Trump and Trucks - how does it look like? - Part 1

The election of Donald Trump is like hitting the restart button for the truck industry. There a lot of safety issues that are about to be addressed.  Experts also believe that a new look at regulations in the truck industry will take place.  In fact, trucking companies are already expected to meet by the end of this year as a result of the deadline for electronic logging devices installment in trucks that tracks their working hours.

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The majority of the trucking companies expect that the safety regulations adopted by Obama will go through some changes. In fact, earlier this month Associated Press announced that Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama’s administration safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway.

This tracking regulation though is quite controversial. Some smaller companies think that such requirement will affect costs and shipping. The estimated time of delivery will raise so will the final price. This will leave a lot of unhappy customers who will choose the services of bigger operators who won’t have to change their rates as they can afford such transition. As a result a lot of small companies would probably fall out of the business.

Some drivers simply say that the government does not have the right to tell them when to sleep as truckers are required to rest for two nights after a working week of up to 75 hours. In contracts, other truck drivers think that rest is much needed but they add it is sometimes difficult to find appropriate places to pull over and rest.

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Safety advocates fear that the Republican lawmakers may partner with the industry and downplay the importance of necessary regulations. Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board stated earlier that “it is going to be an open season on safety in this coming Congress". In addition, sleep scientists also notified that rest during early morning hours and midnight time are absolutely essential.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA), the largest group representing trucking companies in Washington, has already started the negotiations with Trump’s transition team. What is more, Chris Spears, ATA chief expressed his willingness to work with the current president and the administration in order to achieve growth.