Trucking Protesters Courted by Two Groups

Fewer than 150 truckers pulled into Washington, D.C., March 16, to protest a number of ills plaguing owner-operators. And when they arrived, they found two groups engaged in a cat fight to represent them.

	Michael James - Transport Topics
	U.S. Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo (R-N.J.) speaks at the trucker protest while NOOTA spokesman Doug Sorantino (center) and NOOTA Executive Director Charles Hentz (right) look on.

The result was a smattering of angry truck drivers in two clusters on Capitol Hill.

The protest was the second in Washington in less than a month. More than 200 dump trucks and tractor-trailers drove to the capital Feb. 22 to call for a suspension of the federal fuel tax, rebates on diesel fuel purchases, a release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a federal investigation into the fuel crisis.

During that rally, several drivers said they were sounding a wake-up call to Congress and warned that if their voices weren't heard, they would storm the capital with even more trucks this month.

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The threat was followed up more by a trickle than a storm, but that did not stop representatives of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the National Owner-Operator Trucking Association from clamoring to recruit the drivers who did show up to attend separate rallies.

NOOTA planned the rally, which was launched March 10 when seven trucks left Ontario, California. By March 16, four convoys, ranging in size from 20 to 40 trucks, approached Washington.

Charles Hentz, NOOTA's executive director, said OOIDA called him six days before to express interest in participating in the rally. "It's a shame," Hentz said, standing on the fringe of the OOIDA demonstration as his own was getting ready to start a quarter-mile away. "The sad thing is a week ago they were opposed to the protest."

Michael James - Transport Topics
A police dog takes a whiff of one of the dump trucks parked in front of the Capitol.

The two sides opted for separate demonstrations when they could not reach agreement on issues.

NOOTA has been in operation for just a month. It has called for lower fuel costs through any means necessary, including fuel tax relief, opening federal reserves and increasing domestic production.

NOOTA also complained about waiting time at loading docks, a shortage of rest area parking spots, and shippers that institute fuel surcharges but don't pass increased fees on to truckers.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA, said he agrees with NOOTA on those issues. But Spencer said truckers should lobby the Surface Transportation Board to help solve them by creating a system that would allow owner-operators to adjust rates when expenses go up. "Our first goal is to convince lawmakers that we need an emergency mechanism to pass on costs to shippers," Spencer said, adding that such a move would provide a long-term solution, rather than the short-term relief offered by temporary tax cuts.