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The other day a friend came up to me with a confused look on his face. It seems that OOIDA and the ATA agree on HOS. “What does this mean?” He asked. Simple-The ATA and OOIDA don’t often find themselves in agreement, but in this case OOIDA and the ATA both believe that the new changes in HOS are no good. He asked “well who likes HOS and what is HOS?” Oh the RR and groups like PATT are on the other side of the HOS argument, but nobody really likes them. The DOT is using the FMCSA to try to make the highways safer. The NTSB and the NHSTA administration take their marching orders from the POTUS to try this.
So wait a minute the ATA and OOIDA don’t like the new HOS. NO! The TCA isn’t exactly pleased either. It is hard. Some people think the RR would like to put OOIDA, TCA, ATA, let alone NASTC out of business. He was still confused. So I started explaining about CSA and PSP. It wasn’t helping. He kept saying IDK!
He was still confused. So, I tried helping more-You see the FMCSA can’t please anybody without displeasing someone else. So they use things like ART and NAFMP to justify their positions. Is that all? NO! They use on the ground people like the CVSA. The CVSA uses Statistics like OOS and VOS tickets to upload into things like PRISM to make the roads safer. I wasn’t helping. So he asked. “ How do we keep all of this straight?” Simple we use the little green book of the FMCSR. He looked as if his head was going to explode. I decided not to mention RITA.
So he asked-“What is an ELD”? I think it is like an EOBR. Then why not just call it an EOBR? Now, I was confused. It seems as if the FMCSA tried to get the HOR to mandate EOBRs in all CMVs. They tried to include that in the highway funding bill. A lot of that money comes from IFTA. Unfortunately a lot of the IFTA money has been diverted.
What about the IBT. Well, they often go up against OOIDA. They agreed on NAFTA. They don’t favor cross border trucking. Even the EPA was on board with them on that one. WHY? The EPA was not on board partially because the Mexican trucks can cross the border with LSD. ACID? NO! Fuel-in the USA you can only buy ULSD!
So –I said look there are people from TRS and even TSG who are trying to help drivers cope. So-those two groups like the new HOS-whatever that is? Nope. They just figure WTH. Those are the HOS deal with it. They would rather worry about MPG and ROI. It was not helping. He kept saying IDK. So the DOT is out to help make highways safer by putting trucking companies out of business? Well not really don’t forget that they also have the FRA and MARAD to put marine and railroads out of business too. And pipelines? PHMSA! No wait! The DOT is not really trying to put anyone out of business. They are just helping. IDK-SMH.