Many of the nation’s professional truck drivers have begun a month-long initiative to highlight their growing safety concerns caused by what they see as rapidly deteriorating working and economic conditions,
according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. (OOIDA).
OOIDA leaders declared June 2003 as National Truck Safety Month at its board meetings last November. During June, truck drivers are collectively taking a stand to resist what they term as economic and coercive pressures from motor carriers, shippers, receivers and brokers to violate existing commercial vehicle safety regulations in order to increase productivity.
Truckers are being encouraged to maintain strict compliance with all trucking safety rules.
OOIDA President Jim Johnston said, "June Safety Month is an effort to gain the participation of as many professional drivers as possible in calling attention to, and addressing the serious safety problems that exist because of the pressures, demands and expectations for unreasonable performance.
"For nearly 65 years, shippers and carriers have coerced drivers to break state and federal regulations and falsify logbooks to make unrealistic or impractical delivery schedules," Johnston said. "Truckers are spending an average of 30 to 40 hours per week in unnecessary delays waiting to load and unload," said Johnston. "This contributes to fatigue and stress and pushes many drivers to exceed their own limits, ultimately putting themselves and overall highway safety at risk."
June Safety Month has gained congressional support in Washington. A congressional resolution to heighten awareness about the contributions, needs and safety-related issues of America's truck drivers has been sponsored by Missouri Rep. Sam Graves. A growing number of states including Nebraska, Kansas and Texas have passed special resolutions backing OOIDA’s safety initiative, according to the organization.
The June campaign coincides with the annual nationwide commercial vehicle inspection week administered by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA). Commenting on the timing of June Safety Month, Johnston said, "Increased law enforcement targeting truckers is not the solution to highway safety. The core problem rests with the self-serving industry practices of intimidating drivers to violate existing regulations as the way to increase the productivity of drivers and boost the companies' profits."
While June Safety Month has been many months in planning, it happens to also coincide with the recent release of the new hours-of-service regulations by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
OOIDA has already stated publicly that it believes these new rules will have minimal impact on driver fatigue until appropriate measures are put in place to eliminate the economic and coercive pressures faced by truckers to operate in violation of safety regulations.
OOIDA is made up of more than 96,000 owner-operators, professional drivers and small business truckers from all 50 states and Canada. OOIDA represents the interests of this nation's more than 350,000 small business trucking professionals in the legislative and regulatory processes at both federal and state levels.
For more information, call Todd Spencer, OOIDA executive vice president at (816) 229-5791.