My Two Cents Worth

I had a bug up my butt on the Secretary of Transportation commenting on driver pay and trying to fix transportation?!?!? OMG! Sorry folks the government at any stage is a great example of what not to do. Congress tells agencies how they must use their funding and the funds are based on a "Use or Lose" philosophy, i.e. it's the middle of August and you have to spend $1,000,000 before the end of September or what's not spent disappears back into the General Fund and the next appropriations bill maybe less as you didn't spend as much as you were given.

Anyway, on Tuesday February 8, 2022 I spent a tad over $75 mailing five letters to the DOT, FMCSA (2), my HOR representative and my congressman.

So here's my bug with attachments it was 30 pages.

Pete Buttigieg

Secretary of Transportation

1200 New Jersey Ave SE

Washington, DC 20590

Reference: Driver pay

Dear Honorable Buttigieg;

I have seen bits and pieces of you discussing driver pay.?I have worked the trucking industry since 1992 when starting pay for drivers was .18 cents a mile.?The poor pay was compounded by the fact that early in my driving career carriers/brokers paid mileage based on the Household Goods Movers Guide that robbed drivers of about 12% of their mileage pay, i.e. hub miles 1,000 driver was paid for 880 miles one trip for the year 120,000 miles driver paid for 105,600 miles, in essence drivers worked 1.44 months for free.?My best year in trucking was 1994 driving for a private fleet at .34 cents a mile and $10 a stop. I gave up driving truck in 1996 when my second son was born.?Since 1996 I have worked as a Port of Entry Officer in Colorado 1997 to 1999, the FMCSA as a Motor Carrier Safety/Hazardous Materials Specialist in Illinois 1999 to 2010, as a Transportation Management Specialist for the US Department of Energy 2010 to 2020 and operate AWM Associates, LLC from 2011 to present.?Many carriers survive on a 10% profit margin or less.?Per the FMCSA’s 2020 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics (extracts attached Pages 12 and 13) in 2019 there were:

·????????602,542 Active US DOT numbers

·????????289,408 carriers with 1 truck

·????????101,044 carriers with 2 trucks

·????????149,225 carriers 3 to 10 trucks

·??????????51,211carriers with 11 to 100 trucks

·????????????4,572 carriers with >100 trucks

·????????????7,082 carriers that neglected to list the number of vehicles

·????????4,644,403 Power Units

·????????3,504,552 CDL holders (NOTE: Conflicts with the Commercial Drivers License Information System (CDLIS) that has over 16,000,000 active pointers for CDLs and CDL learners permits)

·????????5,000,756 Total drivers subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR.)

The FMCSA’s 2020 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics suggest the bulk of motor carriers are small business and small business has always been the backbone of our American structure.?Per the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 small businesses employed 60,556,081 people that made up 47.1% of the American work force.?According to the SBA 1,685,388 Transportation and Warehousing businesses accounting for 34.6% of the transportation warehousing community of workers.?We have to tread lightly when dealing with transportation workers’ pay to avoid closing of carriers crucial to keep goods moving to keep America moving. Truckers move 72.5% of America’s freight weight. ?Without trucks there’s no fuel at gas stations, no food in stores, no ecommerce, no clothes, no medications, etc. We can see the trickle effect in President Biden’s choice to raise the Federal Minimum Wage to $15.?A GS-1 on the General Pay Table made $9.36 before the raise.?On the General Pay Table a GS-5 Step 2 made $14.91 an hour.?What is the catastrophic decision to raise a GS-1 from $9.36 to $15 an hour going to cascade into pay raises for ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES going to cost American tax payers?

I am disappointed in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as I believe Congress missed some crucial elements that haunt the transportation industry, i.e. truck parking.?Since the advent of the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) truckers have lost flexibility in doctoring their hours of service (HOS) to log miles instead of actual hours driven, i.e. 120 mile trip takes 2.5 hours to complete the driver logged 2 hours on the paper log.

The other catastrophic decision was to add 18, 19 and 20 year old drivers to “Interstate Commerce.”?The ONLY carriers that will benefit from the addition of younger drivers are the mega self-insured carriers.?I suspect the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) lobbying contributed to the inclusion. ?The FMCSA/DOT should ensure the Entry Level Driver Training (ELDT) in 49 CFR Part §380 addresses issues where the mega carriers charge the unsuspecting ELDT recruits for the less than sterling training and protect those that abandon trucking in short order because of the abuse suffered by truck drivers in general.?In my humble opinion with over 16,000,000 CDLIS pointers and 4,644,403 total power units it’s not a driver shortage issue, it’s a driver retention problem and the mega carriers, i.e. Swift, CR England, Werner, etc., are the root cause of CDL holders abandoning trucking as a career.

For your information other issues that plague the trucking industry are illegal freight brokers with no authority calling themselves “Dispatchers.”?Trucking companies have fuel, driver, equipment, insurance and maintenance costs to name a few.?Freight brokers/dispatchers often only have a computer and pay for access to load boards.?Freight brokers/dispatchers hide the cost of what a shipper is paying for the freight.?Freight brokers/dispatchers keep no less than 5% and probably closer to 15% or more of the freight charges for their efforts.?The FMCSA’s Licensing & Insurance (L&I) website doesn’t allow the public to look up a broker’s authority.?In my humble opinion this a grave misjustice.

Today drivers still lose about 6% of their pay to use of Practical Miles versus hub miles, i.e. 120,000 miles a year hub miles paid for 112,800 miles, working 0.72 months without pay. ?Practical Miles are obtained using mapping programs, i.e., PC Miler or Google Maps. ?Few carriers pay actual hub miles.

I agree 100% drivers should get paid for fueling time, waiting at docks, weekend layovers, breakdown time and other hours worked; however, too many small businesses are barely surviving.?With 539,677 carriers with 10 or less trucks surviving on a 10% profit margin or less which carriers will be effected by DOT salary rules??Other issues are the consumer ALWAYS pays.?Abolishing the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1994 was designed to help improve America’s growth.?When the ICC controlled tariffs, trucking was reaping the benefits and carriers were worth millions and, in some cases, finding a trucking job was next to impossible as carriers had locked traffic lanes.?

In closing, please tread lightly in issues regarding driver pay.?Some drivers are making over $100,000 a year as a company driver.?Many owner/operators (O/O) are ill informed businessmen and businesswomen that outsource too many services robbing them of profits.??Since the demise of the ICC in 1994 trucking has struggled with cut-throat competition that agrees to haul loads for minimum fees allowing freight brokers/dispatchers to keep the lion’s share of the freight rates.?I believe that if driver pay is too structured drivers will learn that their pay is balanced to equal little or no increase in pay.?The FMCSA and its state partners are too short staffed to add much to enforcement activities.?The FMCSA sees less than 1% of the motor carriers under its jurisdiction.?Every day drivers use the Personal Conveyance (PC) option on their ELDs to avoid HOS violations during roadside inspections.?The FMCSA’s guidance on PC sort of allows drivers to use PC if there’s no parking spaces.?To my knowledge the FMCSA does little with 49 CFR Part §390.36 Harassment of drivers prohibited.??Any changes the DOT develops regarding driver pay may aggravate the current situation; whereas, the DOT doesn’t have sufficient personnel to enforce the existing regulations.?The DOT’s influence on carriers regarding driver pay won’t impact brokers/dispatchers freight rates; however, it will impact carriers’ already narrow bottom line.

Thank you for your time in listening to my concerns.

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Sincerely;

???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Michael Millard

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????President/Chief Safety Officer

Attachments