The American Trucking Associations Board of Directors today called on policymakers to respect contracts between carriers and shippers and abandon proposals to interfere in those arrangements.
Specifically, the Board voted to oppose efforts at regulating detention time – the time drivers and trucks wait to load or unload their cargo.
“ATA and its members value the time of our drivers,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said following the Board’s decision. “However, federal intervention into this area would have significant impacts on the contractual agreements between carriers and shippers.”
The above quote in bold tells me exactly what I have been screaming for a while now. The Anti-Trucking-Association is just looking out for its members who we all know are the carriers and or shippers and receivers. Bill Graves’ statement saying the ATA and its members value the time of their drivers – is obviously false – or they would be behind Peter DeFazio’s Detention Bill he introduced earlier this month. Instead they are against it. I have come to the conclusion that the trucking industry would be better off if it had less “chiefs and more Indians.” As it stands now trucking has more “chiefs than Indians.”
“The ability of carriers to negotiate rates, routes and service with our shippers is very important to us,” said, ATA Chairman Barbara Windsor, president and CEO of Hahn Transportation, Inc., New Market, Md. “Federal regulation in this area would directly affect shipping rates and would significantly change the playing field for carriers and shippers.”
“No carrier wants to see our drivers’ time wasted,” ATA First Vice Chairman Dan England, chairman and president of C.R. England Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah said. “However, this is not an issue that can be handled with a ‘one-size, fits all’ regulation and as a result is best addressed in contractual agreements between carriers and shippers.”
“This isn’t a big carrier issue or a small carrier issue,” said Keith Tuttle, president of Motor Carrier Services Inc., Northwood, Ohio, and chairman of ATA’s Small Carrier Advisory Committee. “The ability to freely negotiate contracts is something all carriers want to protect.”
© 2011, Truck Drivers News Blog. All rights reserved.
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a government law does not affect contracts between trucking companies ‘
and shippers this is no different the hours service
ata has never been about protecting the drivers
its always been the old mighty dollar the can make off the drivers back
this where drivers need to stand to getheir and park the trucks
I’m with you both. It’s never crossed my mind that the ATA is on the side of the driver. Still, in this case, I think that in a way the ATA is right. Dentention at shippers and receivers SHOULDN’T be the government’s problem. It SHOULD be the carriers demanding detention pay for holding up their trucks and their drivers. But since they aren’t protecting their drivers, now the government has to step in. Not that they’ll do anything about it. We’ve got to remember that this is just a proposal, and typically any bill that helps the driver will eventually be used for Congressional toilet paper.
I can see the view of the shippers/receivers. They want to load you when they have the time. They don’t want to have to pay detention time due to their lack of efficiency. So far they don’t have to most of the time. They’d like things to stay exactly the way they are.
But for the life of me I can’t understand the carrier’s position. How does it benefit them to have their trucks and their drivers sitting in docks all day long? Even if the carriers don’t care about the driver’s lost time, their truck isn’t earning a dime when it’s not rolling. How can that be good for their profits?
I’m guessing this really boils down to the competition between carriers. They want to “protect their contracts.” Why? Probably because in order to get the contract in the first place, the salesman says something like, “Listen. If you give us this contract, we promise not to charge you for detention time. The company wants your business. The drivers can go screw themselves.”