Trucking ‘Fairly Optimistic’

This story appears in the Oct. 25 print edition of Transport Topics.

PHOENIX — Trucking executives meeting here last week said they were cautiously optimistic that despite a sluggish economy and regulatory and political uncertainties, the industry was poised to emerge from the doldrums it has been in for several years.

Barbara Windsor, American Trucking Associations’ new chairman, described the mood at the federation’s annual Management Conference & Exhibition as “cautious,” while outgoing Chairman Tommy Hodges said he and others were “fairly optimistic.”

“When we meet next year at this time in Dallas, we will be on the cusp of some of the best years in trucking’s history,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said during a roundtable discussion on the economy (click here for related story).

Costello based his optimism on the number of carriers that exited the industry during the recent recession, leaving more business for the survivors.

Those survivors, however, face a series of upheavals — ranging from the implementation of the CSA federal safety-monitoring system, new hours-of-service rules and possible reinvention of the truck itself to the need for Washington to finally address infrastructure in a multiyear highway bill — that ATA President Bill Graves called “game-changing” in his State of the Industry address (click here for previous story).

Two sessions focused on what could be the most radical of those changes — the design of future trucks to comply with rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions by cutting fuel use (click here for related story).

Executives said while their efforts would increase fuel efficiency, they also could increase truck costs.

The consensus of the OEMs was that the rule would regulate carbon dioxide emissions in grams per ton-mile of freight hauled, with specific efficiency targets for engines alone and for trucks by 2014.

The hours-of-service change may be the most immediate, with Anne Ferro, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, saying the rule could be out before October ends.

Fleet executives predicted that when FMCSA does issue its new rule, it will be more restrictive than the current one (click here for related story).

“I think [the 34-hour restart] is going to be extended and we’re going to lose an hour of driving,” Windsor said.

Besides the HOS rule, FMCSA is preparing to fine-tune CSA to allay some of industry’s fears about the new safety rating system, Ferro said.

Later this year, when FMCSA posts carriers’ scores online, Ferro said the agency would do away with hot-button language aimed at carriers with poor scores, instead using softer, more nuanced terminology.

The agency also will continue to withhold crash data from public view while trying to figure out if it is feasible to assign responsibility for all the crashes in its database.

A third significant regulatory issue FMCSA is working on is the possible requirement to increase fleets’ use of electronic onboard recorders.

Many in the industry feel that a global mandate is coming.

Jerry Gabbard, vice president for commercial vehicles at Continental Corp., a maker of EOBRs, said there appeared to be “a lot of momentum building . . . in support of a very broad mandate in order to level the playing field.”

While the industry’s concerns about regulations mount, Graves voiced trucking’s frustration with lawmakers and the Obama administration for not doing more to pass a multiyear highway bill — the traditional vehicle for much of the industry’s legislative agenda.

The bill, he said “is stuck in a bottleneck, an old-fashioned political bottleneck that is the result of both political parties pandering shamelessly to voters.”

Saying roads are neither cheap nor free, Graves reminded lawmakers that “you can’t build world-class infrastructure without money,” and that those dollars ought to come from fuel taxes, not tolling.

One issue that fleets may no longer have to deal with is card check, as LeClairRyan attorney Mark Goodwin told executives, but ATA officials did express concern about the ongoing legal fights over independent contractor status and the rights of owner-operators to work at the Port of Los Angeles.

ATA Chief Counsel Robert Digges expressed confidence ATA will prevail in its litigation against the port.

Signs that the economy may be picking up were found throughout the MCE exhibit hall, Graves said.

“I talked to a number of the suppliers; they seem to be pleased with the traffic over in the exhibit hall,” he said.

Staff Reporters Eric Miller and Jonathan S. Reiskin contributed to this report.