So what kind of example has been set?

If there are any Russian computer hackers out there, you may want to look into the ATA's computers.

If fmcsa can ignore the government, does that mean we can also?

They have been bought and paid for. When they killed the ICC, the FMCSA became the Mega''s way to have laws implemented to keep us Independents from being able to possibly grow. I wonder what the general public would think if they could see the accidents reported. They most likely would not care.


We now have the poopershittens working for the Mega Coporations. We the people is more like we the sheeple.

What about the folks that load their wagons up as full as they can get them? Let us not forget that one, I have done that myself until I realized that my rig was a creaking and telling me to cut that shit out. The only people that win when you overload are the shipper and the receiver.

I will Agree with you that it is more of a hours of service problem, than a electronic problem. And I will agree that this is going to blow up in their face. However I will not just bend over, that is the mentality that brought us here to start with. Truckers have turned the other cheek for far to long, and look where it has gotten us. We have less rights now than a animal does.

Well some of us have taken their shit bag ELD's and now use the very puppet masters laws against them. If I am a traitor for understanding how to play the game and use their tools against them, then so be it. I don't write the laws I just dance on the fringe often times called the gray. Until we the people start requiring accountability of the lawmakers they will continue to write laws that benefit the Mega Corporations.

The only true traitors are the poopershittens and their puppet masters. They are the ones that need to be tried and hung for treason, not those of us that have chosen to use their rules against them.

Alfred I have this conversation with you, and as I recall you said they should be voulantary, not mandatory. Therefore you have not sided against the rest of us, therefore you are not a traitor. You have not advocated taking anyone's freedom away. I am simply tired of hearing all the lies the ATA puts out. If these were so great the ATA wouldn't have to hire a mercenary to shove them down our throat with the barrel of a gun, the people would be doing it on their own. There lies the difference between freedom and oppression . Trump was only the first step in rising up against our oppressors, if the slime balls want to keep taking money from the ATA, we will throw there ass out of office too. I am getting closer to retiring from this industry, and when I do I am starting a organization to neutrolize the ATA. ATA consider yourself on notice!

You wine about e logs but if we just refused to put them in maybe they shut you down but if half the trucks stoped hauling the country would get hungry

These are the people who will replace us when we leave the market, and they are the ones who will be setting the rates when we are gone. Have you ever noticed how the companies hauling gas or hazmat chemicals never hire them, there is a reason for that. It may explain why the oil and chemical industries sent a letter to trump asking him to repeal the ELD mandate.

Dave while I agree with you that the trucker today is not the trucker of the past.

I also agree that the ATA is using their lobbying dollars to influence the poopershittens for their advantage. They are just tired of us Independents eroding the marketplace away, after they have built it back up.

I also agree that their teaching methods today are not as good as they once were. It used to be that a trucker had to have some experience before they could even get hired onto a Mega. The ATA members had the desireable jobs in trucking and the little guys were the place to start your carreer off. Things have reversed, now they are where you start and maybe the little guy takes you on if you are qualified to their standards. We all want to put all the blame on the Mega-Carriers, I do not, the Mega's of Old were fighting deregulation tooth and nail. They had it good under the old regulatory program. There were only about 100,000 little Independents back then, do you really believe that they could get deregulation pushed through. If the ATA and the Union were opposed to deregulation, and there were very few brokers around at that time. Who were the real ones that wanted deregulation to occur. That would be the Mega Corporations (Shippers), these are the folks that are really pushing the money or their causes. We trucking companies Mega and small alike are really just disposable turds that can be flushed down the toilet at a whim of the shippers. Look at all the old giants of the ATA, most of them are now gone and have been replaced by the new breed of Mega-Carrier. The cycle will continue until we Independents first decide to work with one another for the common cause of Freedom with Integrity for our industry. You will then find the boys at the ATA more than willing to work with us instead of against us. If we all have a common cause and know it, then we will be successful. They seem to be able to work together for their cause, why then can't we? Wake up people and look in the mirror first, find out if you are the problem. If your lack of knowledge is the problem then quit being lazy and start studying your industries history. How in the hell can a guy like me come into this industry and know more than some of you that have been at it for over forty years? I study to show myself approved.

Here is a historical link for those of you that want to see the truth about the ATA fighting against deregulation. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiLu9b1vIbTAhVY7GMKHWjvCrIQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Farchives.chicagotribune.com%2F1979%2F09%2F11%2Fpage%2F54%2Farticle%2Fbroad-coalition-backs-deregulation-but-two-powerful-forces-oppose-it&usg=AFQjCNFRlgPP9sX01ZdL4v7JefGb5BCNuw&sig2=x_wl7ruH7Pzk7hcNem34dw

I meant to say Joyce Brenny. ( dam autocorrect again)

With the HOS and ELD mandates, rates may rise because none of us will be able to drive because we will be off LOL

Alfred I find it intersesting that you assume I am refering to to you specifically on the conflict of interest matter. While I was aware you had a app you designed for the independents, I don't remember you saying that you had one for the megga's, so I am not sure where your getting that from. On the matter of selling yourself the highest bidder and not feeling good about yourself or the people you work with, well I cannot help you with that. On the matter of the ATA working together with people, I would say you are entirely wrong, Based on the Joyce Brenny experience with the ATA. The independent carriers group is your mission, and mine is exposing the truth. The organization I am building has a different mission from that of the independent carriers group, we on my side of the isle are interested in protecting the drivers interest as well as the carriers interest. We seek to bring a end to the hostile work environment that many drivers are forced to endure, witch was created by the ATA, and their willing accomplices at FMCSA.

the problem is none of the shippers, brokers or receivers are mandated like the truck, they don;t care how long it takes to load or offload. just because you have your time marked does not mean they will pay you for it.

Alfred that would work if supply and demand mattered, witch you said does not, with your penny, nickel, dime, quarter analogy that you have laid out. Are you now reversing your position on that? Because for the rate to go up in the scenario you just described it would have to mean that you are the only truck in the market, and that the shipper could not find anyone. I enjoy listening to your view points, but I had to point this out because I didn't see anyone else step up to the plate on this. I feel Nancy has the fix for the problem here. Until the government forces the shipper to pay up, it will not happen. I must say that it really baffles me how the ATA can tell you that rates will go up, and some of you guys fall for it, given their track record. We used to pull 40 foot dry vans, with a gross weight of 74,000. We now pull 53 foot dry vans with a gross weight of 80,000 for the same money. We used to have grain hoppers with 5 axles hauling 80,000 lbs, we now have hoppers with seven axles grossing 107,000 lbs, for the same rate per mile. Every single time we changed size and weight ratings, we got screwed. When all these guys went out and bought new trucks to run California and be C.A.R.B compliant, the rate did not go up like they told you it would. And now that they tell you Electronic logs will make rates go up, you believe them? They have offered no evidence and yet you believe them? Not to mention the fact that you will still be competing with all of these older trucks that are exempt. The trump administration has said that before any new regulation can be passed, they have to get rid of two existing regulations, so it will be next to impossible for them to go back now and rewrite the law, so that it includes all trucks, just to make it a level playing field. Soon we will be just like Cuba, driving around in antiques that we just keep rebuilding, HOW PROGRESSIVE. Thank you Obama, for bring us back to the Stone Age, soon we will all be naked and stoned, running through the woods in utopia.

all valid points Dave, the other big one is hours of service. you can get paid wait time all you want but in the bulk hauling world it is also about meeting the reload. no one is ever going to get compensated for missing a 4 grand reload and potential loss of business due to the driver running out of service hours at a loader or receiver. if the shipper/receiver is mandated to only take so long then at least the truck is on a fair and even playing field.

This is so funny. All or most of you dont want elds. Why? so you can skirt the H O S? Isnt this the problem? Why are you going to go broke because of elds? Please tell me. Shouldnt you be broke now, with paper? And, why are livestoch haulers safer than anyone else? that is just dumb. Or, when there is a natural disaster, and some State, says "lets waive the H O S, so someone can get propane, or produce, or hay. How are those drivers safer than ones that haul grain, or any other freight? You see the problem? Government involvement!!!!!!

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So it's a hard conclusion now right? What part of this can't you understand? Please explain that to a prosecuting atty, when they find a glitch in a PLB. This is an H O S issue, plain and simple. Not an ELD problem. Most of you are admitting right here that you are "making it home no matter what." I'm NOT arguing with you, but rather explaining that this is a joke of a regulation or law or whatever you call it. I'm just saying that most need to cover their butts if they keep saying how they do things when this comes to pass. I don't remember any of you complaining about insurance regs, weight limits, brake adjustment regs, etc. why???? Please follow the ICG on Facebook for more information. I will be posting there as well.

responsibility other than the truck.....