Texas Trucking Group Visits Capitol to Educate Delegation on Industry

This story appears in the Feb. 24 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — Texas Trucking Association members blitzed Capitol Hill, visiting 36 House offices and two on the Senate side in a single day in an effort to educate lawmakers on critical industry issues.

Fleet executives from 17 companies in the nation’s second-most populous state divided themselves into six teams and covered their entire congressional delegation in their 10th annual “Call on Washington” event Feb. 12.

While elected officials often seem more likely to argue than produce legislation, TXTA members characterized the event as a worthwhile endeavor.

“We don’t want to sit outside of the process and throw stones. Because of this trip, we’ll have educated some individuals on trucking,” said TXTA CEO John Esparza. “We’re here to advocate for something, and I think we’ll have more sponsors for bills that are important to us than we would have had otherwise.”

The Texans came prepared with a six-point legislative plan developed in conjunction with American Trucking Associations. The conversations with lawmakers focused on:

• An hours-of-service bill in the House.

• A preference for hair testing as a drug-screening tool.

• Increasing fuel taxes to pay for roads and bridges.

• Repealing the federal excise tax on sales of new trucks and trailers as part of general corporate tax reform.

• Reforming the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

• Implementing provisions of the current MAP-21 highway funding bill.

The legislative plan was part of an information bag left at each office, and was accompanied by a gift costing less than $50, the maximum allowable value according to Congress’ ethics standards. In this case, it was a limestone paperweight with the TXTA logo.

Rep. Randy Weber, a Republican from the Galveston area, got one of the bags and talked about the industry with Esparza, Russell Jurk and his wife, Laurie. Jurk is vice president of Bobby Lehmann Trucking in Giddings and chairman of the Texas association.

Weber said he used to drive trucks and had a commercial driver license. He later opened an air-conditioning business and now sits on the Foreign Affairs and Science, Space and Technology committees.

Weber asked questions on size and weight and hair testing. He offered empathy for truck drivers as they deal with other vehicles on the road.

“The problem is the guy or gal who thinks an 80,000-pound vehicle can stop on a dime,” Weber said.

And then they talked taxes.

“It kills me to sit here with you and talk about raising my own taxes, but it does make sense,” said Jurk, who explained there is a need for greater infrastructure development, and fuel taxes are probably the best way to pay for it.

Weber said he learned from his state legislative days that a vehicle-miles-traveled fee, or VMT, should really stand for “very mad Texans.” He said the tax is very unpopular in the Lone Star state. While Weber offered an understanding ear, he did not go so far as to say he would vote for a tax increase to fund a highway plan.

“It’s a hard, heavy lift for Republicans,” Weber said of raising taxes, or “that nasty T-word.”

Jurk, with the J pronounced like a Y, said this is his second “Call on Washington,” and he has lobbied the state Legislature in Austin numerous times. He said Washington looks like “chaos” to him, and that makes it difficult for him to make business plans for his 30-truck fleet, which does heavy-haul work for the oil and gas industry.

The representatives and aides with whom he spoke “were sympathetic to our needs,” Jurk said.

Attorney Robert Fuentes, a TXTA member whose Houston-area firm represents trucking companies in civil litigation, said the people in his meetings “listened intently. I think we made an impact.”

Fuentes said he talked about the HOS restart provision with a representative from Houston, who was interested in how the rule puts more trucks on the road during peak driving times. Since his city is known for its traffic congestion, “he seemed to want trucks on the road when there’s less traffic,” Fuentes said.

Esparza, the association CEO, said the visit was purely educational in nature and did not involve his group’s political action committee.

“This is not a funding discussion. . . . It was more policy than political and about trucking and making for a better environment for small business,” said Esparza, whose association has about 1,100 members.

Regardless of the likelihood of immediate, favorable legislation, Jurk said it is imperative to stay involved in the process.