Striking Out at a Diffuse Enemy

In less than a month, commercial truckers across the country will pull to the roadside and turn off their engines to show regulatory authorities that bias against truck drivers will not be tolerated.

Or will they?

Many state governments discriminate against truckers by applying traffic rules differently compared to those driving four-wheelers.

Or do they?

These are some of the questions that have been floating across the CB airwaves, Internet bulletin boards and truck-stop restaurant tables over the past few months, generating more rumors than answers.

Truckers Against Discrimination, based in Idaho, is asking drivers nationwide to park their trucks at 1:00 p.m. EDT on July 5 in protest of what the group — and many truckers — views as discrimination.

TAD is targeting three issues:

ul>

Split speed limits.

li>Laws restricting heavy trucks to the right lane.

li>Disparate traffic fines between truckers and cars.

he organizers are hoping for big things from the work shutdown.

“I really don’t think this will extend past a week or week and a half,” said Sandy Powell, one of the strike’s chief organizers. “Soon, the American public will be screaming at their government as they run out of milk and eggs.”

But some in the industry think their effort represents overly optimistic thinking. Or worse. Opinions posted on TAD’s electronic bulletin board at www.18wheels.com are running 2-1 against the strike.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said the Powells are going about the right things in the wrong way.

“Seldom does a year go by in this industry that someone doesn’t say we ought to have a shutdown,” Spencer said. “But it’s not a productive way to make changes. We learned the hard way — you have to have an organization in place if truckers are going to get a square deal.”

OOIDA President Jim Johnston was harsher in his judgment, calling the Powell brothers “extremely irresponsible.”

“They sent threatening letters to the governors of every state . . . even though a majority of states do not impose, by state mandate, any of the injustices they are attempting to resolve,” Johnston said.

For the full story, see the June 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.