Top 10 Challenges In & Out of the Truck

The road ahead for the rest of 2016 looks bumpy for produce transportation. There are regulatory curves coming up, along with potholes that may prove jarring to truck drivers and cause a ripple effect throughout the perishables industry.

Last year ended with Congress passing a final version of the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) long-term highway act, which provides multiple fixes to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rules, but most industry sources believe the changes benefit larger carriers more than smaller owner-operators.

Diana Pickering, transportation manager at Sparky’s Transportation Corporation in Clarks Summit, PA, believes the government is trying to control every aspect of the trucking industry, despite having never been directly involved in trucking. “They have no concept of what it truly takes to be a truck driver,” she says.

Against the backdrop of the ever-changing federal rules process, Blueprints compiled a Top 10 list of the biggest issues and concerns affecting the produce transportation industry. The list came from a number of sources, including the American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI) “Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry” survey, as well as trade groups and associations, and major publications.

#1 Regulation: New & Old
While government regulation in general is a sore subject with carriers, the recently passed FAST long-term highway act is top of mind for many. The law covers reform of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability’s Safety Measurement System so carrier rankings will not be visible to the public until the system is fixed by FMCSA and the Government Accountability Office. Such reform is a long sought goal of the trucking industry.

Other components of the Act are driver drug testing reform to include hair samples and not just urine; a study of detention time and how it affects drivers; liability insurance minimums; the inclusion of a regulatory impact analysis as part of the FMCSA rulemaking process; regulations on windshield-mounted devices like cameras; and easing rules to allow military veterans with comparable experience to obtain a civilian Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). The bill did not rule on drivers under 21 years old, setting up a controlled study instead, and it did not take action on changing truck size and weight standards. The 1,300-page bill also included some unrelated banking provisions.

While the law seems conciliatory and focused on research, carriers remain unhappy with the rising government oversight. “It is easier for the government to monitor large carriers, and the little guy keeps slipping away because he doesn’t want to or can’t afford to keep up with all the rules, regulations, changes, and demands on his trucking company,” comments Fred Plotsky, president of Cool Runnings, a broker and carrier in Kenosha, WI. “It’s becoming harder and harder to just drive a truck and get a load.”