"If you're really concerned about safety numbers, we want zero fatalities, we want all these things to happen ... we have to train people, we have to pay people, and we have to give them a safe place to rest. That's the first three things we should be doing, and until we do that, we're never going to fix highway safety. It's never going to get better." --Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh

The good news is that, according to Pugh, FMCSA and the Department of Transportation more broadly are finally listening to truckers and other small-business interests in their push toward safety improvement, leaving behind old notions of a driver shortage. Pugh contends the notion has for decades influenced the credentialing and training system such that drivers are in effect rushed into the business, with too often terrible outcomes.

Nowhere was new federal attitudes toward small business truckers in evidence more than at this year’s Mid-America Trucking Show, where regulators spent a great deal of time and effort communicating with owner-ops in attendance: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15820771

Also in the podcast, find more emphasis on OOIDA priorities with respect to the administration, and a rundown with Pugh in light of the broader freight markets, particularly after the dramatic escalation of fuel prices of late with the Iran conflict. We all found a measure guarded optimism among owner-operators in attendance, yet plenty of hope the conflict draws down quickly.

Plus: We check in with Jorge Rivera Lujan, featured on Overdrive Radio earlier in the year regarding his and other plaintiffs' legal challenge to FMCSA's rule effectively eliminating most non-domiciled CDL issuance for non-citizens. Lewie Pugh got the opportunity to meet the independent owner-operator at MATS, and well knows that if the rule remains intact Rivera Lujan will lose his CDL and the current status of his business late in the year when the CDL expires: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15816105

Rivera Lujan was brought the U.S. as a child, and with another Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient was able to communicate his quandary at MATS to officials as high as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. In some ways, there could be hope for folks like him, owner-operators adversely impacted by the non-domiciled CDL rule change in effect since March 16.

Plaintiffs in the case against the non-domiciled CDL rule have filed for expedited review by the court as of about a week ago, and time will tell on that front. Meantime, owners like Rivera Lujan and others impacted explore other avenues for their futures, his experience at MATS being an eye-opening one in regard to opportunities all around trucking.

Pugh stands by the non-domiciled rule change as written, generally, yet also hoped "this is unfortunately the reality we live in in our country. ... Whatever we do it seems like it goes too far one way or the other, and innocent people who are trying to do the right thing get caught up in it," Pugh said. "People smarter than me write these rules and regs, and they probably have reasons we don't understand.

"It's almost impossible to write a catch-all law. It's a shame for [Rivera Lujan]. Hopefully they get something in there to change that or that could help."

As for the show itself, Lewie Pugh saw a measure of hopeful positivity among owner-operators there quite in spite of dramatic fuel run-ups, with a glimmer of hope on offer in market conditions after the long drought of the last three and more years.

Much more from MATS in this collection: https://overdriveonline.com/tag/mats

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