I spoke in those twenty minutes will go. What they will accomplish? Imagine if only a small portion of the over three million truck drivers in this country picked up a pen and wrote a respectable, well-informed letter like the ones I have done so many times in the past could accomplish for our industry. It boggles the mind, don't you think?

Oh well, I'm off to finish up my happy dance. I feel like I have once again helped to make a difference. Oh, by the way, I was informed that bills are being drawn up to strip the new highway bill of the EOBR mandate. This day just keeps getting better for me. Awesome.

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