[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HIGHWAY TO HEADACHE: FEDERAL
REGULATIONS ON THE SMALL TRUCKING
INDUSTRY
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
NOVEMBER 29, 2017
__________
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Small Business Committee Document Number 115-049
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Chairman
STEVE KING, Iowa
BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri
DAVE BRAT, Virginia
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa
STEVE KNIGHT, California
TRENT KELLY, Mississippi
ROD BLUM, Iowa
JAMES COMER, Kentucky
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON, Puerto Rico
BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas
RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina
JOHN CURTIS, Utah
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Ranking Member
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
STEPHANIE MURPHY, Florida
AL LAWSON, JR., Florida
YVETTE CLARK, New York
JUDY CHU, California
ALMA ADAMS, North Carolina
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
VACANT
Kevin Fitzpatrick, Majority Staff Director
Jan Oliver, Majority Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Adam Minehardt, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Steve Chabot................................................ 1
Hon. Nydia Velazquez............................................. 3
WITNESSES
Mr. Monte Wiederhold, President, B.L. Reever Transport, Inc.,
Maumee, OH, testifying on behalf of the Owner-Operated
Independent Drivers Association................................ 5
Mr. Marty DiGiacomo, Owner, True Blue Transportation, Harrisburg,
NC, testifying on behalf of the National Association of Small
Trucking Companies............................................. 7
Mr. Stephen Pelkey, Chief Executive Officer, Atlas PyroVision
Entertainment Group, Inc., Jaffrey, NH, testifying on behalf of
the American Pyrotechnics Association.......................... 9
Mr. Robert Garbini, P.E., President, National Ready Mixed
Concrete Association, Silver Spring, MD........................ 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. Monte Wiederhold, President, B.L. Reever Transport, Inc.,
Maumee, OH, testifying on behalf of the Owner-Operated
Independent Drivers Association............................ 29
Mr. Marty DiGiacomo, Owner, True Blue Transportation,
Harrisburg, NC, testifying on behalf of the National
Association of Small Trucking Companies.................... 36
Mr. Stephen Pelkey, Chief Executive Officer, Atlas PyroVision
Entertainment Group, Inc., Jaffrey, NH, testifying on
behalf of the American Pyrotechnics Association............ 46
Mr. Robert Garbini, P.E., President, National Ready Mixed
Concrete Association, Silver Spring, MD.................... 54
Questions and Answers for the Record:
Questions from Hon. Kelly, Hon. Norman, and Hon. Bacon to Mr.
Monte Wiederhold and Answers from Mr. Monte Wiederhold..... 63
Questions from Hon. Kelly, Hon. Norman, and Hon. Bacon to Mr.
Marty DiGiacomo and Answers from Mr. Marty DiGiacomo....... 65
Questions from Hon. Kelly, Hon. Norman, and Hon. Bacon to Mr.
Stephen Pelkey and Answers from Mr. Stephen Pelkey......... 68
Questions from Hon. Kelly, Hon. Norman, and Hon. Bacon to Mr.
Robert Garbini and Answers from Mr. Robert Garbini......... 71
Additional Material for the Record:
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA).................... 74
Letter to the Small Business Committee....................... 76
Truckload Carriers Association (TCA)......................... 81
HIGHWAY TO HEADACHE: FEDERAL
REGULATIONS ON THE SMALL TRUCKING
INDUSTRY
----------
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 11:00 a.m., in Room
2360, Rayburn House Office Building. Hon. Steve Chabot
[chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Chabot, Brat, Radewagen, Knight,
Kelly, Blum, Comer, Fitzpatrick, Marshall, Norman, Curtis,
Velazquez, Evans, Lawson, Chu, Adams, Espaillat, and Schneider.
Also Present: Babin.
Chairman CHABOT. Good morning. The Committee will come to
order.
On behalf of the Small Business Committee I first want to
welcome our newest representative to this Committee, John
Curtis, from the great state of Utah. And he is right down on
my right, your left. He was sworn in as a member of the House
earlier this month and recently joined our Committee. His
experience as mayor of Provo and commitment to providing relief
to small businesses will be an asset to this Committee. There
is no question about that. We look forward to working with him
and to provide solutions for America's small businesses. And
welcome aboard. Great to have you.
And I would like to yield about 30 seconds to my colleague
from Texas if he would like to----
Mr. BABIN. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for letting
me come in here and sit down and just say thank you for having
this hearing. I think it is very necessary. As the sponsor of
the ELD mandate delay, I would just say that--and I have been a
small businessman my entire career as a dentist and also as a
truck driver. I was a former truck driver at one point in time
and I think the backbone of our economy is small business. And
we, as Republicans, as Conservatives, as pro-business, and many
of my Democrat colleagues as well, I think it is imperative
that we all look out for the small businessman because he is
the one who is risking his lifeblood, his family, his
investments, and this is where most people work in small
businesses across this country. And rolling back a lot of this
overregulation I think is something that is very, very
important, and I am not even asking for a rollback. We are just
asking for a delay until we can work a lot of these bugs out.
Some of these questions on ELDs that are going to be mandated
here next month, just a few days before Christmas.
So Mr. Chairman, thank you for letting me be here. I would
be willing to answer any questions if that is necessary.
Otherwise, I am going to have to get back to a science
environmental hearing. Okay?
Chairman CHABOT. You can go but no Committee is more
important than this Committee. We do appreciate you being here,
and Mr. Babin is the original sponsor of the ELD Extension Act
of 2017. And I want to thank the ranking member for having
agreed to allow him to participate. I think he has kind of
already participated, but thank you very much for that. We
appreciate it.
The Small Business Committee is here today to examine how
regulatory Federal regulations affect small businesses in the
trucking industry. The trucking industry plays a critical role
in the U.S. economy. America's businesses rely on its transport
and deliver all types of goods and products, including consumer
goods, fuel, food, machinery, and raw materials, among others.
Without the trucking industry our economy literally could not
function. The industry produces more than $700 billion in
revenue. Trucking companies also provide over 7 million jobs in
this country, which is 6 percent of all the jobs in America.
Small businesses make up the majority of the trucking industry.
In fact, 97 percent of trucking companies operate fewer than 20
trucks. Many of these trucking companies are owner-operators, a
one-person business essentially.
As this Committee knows all too well, one of the biggest
challenges facing America's small businesses today is complying
with Federal regulations. With many regulations taking a ``one
size fits all'' approach, small trucking companies are forced
to comply with expensive, confusing, and oftentimes time-
consuming regulations. This is not only costing small
businesses but America's economy as a whole through lost time
and delays in receiving all types of goods and products.
There are many agencies that regulate the trucking
industry. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is
one of the main agencies that regulate small trucking
companies. In fact, according to it, 99 percent of the motor
carriers that it regulates are considered small entities. But
the FMCSA is not the only one with the power to regulate small
trucking companies. Agencies such as the Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration, The Environmental Protection
Agency, OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration), the National Highway Safety Administration all
have the authority to regulate small trucking companies, and
they do.
While it is important to make sure that our roads and
drivers are safe, needless regulations on small businesses can
pile up and cost so much that it can literally on occasion put
them out of business. We need to ease the regulatory burden on
small businesses and make sure that agencies are considering
how their regulations will affect America's small businesses.
That is why I sponsored legislation that would provide
regulatory relief to small businesses, H.R. 33, the Small
Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2017 would
ensure that Federal agencies actually examine how their new
regulations would impact small businesses and require them to
consider ways to reduce unnecessary costs and burdens. This
bill was included in a larger bill, H.R. 5, the Regulatory
Accountability Act of 2017, which passed the House with a
bipartisan vote back in January. The Senate has introduced a
similar bill, S. 584, which we hope will be taken up soon as
this is an important step towards easing the regulatory burden
on small businesses.
I have also cosponsored, as a number of us have, H.R. 3282,
the ELD Extension Act of 2017, again, offered by our colleague
from Texas, Brian Babin, which would delay the effective date
of a regulation requiring electronic logging devices in
commercial motor vehicles and provide small firms with more
time to comply. Our witnesses today will provide real examples
of what it is like for small trucking companies to navigate the
confusing regulatory landscape. The chair is aware that there
may be a difference of opinion from some organizations on some
of the regulations that will be discussed in today's hearing in
particular from the American Trucking Association. To
accommodate them we are providing them the opportunity to
submit a statement that will become part of the official
hearing record, and I will review these statements myself when
they are received, and I would encourage other members of the
Committee to review that statement as well.
And I want to thank our witnesses for being here and taking
time away from their businesses to travel to Washington to
testify about their experiences before the Committee.
And I would now like to yield to the ranking member for her
opening statement.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The trucking industry is a critical component of our
nation's transportation network. Trucking connects industries
and consumers, stimulating economic activity in every corner of
the country, and creating new markets for entrepreneurs.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
trucks annually transport $10 billion tons of freight valued at
more than $720 billion in revenue. This economic engine is
predominantly comprised of small business operators with 90
percent of firms having fewer than 10 trucks. Most of these
small firms are owner-operators who run their business with
just one truck with the owner at the wheel. Although dominated
by small businesses, the trucking sector provides significant
employment, supporting jobs for over 7 million people, almost
half of them as drivers.
Given the prevalence and centrality of trucking to our
economy, a number of steps have been taken over the years to
improve safety starting in the 1930s with hours of service
limitations followed by a number of rules and regulations that
were subsequently adopted. A wide array of agencies are
involved in regulating the trucking industry, including the
Federal Courier Safety Administration, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, and the National Highway Safety Administration.
While the list seems long, each agency is tasked with
particular regulations that fit within their particular
jurisdiction. Although regulations are necessary and important
to the public safety, it is critical that agencies take into
account the economic impact of regulations on small firms.
As always, the challenge is protecting the public safety
while ensuring regulations do not unnecessarily harm or
negatively impact small businesses, in this case, small
trucking firms. In addition, a thriving truck sector requires a
well-maintained infrastructure system. This vital economic
artery needs safe bridges and functioning highways to reach its
potential.
To that end I am concerned that Congress and the president
have yet to move a meaningful infrastructure program that will
make necessary and long-overdue upgrades. This is an area where
I would hope there might be bipartisan cooperation.
Today's hearing will provide an important opportunity to
evaluate the regulatory environment in which our small truckers
operate and fine tune to the rules so they achieve goals of
both safer highways and a thriving, healthy trucking sector.
I once again thank the witnesses for being here today and
offering their insight.
Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentlelady yields
back.
And if Committee members have opening statements prepared I
would ask that they be submitted for the record.
And I would now like to take just a moment to explain our
timing and lighting system rules here. It is pretty simple. You
get 5 minutes. Each of you will get that and there is a
lighting system to assist you. The green light will stay on for
4 minutes. The yellow light will come on letting you know that
you have a minute to wrap up and then the red light will come
on. And you are supposed to stop by then. We will give you a
little leeway but not a whole lot. So if you can stay within
those parameters we would greatly appreciate it.
I would now like to introduce our very distinguished panel
here this morning. I am pleased to introduce our first witness,
Monte Wiederhold, who is a constituent from our area in Ohio.
Mr. Wiederhold is the president of B.L. Reever Transport, Inc.,
a small trucking company located in Maumee, Ohio. Mr.
Wiederhold also serves on the Board of Directors at the Owner-
Operator Independent Drivers Association and he is testifying
on their behalf today. We welcome you here today and look
forward to your testimony.
And our next witness will be Mr. Marty DiGiacomo. Mr.
DiGiacomo is the owner of True Blue Transportation, a small
family-owned trucking company located in Harrisburg, North
Carolina, that provides trucking and brokerage services
throughout the United States, as well as Canada and Mexico. He
is testifying on behalf of the National Association of Small
Trucking Companies, and we welcome you here as well.
Our third witness will be Mr. Stephen Pelkey. Mr. Pelkey is
the president and CEO of Atlas PyroVision Entertainment Group,
a professional fireworks display company located in Jeffrey,
New Hampshire. Mr. Pelkey also serves on the Board of Directors
of the American Pyrotechnics Association, or APA and is the
chairman of the APA's Transportation Committee. He will be
testifying on behalf of the APA, and we welcome you here as
well, Mr. Pelkey, and look forward to your testimony.
And I would now like to yield to the ranking member to
introduce our fourth witness.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Robert Garbini, the
president of the National Ready-Mixed Concrete Association. Mr.
Garbini joined NRMCA in December 1991 as the marketing director
of building systems. Prior to joining NRMCA he was the owner of
Foundation Constructors in McLean, Virginia, a design-build
construction company. The National Ready-Mixed Concrete
Association was founded in 1930 and works to serve the entire
ready-mixed concrete industry over 80 percent of which are
small businesses. Thank you for being here today.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much.
And Mr. Wiederhold, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF MONTE WIEDERHOLD, PRESIDENT, B.L. REEVER
TRANSPORT, INC.; MARTY DIGIACOMO, OWNER, TRUE BLUE
TRANSPORTATION; STEPHEN PELKEY; CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ATLAS
PYROVISION ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.; ROBERT GARBINI, P.E.,
PRESIDENT, NATIONAL READY MIXED CONCRETE ASSOCIATION
STATEMENT OF MONTE WIEDERHOLD
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Thank you. Chairman Chabot, Ranking Member
Velazquez, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify today.
My name is Monte Wiederhold and I began my career as a
professional truck driver in 1973. I have been a small business
owner since 1993 and I am the president of B.L. Reever
Transport, Inc., a small fleet of seven drivers who, like me,
are owner-operators. I have been a member of the Owner-Operator
Independent Driver Association since 1983 and serve on its
board of directors. I am a proud constituent of Chairman
Chabot's and appreciate his interest in this subject and
support for professional drivers.
Small trucking businesses represent 96 percent of motor
carriers in the U.S. and are the safest and most diverse
operators on the roads. Our activities impact all sectors of
the American economy, moving everything from agriculture
products to military equipment. Unfortunately, the Federal
Government has never grasped the importance of this diversity
and continues to burden us with ``one size fits all''
regulations which punish small businesses and stifle
competition. These costly and burdensome rules are often
advanced at the behest of corporate motor carriers who use
legislation and regulation to gain competitive advantages over
smaller operators like me. Large fleets promote these
regulations as a silver bullet solution to improving highway
safety despite a distinct lack of evidence. In reality, they
are economic weapons used to leave smaller competitors out of
the market by increasing our operating costs. Continuance of
the ``one size fits all'' approach makes the Federal Government
regulating the safest truckers out of the industry.
While Congress and the White House have been successful in
providing relief on several key matters, it has failed to
address serious concerns involving the most disruptive and
expensive trucking regulation in history, the Electronic
Logging Device or ELD mandate. The ELD mandate is estimated to
cost a whopping $1.8 billion annually, yet provides no safety
or economic benefit for small business truckers who will bear
most of these costs. The rulemaking was approved based upon the
false premise that ELDs will increase compliance with hours of
service regulations and reduce the risk of fatigue-related
crashes. There are also serious complications associated with
implementation currently scheduled for December 18th. ELD
manufacturers are allowed to self-certify their device without
validation by the FMCSA and the agency has failed to adequately
train law enforcement.
While the ELD mandate must be repealed we believe it would
be reasonable and responsible for Congress and DOT to delay
implementation until all complications are fully resolved.
Over 30 diverse organizations have joined our calls for a
delay. Many more, including large fleets who championed the
mandate, have pursued exemptions. The sheer number of
businesses desperate for relief perfectly illustrates what
happens when Washington recklessly embraces the ``one size fits
all'' approach to regulations. OOIDA has requested that DOT
temporarily exempt small trucking businesses with exemplary
safety records from the mandate. Upon the request, only motor
carriers defined by the Small Business Administration as small
trucking businesses that have a record of no at-fault crashes
would qualify and those with an unsatisfactory safety rating
from the FMCSA would not be eligible. This exemption would
provide temporary regulatory relief to America's safest
professional drivers who have safety records that far exceed
the large fleets who have been utilizing ELDs for years.
The negative attention the ELD mandate has generated has
exposed the fact that today's hours of service requirements are
poorly designed. The rigid and restrictive requirements fail to
provide the flexibility drivers need. Instead, these rules push
truckers to drive farther and faster. Congress has taken steps
to improve HOS but more can be done to benefit both drivers and
highway safety.
While professional drivers are dismayed by the lack of
relief Washington has provided on the ELD mandate and what
little progress was made on HOS, we are pleased by recent
developments in other policy areas. We thank Congress for
directing FMCSA to evaluate the effectiveness of the
Compliance, Safety, and Accountability program which utilizes
flawed methodology that does not accurately measure a carrier's
safe performance and unfairly penalizes small business
operators.
Since CSA's inception in 2010, the number of fatalities in
injury crisis has increased 14 percent and 55 percent,
respectively, according to the FMCSA. A recent National Academy
of Sciences review provided numerous recommendations for
modifying CSA. These include improving data quality and
collection, analyzing how driver turnover rates and levels of
compensation impact safety and implementing transparency
guidelines.
We encourage Congress to hold FMCSA accountable in making
these changes and fixing CSA. Owner-operators applaud the EPA's
recent position to exempt glider kits from phase two with
greenhouse gas emission standards. Regulations like phase two
have dramatically altered small businesses' ability to purchase
new or recently owned trucks, making them more reliable and
affordable glider kits increasingly attractive. EPA's
recommendations of this ``one size fits all'' rule is greatly
appreciated and should be embraced by Congress.
The Trump administration has also withdrawn a rulemaking on
increasing the minimum liability insurance level for motor
carriers. Today's motor carriers typically carry $1 million in
coverage. Despite the facts that less than 0.2 percent of
truck-involved accidents result in damages that exceed these
levels, some large motor carriers and trial lawyers have sought
to increase minimums to well over $4 million. Allowing such
dramatic increases would essentially serve as a death sentence
for small business truckers. To ensure the survival of small
trucking businesses, Congress must follow the administration's
lead and reject efforts to increase minimum liability
insurance.
Mr. Chairman, thank you again for the opportunity to
testify. I look forward to hearing my fellow panelists'
testimony and answering your questions.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much, Mr. Wiederhold. I
think you got more words in that 5 minutes than anybody in the
history of this Committee. So well done. Thank you.
Mr. DiGiacomo, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF MARTY DIGIACOMO
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the
Small Business panel. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I
really appreciate it.
We are a small trucking company. I do provide brokerage
services. I have been in trucking since 1979, and I think I
have got a really good pulse on a lot of different trucking
companies, even some that I brokered loads to just this week
that are pleading to stop this ELD mandate. There are trucking
companies, small family-owned trucking companies that just
cannot afford to put in $700 GPSs with the companies wanting a
one to 3 year contract with fees like $35, $55 a month,
whatever. Trucking has always been a fluctuating business. You
cannot depend on everything staying exactly the same all the
time, as you know, just by the economy, what it looks like.
So these trucking companies, and as Mr. Wiederhold said
here, you know, there is no ``one size fits all.'' It cannot
work that way because you have got crane companies. You have
got towing and recovering. You have got tanker. You have got
guys on pipelines. Food service, which I did before. I mean, I
have done a lot of different things but you cannot put a law, I
mean, a set of guidelines into place and then try to run it
with an electronic log. It just creates nightmares and havoc
and a lot of extra cost.
And then, you know, being in the trucking industry this
long, I remember the old rules where we could actually take
naps when we wanted to and it would prolong our day. We could
say, okay, yeah, we are going to take a nap now because I am
tired. There are times when I would go out in the morning or at
any time and, you know, an hour or two later it is like, I am
really tired. I have just got to pull over and take a nap.
Well, there is no incentive to do it with the hours of service.
So the hours of service right now are connected. The hours of
service rules are connected right alongside the ELD mandate.
The ELDs should be a choice for trucking companies to take that
option if they see that it is going to benefit them. We all
want to be safe. Representing small business truckers like
ourselves and OOIDA members and these other guys, we are small
business people. We feel called to what we are doing. We love
what we are doing. We are not doing it for the money because
farming and trucking are about the same. The profit margins are
so slim, yet you know, we are being forced to pay for this, pay
for that. And as he had mentioned earlier, you know, trying to
get these insurance levels up to $4 million. Why? You know, if
you are with General Electric, yeah, you have to have a lot of
insurance for problems you might have but, you know, Larry's
Electric, it should not be that way.
The same thing with a broker bond. It was initially
$10,000. Now they want $75,000. Well, with big companies like
C.H. Robinson and T.K. Well, whatever, you know, they do that
much business in an hour. So what good is that transportation
bond? But again, it is putting the burden on the small business
trucker. We had our own brokerage but we had to get rid of it
because we could not put up $75,000; we had put up $10,000. So
a lot of these regulations are just killing small businesses.
Now you have got drivers within our industry that have millions
and millions of miles of safe driving. How is an ELD log going
to help them become any safer than they already are? It is a
penalization, like putting training wheels on a guy. Oh, you
need training wheels now. You have been doing this 30, 40
years. Yeah, but you know what? You need training wheels. No.
That is not the answer. What I believe is the answer for safe
drivers is training. And that is one of the reasons I joined
NASTC. They have a training program for safety program for the
driver members in the organization and I think, in my opinion,
an ELD is not going to tell a driver judgmentally what the best
thing is to do. It is not going to tell a driver, really, when
he is tired? It is going to arrange for an appointment? You are
going to be tired now. You need to go to sleep. You need to
drive now. And the way the hours of service are set up right
now they force a driver to keep pushing and the companies will
push drivers. And I have been a part of that so I can give
examples. And I can definitely give some examples of how the
ELD is a very dangerous piece of equipment to put in a truck
because it has happened to me when I did drive for a couple
companies previously that had ELDs. The stress and frustration
when you are under the gun with that ELD is so much a problem,
and what it does, stress, frustration, and anger about what
that thing is there for and what it makes you do actually
produces fatigue. And that is what we are supposed to be
avoiding here. We do not want fatigued drivers. We do not want
drivers with bad attitudes, but that is what the ELD is doing.
Thank you for your time.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much.
Mr. Pelkey, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN PELKEY
Mr. PELKEY. Good morning, Chairman Chabot, Ranking Member
Velazquez, and other members of the Committee, I sincerely
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to
discuss how Federal regulations impact the small trucking
industry, issues of vital importance to the U.S. fireworks
industry.
I am Stephen Pelkey, owner and CEO of Atlas PyroVision
Entertainment Group, headquartered in Jaffrey, New Hampshire,
along with my six daughters, five of which are actively
involved in the family business. I serve on the board of
directors of the American Pyrotechnics Association (APA) and as
the chairman of APA's Transportation Committee. I am here on
behalf of the APA and wish to share our industry concerns with
the current ``one size fits all'' transportation regulations
that unfairly harm small business.
While this hearing focuses on the impact of Federal
regulations on the small trucking industry, many industries,
like fireworks, involve private carriers' transportation of
goods and services. In other words, driving is incidental to
the primary business function of loading and unloading tools of
trade to provide a specific service, in our case, the setup and
execution of a fireworks display.
Now, a major concern with the current regulatory structure
is that small industry stakeholders are continually swept into
these ``one size fits all'' transportation regulations that are
best suited for large commercial companies rather than small
family businesses attempting to comply with a myriad of
regulations. I would like to highlight just a few DOT
regulations that are extremely challenging and have an unfair
and disproportionate impact on businesses.
DOD mandate. The fireworks industry is unique in that it
depends upon short-term truck rentals as part of our business
model utilizing them as our primary CMVs to meet the increased
transportation activities during the 2-week period in and
around the Independence Day holiday. After analyzing the
significant negative impact that the DOD mandate would impose
on the small companies that comprise the industry, the APA has
worked to support the TRALA petition for relief for short-term
rental trucks, as well as supportive legislation by
Representative Babin that would provide for a 2-year delay in
the implementation of this controversial mandate.
Unfortunately, these efforts have not succeeded, and therefore,
the APA has recently filed a request for a limited exemption
from the ELD mandate during our peak Fourth of July period to
coincide with APA's hours of service exemption. We hope that
the Department of Transportation will act favorably upon our
petition for relief.
We are also very concerned about FMCSA's new minimum
training requirements for entry-level CMV operators. While the
extensive classroom and behind-the-wheel training requirements
may well be appropriate for entry-level drivers who desire to
drive semi-trailers or operate long-haul commercial vehicles,
there is no need to engage in this kind of extensive training
for short-haul truck operators moving tools of trade. This type
of training is best served by the hands-on training undertaken
by each of our companies. Our drivers have far more knowledge
and specific training about their cargo than most full-time CDL
drivers working for long-haul companies.
Additionally, we remain concerned about Federal Motor
Carriers Hazardous Materials Safety Permit program. This
program has been seriously flawed since the inception. While
some efforts have been undertaken by the agency to address
reforms and recognize the need for providing an additional
level of review, much more must be done to provide HMSB holders
with some level of assurance that they will simply not lose
their permit upon which their livelihoods depend. The APA has
widespread concerns regarding the agency's reliance on the
behavioral analysis and safety improvement categories or basic
ratings and their accuracy in judging a carrier's safety
fitness, especially if the agency moves forward in the future
with two ratings, fit and unfit. Carriers subject to these
complex regulations and potential fitness ratings must be aware
of the bar to achieve and maintain a fit rating. A small
carrier cannot be judged against all carriers. How can a small
family business who relies on a 2-week truck rental with very
few inspections during the Fourth of July holiday be evaluated
in the same manner as a 24/7 long-haul commercial trucking
company inspected hundreds of times throughout the year?
Atlas and the APA are committed to ensuring safety in the
transportation, handling, and execution of our fireworks
displays. We need reasonable regulations in order to ensure
safety compliance without placing undue burdens upon our small
businesses.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I would be happy
to answer any questions that you may have.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much.
Mr. Garbini, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT GARBINI
Mr. GARBINI. Thank you, Chairman Chabot, Ranking Member
Velazquez, and members of the small business community. Thank
you for the invitation to join you today to discuss the impact
of Federal regulations on our industry and industries that use
local delivery trucks.
I am testifying today on behalf of the National Ready-Mixed
Concrete Association's members such as Hilltop Resources in
Ohio District 1 and also DKN Ready-Mix in New York District 7.
We represent more than 2,500 companies in our industry with
subsidiaries that employ more than 135,000 American workers who
manufacture and deliver ready-mixed concrete.
Roughly 85 percent of our industry is composed of family-
owned and operated small businesses. The industry includes more
than 70,000 ready-mixed concrete trucks and 6,000 ready-mixed
concrete plants. Ready-mixed concrete companies produce a
construction material vital to our economy and environment.
From roads to bridges to homes and high-rise buildings, our
built environment could not be realized without the use of
ready-mixed concrete. In 2016 alone, the ready-mixed concrete
industry produced 345 million cubic yards of ready-mixed
concrete. That is roughly 1 cubic yard per person for everyone
in the United States and in excess of $35 billion in revenue.
Our industry faces unique challenges. Once ready-mixed
concrete is loaded into a truck, it must be placed and
discharged within 90 minutes or it will harden, causing
permanent damage to the truck. There is no way that you can
cool that material down or prolong it. The perishable nature of
our product means that our industry is intensely local and the
average delivery time is just 14 miles roundtrip from the
plant. Because of the uniqueness of the product in our
industry, we are often adversely impacted by the Federal
trucking regulations that are intended for the trucking
industry more broadly both because of the differences in the
industry and because of the size of our business. While large
companies can readily muster the resources necessary to keep up
with, understand, and comply with Federal regulations, the
small companies that make up our industry are less able to do
so and consequently are disproportionately affected by these
regulations.
Regulations should not be ``one size fits all,'' and
because it is rarely the case that one size does fit all, the
small trucking industry and the industries that support it are
examples of potential companies that are affected adversely by
the unintended consequences.
In my submitted testimony I touch on three current and two
proposed regulations that impact or will impact the small
trucking industry. The upcoming mandate from the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration regarding the installation of
ELDs on commercial motor vehicles as mentioned by others here
represent an outside burden on the small trucking industry.
Similarly, compliance with phase two of the greenhouse gas
emissions and fuel efficiency standards for medium and heavy-
duty engines and vehicles presents a burden that small
businesses are less able to shoulder than big businesses.
Federal truck weight regulations often force heavy trucks like
those used for delivering ready-mixed concrete to use local and
state roads rather than highways causing unnecessary wear and
tear on those roads and increasing the cost of ready-mixed
concrete delivery.
In addition, proposed Federal regulations such as the
mandatory use of speed limiters and mandatory screening for
sleep apnea will have an unduly large adverse impact on the
industry and those using the local delivery trucks, and on
small businesses associated with the industry. These are
instances where regulations intended to apply broadly
disproportionately impact small businesses.
I appreciate this Committee's dedication to and concern for
the plight of the small business person, and I thank you for
the opportunity to address these issues.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much for your testimony.
And we want to thank the entire panel for your testimony.
And I will now recognize myself for 5 minutes to kick off the
questioning here.
And I will begin with you, Mr. Wiederhold. What specific
costs would your business have to incur to comply with the ELD
mandates, and how much of a burden would that be on your small
business?
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Well, it is going to be quite a burden. The
costs for the ELDs can range anywhere from--there is I think
about 200 different ones on the market right now. Some of them
could be as small as $100. Some of them could be as much as
$1,000. Then we have monitoring fees that could start anywhere
from $30 to $40-$50 a month depending on what you want the ELD
to take care of. And you know, as a small business, as a fleet
like me, my wife works in an office at home and then I have an
office manager that she takes care of the dispatch and filing
and things that way. We are not going to realize any savings
from this because they talk about a savings that is going to be
realized from using ELDs. The big fleets could not do that
because they have got it figured in their fuel taxes, their
costs of operation and things and all like that. So we are not
going to be able to realize that. Some companies that have used
that are actually going to gain money from the technology
because as referenced in the 2007 Senate hearing that was held
on truck driver fatigue, one company that testified was saving
$182,000 in one year because their transmission costs went down
$11,000 and they got rid of one position in the office of
$50,000. So they saved $182,000 in one year. I am not going to
lay Doreen off that works for me because I am going to save
whatever it is. And if you have times trucks, if you
extrapolate that out, if you bought the top of the line type
ELD you are looking at $7,000 plus monitoring with no added
safety benefit. One of my drivers has over 34 years of zero
accidents. How is it going to make him any safer? We are not
going to realize that.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much.
Mr. DiGiacomo, let me go to you next. In your testimony you
stated that truck drivers need flexibility when it comes to
hours of service and off-duty time. Is enough being done
currently to provide adequate and safe locations for truck
drivers to rest? What should we be doing in addition to address
that issue?
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Well, I am glad you asked that question. No,
first of all, ever since the new hours of service rules went
into effect with the 10 hours consecutive time off you have
truck stops filling up a lot earlier now. Ever since then truck
parking has become critical. And you add into that the ELDs in
a guy's truck, my truck got slammed in a truck stop when I was
parked at the end because a guy was racing around trying to
find a parking spot so he could get his off-duty time started.
He was running out of hours and so that is part of the stress
issue.
The other thing is with the ELDs, anything can happen on a
highway or with your customer and you are not going to end up
exactly where you hope to end up to take a rest all the time
and so you have got to have some flexibility. Now, ELDs can put
you in spots where there is no facilities, no place to take a
shower, no place to brush your teeth, no toilets. So how is
that going to be a rest when you have got to take 10 hours off,
let's say on the side of the road? There is no rest there. That
is another problem with ELDs. And you have got a lot of parking
spaces for trucks that are out there now. Even the scale houses
do not provide facilities. And then you have the issue of a
driver if he is parked overnight and there are no facilities,
if he gets caught watering down his tires as they say, he can
be ticketed for indecent exposure, which results often in a
sexual offender list you have to sign up on. So, I mean, there
are so many issues in this. But also, the rest areas, if they
do not have facilities, are really not a good place to rest
overnight. So the parking has become a serious problem. And
with the ELDs you could end up in a very bad neighborhood or
the wrong place, or a shipper or receiver that you end up to
load or unload at, often they will say no parking here. Well,
where are you going to go? I am out of hours. That is the
problem.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much.
My time is just about to run out, so Mr. Pelkey, rather
than not even get to give you a response, I think I am going to
say my time is expired and I will now yield to the ranking
member for 5 minutes.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Garbini, I would like to ask my first question to you.
The truck mixer is a very specialized vehicle and has many
nuances to driving one. Can you elaborate on the unique
barriers that your members face as truckers?
Mr. GARBINI. That is an excellent question. And the truck
itself----
Chairman CHABOT. I am not sure if the mic is on.
Mr. GARBINI. Thank you. There we are.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Yes, now it is on.
Mr. GARBINI. The vehicle, and I think everyone in this room
has probably seen a ready-mixed concrete mixer truck. It is a
mobile manufacturing facility. So the driver has to have the
skill to mix structurally acceptable concrete, have it placed
safely, and maneuver it onto a construction site. So that by
itself also provides the driver that opportunity to get in and
out of the truck that does not have the same qualities as a
long-haul trucker where you are trying to log the amount of
time that that man or woman has been driving.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you.
Mr. Pelkey, you represent another type of trucking
industry. What would you say are the unique challenges to your
members?
Mr. PELKEY. The biggest challenge that we have is that for
one, we are provided an hours of service exemption over our
busy Fourth of July holiday and that is usually over an 11-day
period. And that is for a 14-hour period because we have very
unique circumstances where throughout the day they may get time
off because they have set up a certain section of the display,
they may go back to a hotel room, or they go back to their
home, or somewhere along those particular narrative. Then what
happens is with the ELD, that goes away because there is no ELD
out there that currently has any program that allows for anyone
that has a waiver of sorts in the APA, and its member companies
are not able to take advantage of that waiver. So we lose that.
The other unique opposition that we have is that between
the hours of service, most of our operations, 65-70 percent of
our operations take place over the Fourth of July, and on the
Fourth of July you may have drivers that are secondary to their
nature of shooting fireworks, they are only driving 3 or 4 days
a year. Subjecting them if they do not fully comply with an ELD
and how to program it, they will lose or jeopardize our
Hazardous Materials Safety Permit which puts us out of
business.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you.
I would like to ask my next question to Mr. Wiederhold and
Mr. DiGiacomo. The Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration
prohibit carriers, shippers, and receivers from forcing drivers
to drive when it might not be safe to do so, provide simple
procedures for drivers to file a complaint, and stiff penalties
for violations. So my question is, why would these protections
be any less effective for a driver using an ELD than they would
be for a driver using paper logs?
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Well, the driver could certainly probably
file a complaint but in reality if a driver does too much of
that he is probably going to finding himself out of a job
before long because the carrier, even though supposedly the
harassment issue has been addressed by the FMCSA in the final
rule, we still see instances today and we have had some
screenshots. I do not know if any of you follow some of the
Facebook stuff but there have been screenshots to where
messages have come across and say you are sleeping with drive
time. Why? Or if you can get this load there then we will fix
your log. We will have safety fix your logs tomorrow. So a lot
of people think the ELD mandate, the ELDs cannot be altered or
cheated. They can be edited.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Okay. Any other comments?
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Yes. I would say that there are companies
that claim they want to be safe. I drove for one very large
carrier that is actually a worldwide company. They carry their
own product. And they would regularly--and we ran local tanker
work--they ran regularly pushing us where at the end of the day
we would be done but they would say, hey, we have got this
other run to go out on and you can go on that exemption for one
day this week. So they would send you out on a run but unless
everything worked out exactly perfectly like nothing ever does
in the military either, you end up pulling over on the side of
the road and calling them, and that is what we had to do. You
had to wait on the side of the road or pull over and that
extended your day. You had to wait for a guy to come out with a
pickup. You might be 50 miles away, you might be five. You had
to pull over and get that ride. Now you are extending your day.
Now you get home late. You know, you have got to adjust all
your logs. Those are some of the things. And like he said, I
was actually fired from that job for banging my head underneath
a trailer on something. He said that proves you are dangerous.
And the reason was I would speak up about true dangerous
situations and I would pre-trip my trip to the point where they
were upset because I was actually showing, pointing out things
that needed to be fixed. And they do not like people like that.
They want a robot. There are certain companies that are like
that. And that is one of the issues that I have come across.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Thank you.
Chairman CHABOT. The gentlelady's time has expired.
The gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Blum, who is the chairman of
the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy, and Trade is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BLUM. Thank you, Chairman Chabot. It took me a year but
I can pronounce your name correctly. Thank you to our panelists
for being here today.
Let us start at the 60,000 foot level. Is the trucking
industry overregulated?
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Yes.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Yes.
Mr. PELKEY. Yes.
Mr. GARBINI. Yes.
Mr. BLUM. Okay, it is unanimous. Let the record reflect
that.
Secondly, are you having trouble finding drivers?
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Yes.
Mr. PELKEY. Yes.
Mr. GARBINI. Yes.
Mr. BLUM. And what is the reason for that? One at a time, I
guess.
Mr. GARBINI. I would say that the difficulty in finding
drivers has a lot to do with the trade itself. In terms of the
ready-mixed concrete industry, there is more involved than just
driving a truck and that goes to my point about the unnecessary
requirement for ELDs at this point. A person is in and out of
the truck. They are subjected to getting onto a jobsite and so
forth. And quite frankly, it is not just a mundane job of
sitting in a truck and driving from point A to point B which is
1,000 miles away. So oftentimes ready-mixed concrete producers
are having a lot of difficulty finding individuals that want to
get in there and be essentially entrepreneurs themselves.
Mr. PELKEY. For the very, very short time period of the
year these truckers do not want to go through the training.
They do not want to go through the testing process. You have to
get a test for your CDL. In our cases, whether it is a pickup
truck or a van, if you have one placardable amount, box amount
of product into your truck, you need to have a commercial
driver's license with a hazmat endorsement. Well, with that
requires a certain amount of training. They understand the
product. They understand the services involved. But there is a
lot of training. For 2 or 3 or 4 days out of the entire year,
there is not enough financial incentive in there for them even
with some of these people making $25 or $30 an hour.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. And if I could say to the perceived driver
shortage problem that is being touted by a lot of the big
megacarriers, there is actually a retention problem where
turnover rates exceed 100 percent of a lot of these carriers. A
lot of these carriers actually fashion their business model
over the fact that they know it is going to be a revolving door
process so we are not going to worry about too much if the guy
stays or goes or whatever. And by the FMCSA's own estimates we
have over 400,000 CDLs issued every year. They talk about a
shortage of like 50,000 drivers by 2020. If you extrapolate
that out there are going to be plenty of people. The problem is
the uncompensated loading/unloading time. Drivers are paid by
the mile or by the load, so when they are sitting at a dock
someplace for several hours they are not getting paid for that.
They are gone away from home for a long time. They get tired of
missing the kids' birthdays or wedding anniversary. So there is
a retention problem more so, especially our segment of the
industry there. And I can speak to I hire only owner-operators
so I am a little bit more specific in that you have to own your
truck to come to work for me.
My daughters work at an Apple store selling iPhones, iPads,
that stuff, and when they have someone come in that is a truck
and they talk about their dad owning a trucking company, then
they say, oh, hey, I am looking for a job. So I think that
there are people out there.
But one other quick thing here. If wages were adjuster from
1980 to what they are now because the average driver's pay is
around 40 cents a mile, if that was adjusted for inflation you
would have guys making 60 or 70 cents a mile. So the money
talks just like it does on anything else.
Mr. BLUM. I have a minute left.
In listening to your testimonies, I was trying to
ascertain, what is the bigger issue? Is it the cost of the ELDs
or is it the inflexibility by industry, the ``one size fits
all'' of the rules for the ELDs? If you could briefly, I have
got 40 seconds.
Mr. GARBINI. It is the latter for me.
Mr. BLUM. Is it the cost or is it the inflexibility of the
rules?
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. I think it is the cost myself from my
standpoint.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Cost and inflexibility.
Mr. PELKEY. Yeah, the inflexibility and cost but primarily
the inflexibility.
Mr. BLUM. Great. And I am just about out of time. Thank you
very much. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields
back.
The gentleman from--I think we have Mr. Evans next. Is that
next in seniority? The gentlelady from California. I apologize.
Okay. The gentlelady from California, Ms. Chu. Thank you.
Ms. CHU. Yes. I would like to submit for the record a very
compelling letter that was sent to the Committee by a coalition
of groups, including the Teamsters regarding the ELDs.
And I would like to----
Chairman CHABOT. Without objection; so ordered.
Ms. CHU. I would like to read excerpts from it. It says,
``Our public health, safety, and law enforcement organizations,
trucking companies, truck drivers, families of loved ones
killed in truck crashes, and truck crash survivors write to
express our staunch opposition to any attempts to delay
implementation of the long-overdue Electronic Logging Device
Rule. Truck driver fatigue has been a well-documented safety
problem in the industry for decades. ELD are a proven and cost-
effective technology that will save lives and reduce injuries,
and according to the U.S. Department of Transportation will
result in over $1 billion in annualized net benefits. There is
already widespread use of ELD technology in the U.S. and other
countries. Nearly a third of trucks currently in service are
equipped with ELDs. Similar technology has been used in Europe
for decades and is required in the European Union, Japan, and
other countries. Members of the trucking industry have known
about this rule for years and have had ample time to prepare
for it. Truck crash deaths and injuries are on the rise. In
2016, 4,317 people were killed in crashes involving large
trucks, representing an increase of more than 5 percent from
the previous year and the highest number of fatalities since
2007. We urge the Committee to oppose any weakening of this
overdue, common sense truck safety regulation.'' And it is
signed by the Teamsters, the Trucking Alliance, the Federal Law
Enforcement Officers Association, and pages and pages of family
members of those who have been killed in truck crashes. And so
I would certainly like to express my concern about any delay in
implementation of this rule.
Just changing the topic, I would just like to say that
trucking greatly affects my Los Angeles district. Sixty percent
of all the goods in the U.S. travel through the ports of L.A.
and Long Beach, and 40 percent of those goods travel through
the San Gabriel Valley in my district and then out to the rest
of the Nation. But with traffic congestion in the area, about
one-fifth of the commercial trucks experience delays, and in
fact, traffic congestion can increase the cost of shipping by
50 to 250 percent. In particular we have routes that are very
dangerous. We have a confluence of State Routes 57 and 60
around my district demonstrating this problem. As a result, the
Federal Highway Administration identified this 57/60
confluences, one of them was 25 most congested freight-
significant locations in the Nation, and that is why we are
working on making improvements through Tiger grants and so
forth to relieve the freight bottleneck.
So I would like to ask the panel, can you explain how
congested freight corridors like the 57/60 impact the ability
of your businesses to transport goods across the country? Do
congested traffic patterns end up costing your business more?
Mr. PELKEY. Well, I can only answer on our behalf for the
fireworks industry. Twenty years ago we had virtually all
commercial truck drivers were able to haul our fireworks from
port to facility. When the Hazardous Materials Safety Permit
was implemented, that was reduced by about half. In the last 3
years that has been reduced by as much as 90 percent of
available long-haul drivers because they do not want to comply
with the Hazardous Materials Safety Permit Program. Period. So
in that particular case we have just lost our fundamental need
of being able to get our products out of port and had to rely
on a lot of our own carriage.
Mr. GARBINI. Congressman, let me say that in the ready-
mixed concrete industry, we are not falling into that niche
that you just described. Our drivers, our delivery of our
products, generally average 14 miles from where the concrete is
batched. So we are not impacting that kind of congestion that
you are talking about. In fact, the congestion, oftentimes,
because of the truck weight limitations is forcing us onto the
local roads, damaging those roads instead.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Yes, Congressman Chu, I would like to say
that with those statistics, the ATA represents a lot of the
line-haul companies that run terminal to terminal. Log ELDs in
their trucks are okay. I mean, they work out well. UPS,
companies like that where your truck is not running irregular
or sitting at a shipper or receiver waiting on your shipper to
load you. That is where you run into a lot of issues where the
ELD and the hours of service come into play. But yes, the
congestion is a problem because let's say you drive an hour and
a half in the morning. You get to a shipper. Well, there are
several trucks there. You might be there let's say 4 hours. So
now you are 4 hours down. Okay. Let's say you take a nap. For
hours does not count. It does not count because there is no
incentive for that and it counts against your day. So now you
go out. Let's say you start driving but you want to take a
lunch. You take a lunch. Your hours after that 4 hours of
sitting, and let's say you run into a traffic jam, which is
what you are starting to talk about. And like we did coming up
here, you know, several accidents, problems, that really ruins
your day right there.
Ms. CHU. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman CHABOT. Quick answer, Mr. Wiederhold, if you want
to.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Yeah, I would like to say to Congresslady
Chu, that you talk about the accidents that happen. Depending
upon what study you look at you are talking about 70 to 80
percent of the accidents being the fault of the person driving
the car. And fatigue has only played a role--this is according
to the FMCSA--less than 1-1/2 percent of the drivers were
judged to be fatigued at the time of an accident. And so as the
driving day goes on, the first hour of driving has the most DOT
recordable accidents, and the ninth, tenth, and eleventh hour,
and even if somebody is caught past that, it is less than 0.9
percent. So the congestion does play a role as far as the
aggravation factor, and one of the reasons why a lot of people
leave the industry.
Chairman CHABOT. Okay. The gentlelady's time is expired.
Thank you.
Our newest member, the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Curtis, is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. CURTIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and ranking member. It
is a pleasure to be with you.
I would like to just briefly thank our four witnesses for
being with us today.
I owned a small business. As a matter of fact, I suspect
that business over the course of many years used at least three
of the four of your services. I am not sure about fireworks.
And I know firsthand how difficult it is to do what you do
every day and I would like to thank you. I know keeping the
lights on, keeping those employees going, dealing with all the
things you deal with. And then on top of that dealing with
government regulation can be very burdensome. I also know as a
mayor what happens when you drive on my roads and I have to fix
those roads, so I have seen both sides of this.
I would like to just express my feelings of concern for
this legislation and the burden that we are putting on you and
hope that me and my colleagues can find that proper balance
that is necessary to make sure that our roads are safe and that
we are doing the right things but that we are also not making
it too burdensome for you.
I would like to just end by sharing a brief segment of an
email that was sent to me. I have been in this role only a few
days and have a heard about a lot of issues, but I have
actually heard about this from some of my constituents. And the
comment I would like to share is, ``This is their livelihood
and most small business owner-operators are against this but
will be forced out if they cannot comply.'' And I think we just
have to take that very seriously and understand the things that
we are considering here. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield my
time. Thank you.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields
back.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Evans, who is the
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and
Capital Access is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I do not think, at least I know I am not, anyone is against
jobs and growth. I think we all understand that the best answer
to moving the country forward is opportunity. So the question I
want to just--it is not really a question, it is a comment. I
am going to ask you to react to it.
The question is it is important that we strike a balance to
ensure that Federal regulations do not impede the growth of the
trucking industry. At the same time the public safety of our
truckers and those that share the road with them is critical.
So I am asking each of you, give me some reaction to how do we
strike that balance? Because all that are read in listening to
my colleague in terms of the letter she just presented, I am
interested in your reaction to how do we strike that balance?
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Well, first off I would like to say that by
enacting common sense regulations, like the entry-level driver
training rule we have finally got into existence now to where
drivers need to be properly trained and not just go to a school
for a couple weeks, ride with a trainer, and a lot of times
these guys are riding with trainers who have only been driving
a truck a year themselves. I recall my own experience after one
year riding with my father, it was still a lot to learn and I
am still learning things every day. So those are ways that we
can actually move highway safety forward by enacting common
sense regulations on things and actually using sound,
scientific data. So those are things that I think we could do.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Yes. You know, we are all committed to
safety. We are family-owned companies. I do not care if it is a
Swift truck or C.R. England or whatever that has an accident,
kills, or maims people, it hurts us to see families hurt. So we
are committed to safety, which is why I am part of that safety
training that we take all the time. Like he said, we learn
things all the time every day in trucking and safety. You are
always working towards being a safe driver. But as an example
of how I think these ELDs are not the answer for safety is all
these big motor carriers with the ELDs, hiring all these
student drivers, their accident rates are very high and they
have got some very serious accidents. And the Walmart driver
that killed--I forget his name, but Tracy Morgan was the
survivor, I guess. Okay, he was in his first 2 hours of
driving. So it is like that ELD did not prevent that crash.
I was in an incident where I had plenty of time with an
ELD-equipped truck to get to my last stop many years ago and I
was on Route 2 in Western Mass going down that road, came up
behind a dump truck and I started losing time. Going down the
mountain he started doing 25 miles an hour. And the rule was if
you go over your hours twice in a year, which I already had
one, you are fired. I had to start whipping out over that
center line looking for a place to pass that guy on a downhill
mountain which I would never do. I finally got past the guy and
got down into town. I did not have enough time to pull into the
place I was delivering to. I had to stop in the middle of the
road, put my four-ways on, hit on-duty not driving. Did that
five more times until I could get into that driveway with
people cursing me. You are in the middle of a little road there
and that is what the problem with ELDs is. When you are down to
the second, to the minute, when you could have pulled into that
place much safer, that is just one example of many I could
give. But that is my input.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you.
Mr. PELKEY. Thank you, Congressman. Safety could not be any
more important to any one of our members. We deal with low
explosives on a daily basis. A lot of us are family owned. We
have our sons, our daughters, our husbands, wives, that are
involved directly in the business. So we take safety extremely
important.
The other problem that we have is the inflexibility of
government, and when you say striking a balance, the balance
being that we work on holidays and not every industry is the
same. We work on the Fourth of July, New Year's Eve. We do not
find many long-haul transportation companies that are willing
to take two, three, four, five boxes to a particular display
site that may be only an hour away from a facility on that
particular day. They are just not willing, nor do they possess
the HMSP or are willing to pass on that expense and all of the
regulations associated to it, but our member companies are and
they do so at their personal family expense.
Mr. GARBINI. Congressman, one of the common elements from
all the four testimonies was one size does not fit all. And I
think there has got to be a greater examination on this rule to
recognize that these light delivery trucks for short haul do
not fall in the same categories.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the
balance of my time.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields
back.
The gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Comer, is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. COMER. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank
you all for being here today. This is a big issue in my
district. I look at this rule, this ELD rule. This in my
opinion is the equivalent of Dodd-Frank legislation on small
community banks. This is the same thing that is happening with
our small truckers. Most of the small independent truckers in
my district feel like there are two reasons this rule became.
It is because the bureaucrats think it is a good idea that have
never been in the trucking business and the large, large
trucking companies want it to have a further competitive
advantage over the small guys. Whatever instance, that is not
good for me.
I am going to give you an example of how this affects a
huge industry in America, in Kentucky, and especially in my
district, agriculture. In Kentucky, we are the largest
livestock producing state east of the Mississippi. The further
east you go you still have a lot of cattle. If you look at the
price of beef cattle--I am just using this as an example. The
further away from Congressman Blum's district, Congressman
Marshall's district you get, the cheaper the cost of cattle is.
It can be the same type of cattle, the same weight, the same
breed. The difference is the trucking cost to get it to the
Midwest where the infrastructure is. When you transport
livestock, it takes longer than 12 hours. We have a lot of
livestock trucking companies in my district that take cattle
from the east to the Midwest to where the cattle finishing
takes place and the cattle processing takes place. If you do
not allow a waiver if this rule is not changed for the
livestock industry, the price of cattle will be zero the
further east of the Mississippi you get. Because if you have to
stop and unload those cattle--you cannot keep the cattle on the
truck or any of the livestock on the truck because they will
get disease, you have shrinkage, they are going to lose weight,
they could die. So you have to find a place to unload all those
cattle. People are not going to do that. That industry is going
to be gone. The small farmers that you have in the eastern part
of the United States. So I know that the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration issued a 90-day waiver for the ELD rule
for livestock haulers. That waiver is helpful in the short term
but it does nothing for the long term.
So my question is, what is the best long-term solution to
ensure the safety on our roadways for livestock and to continue
the viability of the big livestock industry we have, and not
just in my district in Kentucky but throughout the eastern part
of the United States?
Mr. GARBINI. Congressman, I am going to answer the same way
I just did to Congressman Evans. And all four testimonies had
the same common element to them that one size does not fit all.
There has got to be a greater examination to give relief to
situations like what you just described.
Mr. PELKEY. And I think an important point to bring out is
my personal circumstance in the 33 years that I have been in
business is that we are handed regulation and then are told
deal with it.
Mr. COMER. Right.
Mr. PELKEY. And dealing with it tends to--you make
mistakes. You are trying to comply. You are trying to figure
out how to comply. And the end result is, however, we are
inspecting you and you did not do steps three, four, and five
correctly. You did one great. Your heart was in the right
place. Your mind was in the right place but you just did not
get the job done. Therefore, here is a $2,500 fine and try to
do better next time.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. From my standpoint, even as just a
consumer, and I actually broke into the industry hauling
cattle.
Mr. COMER. You know what I am talking about?
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Yes. Absolutely. I did not go quite the
distance that you are talking, but still nonetheless, you are
talking about livestock here. It is not a load of freight.
Mr. COMER. Right.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. So, but as a consumer, you are talking
about dealing with the food chain of our country. And the fact
that we have such a great, efficient transportation system
enables food to be delivered, all kinds of goods to be
delivered at a low cost to the consumers. And if I might throw
this in also, a lot of people talk about the funding of our
highways and stuff today and not really want to raise fuel
taxes, but everybody benefits from that. You know, whether you
never get out and drive on the highways, but if you are going
to have stuff delivered from Amazon or whoever it is, and that
is a big thing right now.
Mr. COMER. You know, the shopping season. So, that all
plays into that, so that is something that we need to consider.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you. The gentleman's time has
expired.
Mr. COMER. Thank you.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you.
The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Lawson, who is the ranking
member of the Subcommittee on Health and Technology, is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. LAWSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And welcome to the
Committee.
One of the areas that you were talking about is one size
does not fit all and I can see that we were talking about it
more and more this morning. And I was trying to get my hands
around it because when I was in college, I was at Michigan and
I worked for this company called Avante Express where they
traveled all over Michigan but we had very little training on
those trucks before we were traveling all over Michigan. I was
working with a guy from Czechoslovakia who could not speak
English and I had a map and we went back and forth trying to
make things happen and trying to--but at that time we could
only be on the road about 8 hours. Today I think you can be on
the road about, what, 11 to 12 hours? Eleven hours, okay. And
so, but we violated all of the principles because a lot of
times we just could not make it in an 8-hour spread but we had
to really get back. My concern is there are a lot of
regulations that you all have to confront it with, and with
those regulations that you confront it with, what is the best
thing that you can offer to this Committee that we can work on
to make changes so that we do not put so much pressure on the
small business compared to the larger trucking firms? And I
think that is extremely important.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Well, you know, as small business truckers,
we are not looking for any type of specific advantage, like we
want the rules to apply to the big guys and not apply to us. We
are not looking for that. We are all working within the rules
we have right now. But the present hours of service has zero
flexibility, and prior to 2003, we operated under maybe the
rules you are talking about, the 8 hour. You could drive 10
hours and you had 8 hours off. You could take your breaks as
you wanted to. You were not penalized because you did not lose
worktime later on in the day because if you took a 2 hour
break, your clock was stopped. Whereas today the clock does not
stop. It keeps going. It only stops if you have 8 hours. So the
present hours of service is a huge, huge hindrance, and again,
it penalizes drivers for trying to take the opportunity to be
safe. And with regard to like the 14-hour rule, I have had
personal experience of having to skip eating someplace because
I was not going to get to my destination in time before my 14
hour clock. You know, you are allowed 11 hours of driving and 3
hours of on-duty time or whatever. Actually 13-1/2 now because
we have a 30-minute break rule that we have to take before we
acquire 8 hours of on-duty time. And that is another source of
frustration because many drivers, and I have not talked to
anybody that sees any merit in that. That is one of those rules
that is another one that you just scratch your head with.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. I would also agree with that. That is one of
the biggest problems with the inflexibility and the half-hour
break that they tell us we have to have with a combined 8 hours
of on-duty and on-duty driving, what a big mess that is. In any
other industry, a half-hour break is a lunch. Why do we not be
able to take our lunch when we want to? And previously, the 10
hours that you could drive with the 8 hours off--and you could
break up that 8 hours however you wanted to, and the teams
today, that is why you do not have many teams anymore. You
cannot break up your sleeper time. They relegate that other
driver to the sleeper for 10 straight hours. That is torture. I
have run team a long time years ago.
So here is what I think is really part of the answer is the
ELD is not going to give safe results. It does not really get
the result that we want. I will tell you what I think the
answer is good, substantial training. A lot of these big
megacarriers, I am not saying they all do this but they do not
train the drivers really well and so that is why you have got
guys going down Donner Pass and losing his breaks and they both
flipped over and they are killed. You know, that is a famous
video. So I am going to let the other guys speak.
Mr. PELKEY. Driving for us is incidental to our business.
Most of our jobs are less than 2 hours from the site, so we are
only driving on the road anywhere between 1 and 3 hours in any
given day. And it is the reason why Federal Motor Carrier had
granted us a 14-hour hours of service exemption during our busy
Fourth of July holiday over that 11 day period because we have
a proven safety record of on the road driving. And the reason
for that is because of the uniqueness of our organization that
all of our member companies that arrive to a display site, they
do some work, they may take some time off, they may go to a
hotel room, their own home, because there are different crews
that do different phases of a particular job. But at the end of
the day they have only driven an hour. They may have to drive a
half an hour to get their equipment back home, but it would be
within that 14-hour period.
Chairman CHABOT. Mr. Garbini, did you want to get an answer
in there real quickly?
Mr. GARBINI. I just wanted to comment that I think your
search here and questions trying to find a solution for this
are well founded. It lays with, quite frankly, working with
industry on the small business side to come up with rules that
make sense. I will leave it at that.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentleman's time
is expired.
Mr. LAWSON. I yield back.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentleman from
California, Mr. Knight, who is the chairman of the Subcommittee
on Contracting and Workforce is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. KNIGHT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple things.
I come from California. We have gone through a litany of
different things that we can embattle the trucking industry.
The particulate filters that we have gone through over the last
8 or 10 years, I was in the legislature when that happened and
a lot of the companies came forward and they bought those early
particulate filters. A lot of engines were catching on fire.
Their MPG was going down. Their ability to haul was going down.
It was amazing those first couple years. Now we have kind of
gone into the new filters and it is still a mess in California
over many different areas of conversation. And then we went
through the new motors. You could only have a certain amount or
certain types of motors. And so the trucking industry wanted to
come forward and buy the latest one to get them the furthest
down the road. And so we dealt with many of the big
manufacturers and said by 2025 you have to have this motor. And
so the industry said we would just like to buy that. Well, the
interesting thing was they did not build that motor at the time
and so they had to buy the next stage of motor and then the
next stage. And it just turned into a big mess. It is still a
big mess in California. So we have gone through this and we
have not listened to the trucking industry. We have listened to
the politicians to write the laws and you have got to deal with
it.
So all that being said, on the ELD, is there ever going to
be a time where you say that we have got to upgrade to
something that will be better for the trucker, better for the
industry, better for the owners? And it will be of this higher
advanced over maybe just taking your log, maybe doing it on
your own and things like that. Or would you say that the log
and how it is done today is the best way that we can do it? And
that might come from the industry. That might come from owners.
Go ahead, sir.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Well, we are not against the technology by
any stretch. We are just against it being mandated because,
again, as speaking to the bulk of our membership being single-
truck owner-operators, and I spoke to before, there is only
going to be a cost. There is not going to be a savings because,
I mean, outside of a guy is just lazy as far as figuring his
fuel taxes, if you wanted to have a program that takes care of
your fuel taxes that you are going to pay $40 or $50 a month
for to keep track of then maybe, but I mean, the technology
itself we are not against but the mandate is what we are
opposed to.
Mr. KNIGHT. Okay. Sir?
Mr. DIGIACOMO. Yes. I would say that in the FMCSA's own
words there is only a small percentage of drivers that are
abusing the system. There are some problem drivers, just like
if you have guys who are convicted of DWI in a town. Well, put
a breathalyzer in their car. Do not put it in everybody's car.
Why penalize everybody if they do not want it? How about if it
was a choice? If it is going to benefit my business and help me
to be safer, I will definitely buy it if it is going to help me
be safer. But in my personal opinion, drivers that have been in
this a long time and have great safety records, no serious
instances of irresponsible driving, they do not even need a log
book. They have been in it long enough. They have the maturity
to run without a log and they would still be safe. So at some
point I could see possibly looking into it if it is going to
benefit me, and if it will really contribute to my safety. But
the hours of service is the biggest problem right next to----
Mr. KNIGHT. Okay. And a quick question on my last minute
here. The industries, do the trade organizations and the
industry come forward with ideas every year to say, hey, look,
this is going to make us safer, this is going to make us more
efficient, this is going to make it so we can make more money?
All of those things are very important.
Mr. PELKEY. And I guess I would put it on behalf of our
American Pyrotechnics Association has put forth continuously,
have worked tenaciously as far as getting and working with
Federal Motor Carrier on giving options. And I think a lot of
that has been given back by Federal Motor Carrier by granting
our hours of service exemption. So we have proven as an
industry and worked with Federal Motor Carrier to say that yes,
you have a very safe record over this strong period of time
that you do business. But many of our members only have one or
two trucks. And I do not think that they have a problem with
those particular ELD mandates for those particular trucks, but
we were at 90 percent, I believe 3,600 rental trucks that we
rely on from vans, 15-foot trucks, to 26-foot trucks from
Budget, Ryder, Penske, whatever they may be, to transport for 2
weeks out of the year to put equipment in and out of these
trucks on a daily basis depending on what status a particular
driver is in is just too problematic and just something that
Federal Motor Carrier just does not want to deal with.
Mr. KNIGHT. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield back.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you. The gentleman yields back.
The gentlewoman from North Carolina, Ms. Adams, who is the
ranking member of the Subcommittee on Investigations,
Oversight, and Regulations, is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. ADAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you,
gentlemen, for being here and for your testimony. A common
theme among those opposed to the ELD rule is that they are too
costly for small businesses to afford, but just a cursory
reviews shows that there are several ELD options that come with
no upfront costs and with monthly service fees as low as $10.
In addition, the FMCSA estimates that drivers will save
approximately 20 hours per year in time they otherwise spend
filling out paper. And everything is kind of moving toward
computers and technology. So why would they not benefit from
adopting the ELDs? I mean, I have listened attentively but it
seems to me it is just a change from paper to something else.
So anybody can comment.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Well, as far as it goes, you know, the ELD,
you still have to put in things on your log, like your bill of
lading model, who the shipping is, what kind of cargo you are
carrying. Those things will still have to be entered whether
you have a paper log or an ELD log. And this savings of time is
mythical at best. I am sorry, but when I am doing my log as I
keep it up during the day, it is probably 3 or 4 minutes maybe
at that. And so there is not going to be this savings in time
that they talk about. And drivers do not get paid by the hour
anyway; they get paid by the mile or the load.
Ms. ADAMS. Okay.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. I would also say that those statistics that
they give, you might want to check who gave that statistic.
Maybe it is the manufacturer. Rand McNally is the biggest name.
They claim to be the world's leader in maps because of their
relationships with states and local municipalities, yet I have
owned two of them for several years and I can tell you that the
glitches and problems with that are consistent. They are never-
ending. They are not accurate and they never should have been
put out on the market. And that is what you are going to end up
with is a gadget that is going to have problems. And that is
why we still have to carry, according to the ELD mandate, we
still have to carry a paper log in the truck. Why? Well, they
are not going to work all the time.
And the other issue is if you are going to invest in
something, you want to make sure it is going to be working all
the time and not a problem to your truck. I have not done a lot
of research on them because my truck is too old. I am not going
to put one in. But a buddy of mine told me about the company
that he is leased to is forcing all their drivers to take this
one and it comes with a disclaimer, if you have any problems
with the engine light coming on or any engine problems that
occur, quickly disconnect this. Well, what are you going to do,
pull over? Okay. So all these companies that are coming out
with these, what kind of quality are they? Are they guaranteed
to work? There you go. That is good.
Ms. ADAMS. Thank you. Yes?
Mr. GARBINI. My comment is that having an electronic
logging device mandated on all vehicles, again, regardless of
the size of the company or the length of drive that each one of
the drivers may have in a day, is kind of a rationalization
that electronics are going to be the solution. A company has to
be committed to safety to begin with, and if they are doing
that, and I think the question earlier from the congressman on
the other end here, if the company is committed to safety, the
paper log is going to work fine. The whole issue is really
making it mandatory.
Mr. PELKEY. And in our particular industry we, in the
fireworks industry, in the American Pyrotechnics Association,
we do not really have an hours of service problem. And we do
not have a safety issue problem that we have, especially over
the 2-week period of the Fourth of July, and the cost, many
member companies have been using ELDs for probably, off and on
over the last year and a half, and there are a cost. There are
costs associated because you have a monthly fee, whether you
rent it, you purchase it, and then a database fee for each
individual driver. So that ranges anywhere between $200 and
$300 per year per driver.
And then on top of that, if they do not fill it out
properly, in our uniqueness of our business, and if they have
too many out-of-service conditions, what will happen is they
will lose their Hazardous Materials Safety Permit. For the
fireworks industry, that is their lifeblood. You might as well
take their driver's license away and they are done. And that is
the caveat that Federal Motor Carrier has over many of our
member industries.
Ms. ADAMS. Thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Babin, who is the sponsor of
the ELD Extension Act of 2017 is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BABIN. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a
pleasure to be back in here.
Recently our office had sent a letter to the president
asking for a delay for all sectors of the trucking industry
until April 1st. And since then DOT has granted a waiver for 3
months to ag haulers and cattle haulers. And so I think that is
proof that DOT certain has the authority to grant a waiver to
whomever they wish in this process. I would like to hear from
what each of you think. Would that be something that you would
be in agreement that all sectors of our trucking industry
should have a waiver of a temporary period of time, like the 3
months that the cattle and the ag haulers have.
Mr. WIEDERHOLD. Yes, I would agree with that. I mean, I
think it is a laudable thing. I think that it actually needs to
go farther than that but any reprieve to work out some of these
problems associated with it would be welcome.
Mr. DIGIACOMO. I would agree in that it does need to go
further. And just a quick comment, if logs were the answer to
safety, why does the government on FEMA loads throw out the
logbook for all of the drivers if we are running FEMA loads and
there are 26 states still operating with all these trucks
bringing emergency relief, fuel, propane. These guys are
running way over their hours. It is not a problem. What happens
if my customer has a problem with a plant shut down and I have
got to get something there so people will not be out of work?
What is the difference between what the government allows and
what our customers might need?
Mr. PELKEY. And currently, APA members are granted a 14-
hour hours of service waiver for an 11-day period over the busy
Fourth of July holiday. And any ELD use that we are mandated to
use basically nullifies that waiver that they have already
admitted that we have a very safe track record and have
established that over at least a dozen or so years of an
impeccable safety record associated with that time period that
we celebrate and perform these displays that probably the
Nation's fireworks displays, 70 percent of all displays
performed in that 2-week period.
Mr. GARBINI. I think your example of the relief that was
given to the haulers, the livestock haulers is evidence again
that the Federal Government and the agency, Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration, have recognized that there are
some flaws to this whole thing. There needs to be time taken
with a stay on the entire process and have industry work with
the regulators to come up with common sense. One size does not
fit all across the board.
Mr. BABIN. Absolutely. And then, you know, I would also say
to my colleagues that if a company likes their ELD and there is
a history of it, and some of these companies really do, but I
have talked to far more of my constituents and also outside my
district who drive that they have grave concerns about the
unknowns and the question marks regarding it and just how safe
it is. But if it saves a company money, if it actually does
make the highways safer and each individual company finds that,
then certainly I am not trying to abolish by any stretch of the
imagination ELDs. Keep using them. In the words of our previous
administration, if you like your ELD, you can keep your ELD. So
that is all that we are trying to do and that is to get a
little time, find out how these things work, get some
testimony. We know that the previous administration said that
there would be a $2 billion compliance cost on this thing. And
so I think it is not unreasonable to ask for a waiver for a
short period of time until we can answer these questions.
Anyway, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman CHABOT. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields
back.
And I want to thank the panel for their excellent testimony
here this morning and now this afternoon.
There is no question that the American economy relies
heavily on the trucking industry and so therefore, this is a
very important issue for us to consider. We, of course,
understand that there is some disagreement between some of the
small, probably all of the small trucking companies and some of
the larger, and obviously the association that is one of the
more significant ones in the trucking industry, too. But we
thought that we ought to do our part as the Small Business
Committee to make sure that there was an opportunity there for
you to let this Committee know and we will let our colleagues
know what we are hearing. And as I stated at the beginning, we
are also inviting those with an opposite point of view to
submit in writing their point of view so we can consider that
as well.
And I would ask unanimous consent that members have 5
legislative days to submit statements and supporting materials
for the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
And if there is no further business to come before the
Committee, we are adjourned.
Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Testimony of Monte Wiederhold
President B L Reever Transport, Inc.
before the
United States House of Representatives Committee on Small
Business
``Highway to Headache: Federal Regulations on the Small
Trucking Industry''
November 29, 2017
Chairman Chabot, Ranking Member Velazquez, and Members of
the Committee, thank you for providing me the opportunity to
testify today. My name is Monte Wiederhold and I began my
career as a professional truck driver in 1973. I have been a
small business owner since 1993 and I am the President of B L
Reever Transport, Inc., located in Maumee, Ohio. My business is
a small fleet, employing only 7 truckers, who like me, are
owner-operators. Additionally, I have been a member of the
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) since
1983 and currently serve on the organization's Board of
Directors. I am also a proud constituent of Chairman Chabot's
and appreciate his interest in this subject and long-time
support for professional drivers.
Small trucking businesses represent 96% of registered motor
carriers in the United States. We are undoubtedly the safest
and most diverse operators on the nation's roads. Our
activities impact all sectors of the American economy on a
daily basis. We move everything and anything--from agricultural
products and household goods to military equipment and energy
resources.
Despite representing such a sizeable portion of the
trucking industry, the federal government has never fully
grasped the importance of our diversity, and continues to
burden small business truckers with a ``one-size-fits-all''
approach to regulations. Time and time again, this approach
punishes small businesses, stifles competition, and
overregulates an industry deregulated by design. Too often,
these costly and burdensome regulations are advanced at the
behest of corporate motor carriers, who use the legislative and
regulatory process to gain competitive advantages over smaller
operators like me.
Frequently, regulations promoted by these large fleets are
disingenuously billed as silver bullet solutions to enhancing
highway safety, despite a distinct lack of reputable evidence
to support their claims. In reality, they are economic weapons
used to squeeze smaller competitors out of the trucking
industry by increasing their operating costs. Continuance of
the ``one-size-fits-all'' approach has left the federal
government complicit in driving the safest truckers on the road
out of the industry through overregulation.
Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs)
While Congress and the new administration has recently been
successful in providing relief for small trucking businesses on
several key matters, it has surprisingly failed to adequately
address serious concerns involving the most disruptive and
expensive trucking regulation in history--the electronic
logging device or ELD mandate.
The ELD mandate is estimated to cost a whopping $1.8
billion annually, yet provides no safety or economic benefit
for small-business truckers or the wide range of customers who
rely on truck transportation. The rulemaking was approved based
upon the false premise that ELDs will increase compliance with
Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulations and thereby reduce the risk
of fatigue-related crashes. Simply reviewing the poor safety
records of large fleets that have utilized ELDs for years will
expose the fact these devices do not achieve those purported
safety benefits. Even analysis by the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration (FMCSA) in 2011 and 2014 determined there
is no discernable improvement to highway safety or decrease in
HOS violations related to ELDs.
The small number of large carriers that benefit from the
utilization of ELDs are already using the technology to monitor
their productivity. As a result, implementation of the mandate
will force small businesses to bear a majority of the nearly $2
billion price tag associated with the installation of these
devices. For owner-operators, these costs will supplant a
portion of investments otherwise devoted to maintenance,
equipment, and other critical safety upgrades.
While small-business truckers are adamant the ELD mandate
must be repealed, we are also concerned by serious
complications associated with its implementation, which is
currently scheduled for December 18, 2017. Many significant
technological concerns remain unresolved, including the
certification of devices, connectivity problems in remote areas
of the country, cybersecurity, vulnerabilities, and the ability
of law enforcement to access information. Perhaps most
alarming, ELD manufacturers are currently able to self-certify
technology without validation by FMCSA, creating vast
uncertainty within the regulated community.
As owner-operators, some of the truckers who drive for B L
Reever will be purchasing their own devices, based on their
unique needs and budgets. Throughout their decision-making
process, they have shared considerable concerns with me about
the self-certification of devices and the uncertainty it
causes. Unfortunately, the lack of FMCSA validation has created
an atmosphere in which drivers have more confidence in
identifying devices that are not wise investments than those
that will ensure compliance.
FMCSA has also failed to adequately train law enforcement.
Recently, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), which
represents motor vehicle safety officials, announced they would
conduct `soft' enforcement of the mandate through April 2018.
Because the serious concerns of professional drivers have not
been satisfactorily addressed, we believe it would be
reasonable and responsible for Congress and the Department of
Transportation (DOT) to pursue a delay in implementation or
suspend the mandate until these problems are fully resolved.
Concerns involving the ELD mandate and its flawed
implementation are not isolated to OOIDA and small-businesses
truckers. Over 30 organizations, representing a wide range of
industries, have joined our calls for delaying the regulation.
Many more, including large fleets who championed the mandate,
have encountered serious difficulties with the regulation and
pursued exemptions from its requirements. The sheer number of
businesses desperate for relief perfectly illustrates what
happens when the federal government recklessly embraces the
``one-size-fits-all'' approach to trucking regulations.
Last week, OOIDA submitted a request to DOT to exempt small
trucking businesses with exemplary safety records from the
mandate for a period of five years. Under the request, only
motor carriers defined by the Small Business Administration
(SBA) as a small-trucking business would qualify for relief
from the $2 billion regulation. Additionally, the request
stipulates that only motor carriers with a record of no at-
fault crashes would be exempted and those with an
`Unsatisfactory' safety rating from FMCSA would not be
eligible.
If granted, this exemption would provide temporary
regulatory relief to America's safest professional drivers, who
have already demonstrated exceptional safety records that far
exceed the large fleets who have been utilizing ELDs for years.
Furthermore, it would prevent small trucking businesses, who
operate on the slimmest of margins, from installing and
maintaining costly fleet management devices that provide them
no economic or productivity benefits.
Because this request is undoubtedly consistent with the
Trump Administration's efforts to provide regulatory relief for
American businesses of all sizes, we are hopeful DOT will grant
it prior to the mandate's December 18th implementation
deadline.
Hours-of-Service
All the negative attention associated with the ELD mandate
has exposed the fact today's Hours-of-Service (HOS)
requirements are a significant and foundational problem for
anyone involved in trucking. HOS standards are poorly designed
and do not allow truckers to operate in the safest and most
responsible manner. The overly rigid and restrictive
requirements fail to provide the flexibility drivers need to
rest when they are fatigued, avoid congestion and evade
dangerous highway conditions. Instead, these rules force
truckers to drive farther and faster.
Drivers' frustration with HOS is extensive throughout our
industry, with many truckers feeling as though they are
constantly racing against the clock. Because we are typically
paid by the mile, rather than the hour, today's HOS
requirements effectively penalize drivers for stopping to rest,
addressing equipment issues or even eating. With concerns about
my daily allotment of drivable hours evaporating, I have
skipped meals on the road to ensure I am able to reach my
destination without jeopardizing compliance. Excessive waiting
times for loading and unloading also use up a great deal of
these available hours, as shippers and receives have no
incentive to refrain from wasting a driver's time. And they
often do so since it costs them nothing to make a driver wait.
Truckers often are told by policy-makers to ``plan our days
better'', but that is virtually impossible in a setting where
the rest of the supply chain is not held to the same
regulations. Shippers and receivers care nothing about the 14-
hour clock, making trucks essentially rolling warehouses that
they will load or unload when convenient.
Unfortunately, all the problems associated with HOS are
compounded by the lack of adequate truck parking in every
corner of the country--one of the most serious and overlooked
safety issues in trucking. On the road, I routinely begin my
quest for an increasingly elusive open parking space with about
60 minutes left on my clock for fear my hours will expire
before I find a safe location to stop. While I am not
compensated for the time needed to find safe parking, I would
certainly be penalized if I exceeded my HOS while searching.
The lack of sufficient parking, coupled with the rigidity of
HOS requirements, effects not only the safety, but the finances
of drivers.
In recent years, Congress has taken steps to improve HOS,
but more can be done to create a system that benefits both
drivers and highway safety. Unlike other issues that often
generate contention among large and small motor carriers,
efforts to modernize HOS requirements would likely garner broad
support, as the current standards burden businesses of all
sizes and varieties.
While professional drivers are dismayed by the lack of
relief Washington has provided on the ELD mandate and what
little progress has been made on HOS, we are pleased by recent
developments in other policy areas that affect our operations
on a daily basis.
EPA Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Phase 2
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) indicated it intends to exempt glider kits from Phase 2
of its greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy vehicles.
This news was applauded by owner-operators, who are more
frequently purchasing glider kits because of their reliability
and affordability. Excessive and costly federal regulations
like Phase 2 have dramatically altered small businesses'
ability to purchase new or recently owned trucks. Since 2002,
federal emission reduction standards have increased the cost of
a new truck between $50,000 and $70,000, as additional
environmental components and systems have become required.
Given a glider kit's unique assembly, prices for these vehicles
are typically 25-30% less than a new truck, allowing
independent owner-operators to save tends of thousands of
dollars on their purchase.
While glider kits provide appealing cost savings for
drivers, they are also reliable, efficient, and meet all of the
required environmental and safety standards necessary for
operation. If applied to glider kits, Phase 2 would have
completely destroyed the domestic manufacturers of the
equipment, jeopardizing quality jobs and eliminating the
ability of small trucking businesses to acquire the vehicles
that meet their needs.
We are pleased by the EPA's change of heart on the
regulation of glider kits, but it's important to remember this
unique problem was the result of a much broader issue involving
environmental regulation in the trucking industry. As a small-
business trucker, fuel is my largest expense. Operating on the
sli8mmest of margins, I am constantly looking to reduce my fuel
costs when it makes economic sense to do so. I don't need the
EPA to mandate requirements, like Phase 2, to improve my
efficiency because I'll make those improvements on my own, when
I can afford them. Additionally, truck manufacturers have an
economic incentive to develop and market vehicles that help
drivers improve efficiency and cut costs. Environmental
requirements that provide no improvements to efficiency also
disproportionately impact small-business truckers, who, unlike
large fleets, are less capable of phasing-in new technology
over time or purchasing multiple units at discounted rates.
With its recent decision on glider kits, the EPA has
signaled it is moving away from its ``one-size-fits-all''
approach to the Phase 2 rule, but a fundamental change in the
agency's overall philosophy on trucking regulations remains
necessary.
Minimum Insurance Liability Coverage
In another victory for small-business truckers, the Trump
Administration this summer withdrew a proposed rulemaking on
increasing the minimum liability insurance level for motor
carriers.
Today, motor carriers are required by law to carry $750,000
in liability insurance, though most small trucking businesses
maintain policies that provides $1 million in coverage. Despite
the fact less than 0.2% of truck-involved accidents result in
property and personal injury damages that exceed current
minimums, some large motor carriers and trial lawyers have
sought to increase levels to well over $4 million. Because many
of our nation's largest fleets are self-insured, many would
hardly be impacted by these increased costs. This is precisely
why several corporate motor carriers support calls for dramatic
increases to insurance minimums--they understand a 500% spike
in policy premiums would essentially be a death sentence for
their small-business competitors like me.
To ensure the survival of hundreds-of-thousands of small
trucking businesses, elected officials must follow the
administration's lead and reject efforts to dramatically
increase minimum liability insurance.
Driver `Shortage'
Recently, corporate motor carriers have peddled the myth of
a national driver shortage as a means to advance legislative
and regulatory priorities that would actually harm drivers. The
real problem in today's trucking industry is an astronomically
high turnover rate and overcapacity of trucks--both perpetuated
by large fleets.
In its quarterly report, issued earlier this fall, the
American Trucking Associations (ATA) indicated the driver
turnover rate among large truckload carriers is a whopping 90%.
Some individual fleet are currently experiencing embarrassingly
high turnover rates above 100%. With FMCSA reporting over
440,000 new CDL holders entering the workforce each year, the
problem clearly isn't finding enough drivers, it's keeping them
behind the wheel. This churn of drivers is exacerbated by large
fleets, who continue to drive down trucker compensation and do
little to improve increasingly difficult working conditions.
Overcapacity is also widespread among the large fleets.
While pleading for help from Washington to address the mythical
driver shortage, corporate motor carriers routinely blame the
overcapacity of trucks within their own fleets for lower than
expected earnings. Clearly, there are more trucks on the road
than freight to haul.
If I lost a driver in my fleet tomorrow, I would certainly
have a difficult time replacing him or her--not because there
is a lack of CDL holders looking for employment, but because I
prefer to hire drivers who have demonstrated a history of
reliability and responsibility. Conversely, corporate motor
carriers would rather advance legislative and regulatory
proposals that help them put younger, less experienced and
poorly trained drivers behind the wheel.
When being sold policies to increase CDL holders in the
workforce, Congress must consider the real world implications
of these short-sighted proposals. Often, these policies are
meant to enhance corporate revenue at the expense of drivers
and highway safety.
Unified Carrier Registration System
While not a regulation, I would be remiss not to address
drivers' ongoing frustration with the Unified Carrier
Registration (UCR) system, a federally-authorized tax imposed
on truckers that no longer serves a purpose and is administered
with a distinct lack of transparency. I am particularly
familiar with the system and its myriad shortcomings because I
serve on the UCR's Board of Directors, which is comprised of
federal and state officials, as well as representatives of the
trucking industry.
The system was established in the 2005 highway bill, known
as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation
Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), for the purpose of
maintaining a single national register of motor carriers
conducting interstate travel. Drivers have many concerns with
the system, starting with the significant inequity in the
assessment of fees. The current tax structure is particularly
burdensome and costly for single truck operators or small fleet
carriers, who unjustifiably pay higher taxes per truck than
large fleets.
Transparency within the program is severely lacking. Often,
it is difficult to determine precisely what programs UCR taxes
are supporting within the 41 participating states. We do know
many states use UCR revenue as a non-federal match for Motor
Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) funding, which is
devoted primarily to enforcement. Essentially, these states are
utilizing a federally-authorized tax on motor carriers to
leverage additional federal funding for the policing of them.
Unfortunately, the UCR board, which oversees the entire
system, is incapable or unwilling to address the concerns of
truckers routinely voiced by their representatives on the
panel. The time has come for Washington to take a closer look
at the UCR and determine whether the system remains necessary.
Since its inception, UCR has never been audited by the DOT
Inspector General. A federal audit of how states are using UCR
revenue and MCSAP funding would be a constructive first step to
determine if the system is meeting its objectives.
Congressional oversight of UCR is also badly needed and should
occur more regularly. Since its launch, the system has never
been the focus of a Congressional hearing. Improved oversight
of UCR would help elected officials better understand the
system and its impact on motor carriers.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, thank you again for the opportunity to
testify. Because our industry is so heavily regulated and
intrinsically complex, there are many, many more issues I would
love to bring to the Committee's attention today. Instead,
OOIDA will be submitting more information for the record.
I look forward to hearing my fellow panelists testimony and
answering your questions.
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
HEARING BEFORE THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
``HIGHWAY TO HEADACHE: FEDERAL REGULATIONS ON THE SMALL TRUCKING
INDUSTRY''
November 29, 2017
Testimony of Robert Garbini, P.E.
President, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
Chairman Chabot, Ranking Member Velazquez, and Members of
the Small Business Committee, thank you for the invitation to
join you today to discuss the impact of federal regulations on
the small trucking industry.
I am testifying today on behalf of the National Ready Mixed
Concrete Association, which represents an industry with more
than 2,250 companies and subsidiaries and employs more than
135,000 American workers who manufacture and deliver ready
mixed concrete. While the Association represents both national
and multinational companies that operate in every congressional
district in the United States, roughly 85 percent all ready
mixed concrete companies are family-owned and operated small
businesses. The industry includes more than 70,000 ready mixed
concrete trucks and of 6,000 ready mixed concrete plants.
Ready mixed concrete companies produce a construction
material vital to our built environment. From roads to bridges,
to homes and high-rises, our built environment could not be
realized without the use of ready mixed concrete. This
important building material is created by combining fine and
course aggregates, cement and water. In 2016 alone, the ready
mixed concrete industry is estimated to have produced more than
342 million cubic yards of ready mixed concrete, representing a
value in excess of $35 billion. Virtually every construction
project in America uses at least some ready mixed concrete.
Once ready mixed concrete is loaded into a truck, it must
be poured within 60 to 90 minutes, or it will harden and render
the truck useless. The perishable nature of our product means
that our industry is intensely local, and deliveries are often
made just miles from the closest plant. As a result, ready
mixed concrete delivery vehicles typically travel very short
distances before offloading their product.
Because of the uniqueness of our product, and,
consequently, our industry, the ready mixed concrete industry
is often adversely impacted by federal trucking regulations
intended to apply to the trucking industry more broadly, both
because of the differences in industry and because of the
differences in the size of our companies. While large companies
can more easily muster the resources necessary to keep up,
understand and comply with federal regulations, small companies
are disproportionately affected by these regulations.
Regulations should not be one-size-fits-all, because it is
rarely the case that one size does in fact fit all. The small
trucking industry and industries it supports are examples of
the potential for the adverse effects of unintended
consequences to small businesses.
Electronic Logging Device
One of the most obvious examples of this is the mandate
that all commercial motor vehicles (CMV) be equipped with
electronic logging devices (ELD) for House of Service (HOS)
compliance. In a rule finalized December 16, 201 by the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), all CMVs will be
required to install and operate ELDs.
While NRMCA appreciates FMCSA's recognition of the
difference between short-haulers and long-haulers in the final
rule, the rule complicates compliance with the ELD mandate. The
rule states that short-haulers (those that can take advantage
of the 100 air-mile logging exemption) will not be required to
purchase, install and use ELDs. However, there is a caveat to
the provision. The rule states that if a short-haul operator,
not using an ELD, ends up coming out of compliance with the 100
air-mile logging exemption, and thus needs to fill out a record
of duty status retroactively for that day, this occurrence
(logging) can only be allowed ``8 days in any 30-day period'',
after which that driver will need to use an ELD.
This is unachievable in the ready mixed concrete industry.
Often, there are large construction jobs that occur throughout
the year, particularly during busy months, that necessitate
mixer drivers working longer days and needing to fill out a
record of duty status daily during until the job or the busy
period settle down. Under the rule, mixer drivers will be
required to find the resources, make the investment to install
the ELD and undergo training to comply with the ELD mandate for
a brief period of time each year. The effect of this provision
on the ready mixed concrete industry will be overly burdensome,
both logistically and financially.
The rule fails to take into account the industry specific
circumstances of ready mixed concrete truck drivers. Ready
mixe4d concrete delivery drivers typically only drive an
average of 14 miles from a concrete plant, drive only 4-6 hours
per day, start and end at the same location, are routinely
released from duty within 12 hours from the start of their
shift, spend 60% of their on-duty time engaged in non-
strenuous, non-driving related activities, and are not subject
to fatigue inducing situations that long-haul drivers often
experience.
The mandated use of ELDs in CMVs is to ensure HOS
compliance. As noted above, due to the working conditions of
mixer drivers and the exemptions/exceptions to HOS compliance
that are provided, making use of ELDs by mixer drivers is a
technical inapplicability. ELDs cannot accurately determine HOS
compliance since mixer drivers are only in the CMV or driving a
small amount of the time they're on-duty. In the case of the
100 air-mile exemption, mixer drivers and their employers only
have to keep records of when the drivers started and ended
their shifts, not a log of each individual duty status.
Requiring a mixer driver to use ELDs cannot practically
determine HOS compliance or productivity.
Further complicating the issue, is the application of the
100 air-mile logging exemption to the ready mixed concrete
industry and the industry-specific change to the 100 air-mile
logging exemption. Currently, the threshold for ready mixed
concrete truck drivers on-duty time is 14 hours, instead of the
standard 12 hours, as detailed in Title 49 of the Code of
Federal Regulations, Section 395.1(e)(1) \1\. This change,
which was brought about by the passage of the 2015 Fixing
America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) \2\, bring the
on-duty threshold of the 100 air-mile logging exemption for
ready mixed drivers in line with the 14-hour driving window
\3\. What this means is that drivers of ready mixed concrete
delivery vehicles are only required to install and use ELDs
once a driver has worked beyond 14 hours more than 8 days in
any 30-day period. This change, however, now creates the
scenario where needing ELDs wouldn't be required until a period
where a mixer driver can no longer even operate a CMV. The one-
size-fits-all approach to the ELD mandate will result in ready
mixed drivers using ELDs year round, regardless of whether the
rule applies.
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\1\ 49 CFR 396.1(e)(1)
\2\ Public Law 114-94
\3\ 49 CFR 395.3(a)(2)
The underlying issue remains the penchant for federal
regulations to be crafted in a one-size-fits-all manner.
Because of the significant differences between industries
impacted by this mandate, NRMCA strongly believes that the
December 17, 2017 ELD effective date should be placed on hold
until the rule can be comprehensively reviewed by FMCSA to
determine the unforeseen, adverse impacts to the numerous
unique trucking industry facets, including the ready mixed
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
concrete industry.
Phase 2
A second regulation impacting the small trucking industry
and by extension industries like the ready mixed concrete
industry is a regulation commonly referred to as ``Phase 2.''
On October 25, 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) finalized a joint rule titled, ``Greenhouse Gas Emissions
and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty
Engines and Vehicles-Phase 2.'' \4\
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\4\ 81 Federal Register 73478
Among the issues related to Phase 2 that impact the small
trucking industry are the added costs, technology sufficiency
and suitability, and impacts on heavy-duty, class 8, straight
truck weight challenges. Currently, the vast majority (98
percent) of American ready mixed concrete markets employ
single-unit concrete mixer trucks operating on between 2- to 7-
axels \5\ to deliver ready mixed concrete to its point of
placement. Under this regulation, these trucks would fit into
the definition of vocational, heavy-duty, class 8 trucks.
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\5\ NRMCA, 2017 Fleet Benchmarking Survey
NRMCA supports maintaining the flexibility of ready mixed
concrete producers to utilize their already purchased assets to
their fullest capacity, such as with ``glider kits''. To this
end, NRMCA opposes the rule's suggestion to require glider kits
contain Phase 2 compliant engines. Continuing to allow ready
mixed concrete producers the opportunity to utilize refurbished
trucks, truck parts and engines is an entrepreneurial
inventiveness affording industry members economic and
productivity advantages and competitiveness. Changing the
current glider kit system will undoubtedly cause undue harm and
hardship for many ready mixed concrete companies that base
their business model on glider kits instead of purchasing brand
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
new trucks.
Upending the current glider kit system serves as an
unnecessary coercion on market forces that alone will
inevitably pressure the phase out of pre-Phase 2 engines.
Requiring glider kits to be Phase 2 complaint would be
redundant, unnecessary, and unfairly expeditious on the ready
mixed concrete industry.
Furthermore, NRMCA would like to highlight comments
reported on that were made by Matthew Spears, executive
director of EPA's Heavy-Duty Diesel Program at a past session
of the American Trucking Association's Technology & Maintenance
Council (September 22, 2015), in which he noted that the Phase
2 program changes to glider kits may be left alone when applied
to concrete mixer truck chassis. In the final rule, this notion
was not reflected. NRMCA would very much support such a carve
out for ready mixed concrete trucks. As much, mixer trucks do
fall in line with any criteria that would exclude their
coverage based on low-mileage and/or vocational use.
In the rule, NHTSA and EPA suggest weight reduction as a
viable method to meet the proposal's requirements. While NRMCA
does not disagree with this approach, NRMCA objects to its
feasibility as applied to ready mixed concrete trucks. Due to
the reality of the necessary configuration of trucks hauling
ready mixed concrete, combined with current regulations from
numerous other U.S. regulatory bodies, weight poses a unique
and continuing challenge to the industry.
The necessity for manufacturing ready mixed concrete trucks
with the lowest possible weight has existed as a market force
since the inception of the federal bridge formula for truck
weight restrictions on federal-aid highways. Manufacturing a
light-weight mixer truck that meets all regulatory compliance
thresholds and can still haul a full load remains a constant
challenge of innovation and creativity.
The rule makes assumptions about heavy-duty truck weights
in order to make suggestions about how weight reduction can be
applied to meeting the rule's requirements. These assumptions,
in the case of ready mixed concrete trucks are incorrect and
miss the reality of a mixer truck's true tare and payload
weights by thousands of pounds. For example, the maximum weight
allowed on federal-aid highways is 80,000 lbs. spread over a
calculated number of axles. However, due to structural design
and specialized equipment installed on mixer trucks for
handling such a heavy payload, under federal weight limits a
typical ready mixed concrete truck ends up weighing
considerably less than the allowable threshold. The realities
of truck weight regulations leave little extra room for
carrying payload. According to NHTSA's and EPA's assumptions
these tolerances are roughly 3,000 to 6,000 lbs. lighter than
what is true for mixer truck weights.
In addition to the federal weight tolerances, structural
designs and necessary specialized industry equipment, along
with previous emission regulation requirements that have added
weight to mixer trucks, the overall acceptable weight of mixer
trucks has reached its limit. Not to mention, this current
weight of mixer trucks includes and takes into account the
weight changes needed to comply with Phase 1 and all of the
alternative material suggestions mentioned in the Phase 2 rule.
All of these weight considerations have pushed ready mixed
concrete producers to running mixer trucks, in many cases, with
a .002% margin of weight threshold. Meaning, under such weight
conditions, a truck merely getting too dirty will put it over
legal weight limits and risk non-compliance.
Furthermore, the nature of hauling and delivering ready
mixed concrete gives way to various driving conditions, road
conditions, weather conditions and construction site
conditions. Due to such realities, mixer trucks are designed to
meet this inevitable rough-and-tough wear-and-tear atmosphere.
Such a design requires materials that can handle these stresses
and keep trucks moving; these materials invariably add weight
to a ready mixed concrete truck.
Many of the methods NHTSA and EPA suggest in both Phase I
and Phase II for complying with the rule are already being
implemented by the industry, and numerous other suggestions in
Phase II are simply not practical for mixer trucks, leaving
technology that has yet to be invented or perfected the method
the industry most likely will have left at is disposal for
complying with Phase II. To this end, NRMCA recommends that
NHTSA abandon this non-attainable rule in its entirety. Short
of full repeal of the final rule, instead of pushing weight
reductions, NRMCA advocates for increased weight tolerances in
amounts large enough to offset the weights of new equipment and
technology that will be employed for compliance with Phase II.
NRMCA would like to remind NHTSA that such a precedent already
exists for auxiliary power units and idling-reduction
technology in many states.
NRMCA believes the Phase 2 rule is unduly burdensome and
should better take into account cost and technology
implications on downstream purchasers of heavy-duty trucks. As
well, the new mandates for glider kits should not cover low-
mileage, vocational trucks such as concrete mixer truck.
The consequence of adding more weight to mixer trucks for
Phase 2 compliance results in achieving the opposite goal of
Phase 2. Simply put, if the industry is forced to reduce
payload to meet low weight tolerances, the industry will then
be forced to use more trucks, making more trips to deliver the
same amount of ready mixed concrete. More trips mean increased
emissions, increase fuel consumption, more trucks sitting in
traffic, and longer hours for industry drivers.
Truck Weights
A third set of federal regulations that adversely impact
the small trucking industry and small businesses that rely on
it is the confusing, frustrating rules regarding truck weights.
We have long advocated that federal truck weight regulations be
updated to increase gross weights limits on the Eisenhower
Interstate System (EIS). Research shows that increased weight
limits would alleviate traffic congestion, increase safety,
save millions of dollars annually on pavement and bridge
maintenance and increase the productivity of large trucks used
by businesses in the small trucking industry, such as ready
mixed concrete trucks.
In 1956 Congress passed legislation aimed at protecting the
pavement and bridges on the EIS. Those protections came in the
form of axle and gross weight limits. The federal law also
authorized states to allow operation on the EIS beyond the
specified limits, but only if operation was legal in the state
prior to July 1, 1956. In response to energy use concerns, the
Federal Aid Highway Amendments of 1974 increased the weight
limits to allow larger and heavier trucks to utilize the EIS.
As a balance to this concession, Congress created the Federal
Bridge Formula (FBF), which limits the size and weight of
trucks by calculating the gross weight over the spacing and
number of axles; the heavier the weight, the greater the
required spacing between axles.
Federal weight limits \6\ are set at 20,000 lbs. for a
single axle, 34,000 lbs. for tandem axles, and 80,000 lbs.
gross weight. In addition, the current FBF is overly cautious
and no practical basis is given for the overstress criteria
used to limit weights and configurations. These limits are the
most restrictive of any developed nation. By comparison, though
comparable U.S. trucks are limited to a maximum 80,000 lbs.,
the maximum weight for a six-axle truck in Canada is 95,900
lbs., in Mexico it is 106,920 lbs., and the European Commission
has set the limit at 97,000 lbs.
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\6\ 23 CFR 658.17
Ready mixed concrete trucks are heavy duty trucks and have
relatively heavy empty (or tare) weights due to the nature of
the work they must perform. This is attributed to structural
design and specialized equipment installed on the vehicle for
handling the load. Due to the relatively heavy weight of the
empty vehicle, the limits imposed by federal weight laws,
especially the FBF, leave little extra weight for carrying
payload. As well, the majority of ready mixed concrete trucks
have only three or four axels to maximize maneuverability for
on- and off-road use, and to deliver product under often
challenging circumstances. For example, (not including states
with higher grandfathered weight tolerances) under federal
weight limits a three-axle ready mixed concrete truck could
weigh a maximum of 48,000 lbs. Only 18,000 lbs. (out of a
potential 40,000 lbs. in the mixer drum) would be the
productive payload, since approximately 30,000 lbs. is the tare
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
weight of the truck.
As a result, federal weight laws essentially force fully
loaded ready mixed concrete trucks off the EIS and onto local
and state roads that are generally built to lower standards.
While this congestion, makes for potentially unsafe driving
conditions, and prematurely degrades secondary roadways, it
also impacts the small trucking industry by drastically cutting
efficiency and requiring extra miles to be traveled to deliver
the product, resulting in increased fuel use and costs. Since
ready mixed concrete trucks typically only travel a distance of
14 miles from their reporting plant, and average less than four
miles per gallon, these realities are both a product of and
exacerbated by the current federal truck weight laws.
Increasing federal truck weight limits will allow ready
mixed concrete trucks to be more productive, will help reduce
congestion and will also tend to decrease greenhouse gas
emissions through reduced fuel consumption. This in turn helps
achieve greater sustainability within the transportation and
construction industry sectors through annual reductions of
CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing
federal truck weight regulations will provide relief to the
small trucking industry and benefits for the environment.
Sleep Apnea
The first set of proposed regulations that would adversely
impact the small trucking industry and small businesses like
ready mixed concrete companies, is a regulation related to
evaluation of truck drivers for sleep apnea. On March 10, 2016,
FMCSA and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a
joint advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) titled
``Evaluation of Safety Sensitive Personnel for Moderate-to-
Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea'' \7\ (OSA).
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\7\ 81 Federal Register 12642
Currently, the vast majority (98%) of American ready mixed
concrete markets employ single-unit concrete mixer trucks
operating on 2- to 7-axels \8\ to deliver ready mixed concrete
to its point of placement. As noted, the average one-way
distance a ready mixed concrete truck travels for a delivery is
roughly 14 miles away from the ready mixed concrete plant and
concrete mixer truck drivers spend less than 50% of their total
on-duty time actually driving. Due to the perishable nature of
ready mixed concrete \9\ and the distance traveled, the time a
driver spends behind the wheel is extremely limited.
Consequently, mixer truck drivers are strictly short-haul
operators and not subject to certain fatigue inducing
circumstances that exist for long-haul operators and other
types of CMV drivers.
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\8\ NRMCA, 2017 Fleet Benchmarking Survey
\9\ American Society for Testing and Materials, Standard C94, 2016
As NRMCA previously testified at the May 25, 2016 OSA
listening session in Los Angeles, CA \10\, NRMCA believes it is
important to again, reiterate that many different factors can
lead to fatigue beyond OSA, and many different factors can lead
to crashes involving large trucks beyond OSA.
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\10\ 81 Federal Register 25366
In a survey of NRMCA's membership covering all geographic
regions of the country and involving all sizes of businesses,
NRMCA found that medical insurance coverage for OSA testing,
treatment and required equipment is severely limited and would
result in out-of-pocket costs to drivers and small businesses
of between $1,000 and $3,000 annually per driver. Write-in
responses to the same survey indicated costs as high was
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$12,000 to $15,000.
The financial burden associated with this proposed
regulation may dissuade drivers from the small trucking
industry or from working for small businesses, potentially
exacerbating the driver shortage currently stalking the
industry. Within the ready mixed concrete industry alone, as
the economy continues to grow, firms have had to refuse
business simply because they do not have enough drivers to
handle the workload. Prospective drivers that may want to enter
this profession, under a new rule, would likely be faced with
having to cover certified medical examiner costs, testing costs
and treatment out of their own pocket before being employed and
likely even before being considered for employment.
Speed Limiters
The second proposed regulation that would adversely affect
the small trucking industry that I would like to draw your
attention to related to speed limiters. On September 7, 2016,
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
published a notice of proposed rulemaking (proposal) titled
``Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Regulations; Parts and Accessories Necessary for Safe
Operations; Speed Limiting Devices'' \11\.
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\11\ 81 Federal Register 61941
Regardless of the merit of the proposed regulation, it
highlights again the failure of the one-size-fits-all mentality
to account for the very real differences between and variances
within industries. While there are real concerns about the
unsafe environment that may be created on our nation's roadways
by the potential of a speed differential between large trucks
traveling slower than the smaller, faster motoring public, the
rule as applied to the ready mixed concrete industry is
unnecessary and would impose a burden disproportionate its
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benefits.
Ready mixed concrete mixer truck drivers do not often reach
the three speed limits listed as potential thresholds in the
proposal (60 miles per hour, 65 and 68). Industry experience
suggests that crashes within the industry generally occur at
lower speeds and regularly do not involve other vehicles,
making such a regulation when applied to the ready mixed
concrete industry unlikely to increase safety on our nation's
roadways for the industry and the motoring public, while
imposing a disproportionately high burden on the small trucking
industry and the small businesses in related industries,
including the ready mixed concrete industry.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Committee for the
opportunity to discuss federal regulations adversely impacting
the small trucking industry. The regulations addressed in this
testimony are representative of a one size fits all approach to
trucking regulations. NRMCA urges this Committee and federal
regulators to carefully weigh the implications for regulations
to all industries, including the small trucking industry and
those associated with it like the ready mixed concrete
industry, as well as consider the disproportionate weight of
compliance on small businesses.
I look forward to the testimony presented by my fellow
panelists and taking any questions you may have regarding my
own.
Thank you.
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