Editorial: San Diego - MC&E 2000

As the trucking clan gathers under American Trucking Associations’ banner in San Diego this week, it is an appropriate time to count blessings, tell war stories about the year’s victories and prepare for the challenges that loom ahead.

Trucking, led by ATA, managed to prevent the Department of Transportation from implementing its ill-conceived revision of the industry’s hours-of-service rules.

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While nearly all segments of the industry agree that a major overhaul of the work rules is necessary, they also agree that what DOT proposed was not an improvement over what we’ve had for the past 60-odd years. In fact, it was a turn in the wrong direction, away from growth of productivity without guaranteeing a betterment of trucking safety.

President Clinton put the final nail in coffin last week when he signed the transportation appropriations bill containing Congress’s one-year moratorium on implementing DOT’s hours proposal.

In another key victory in the past 12 months, trucking saw a long-time goal realized: creation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. For the first time, trucking has an agency on par with those of other transportation modes, one whose only focus is the safety performance of our industry.

Progress was made on accelerating the restoration of the 80% tax deduction for truck drivers’ meals. The House passed a bill, but we need to get the Senate to do the same. Also, both chambers will be asked, again, to repeal the estate inheritance tax. But because of the general election next week, we will be working with a new Congress, and no one can yet guess the fate of such legislative initiatives.

So we need to recognize that along with victories come responsibilities for trucking. The industry’s challenge now is to work with DOT to craft a set of regulations within the next year that not only will raise the level of safety on the nation’s roads and but also will allow trucking companies to be profitable.

Equally critical for trucking, the government must adopt a comprehensive policy on fuel prices and energy independence. The machinations of a few oil-producing nations halfway around the globe have wreaked havoc on the economy, and on the economic viability of a lot of trucking companies.

These few days of the 2000 Management Conference and Exhibition are good ones for a little socializing, enjoyment and self-satisfaction. But they are also the days in which the industry lays its plans for 2001.