Note the date on the screen grab of the above Facebook post from operator Jeff Clark. When I saw this two days back I wondered just how long was left in current Acting Administrator T.F. Scott Darling’s “acting” term, only to catch the news yesterday that there is very little time indeed.
Time for a campaign? Clark threw his hat into the ring quite some time ago — the post he links to in the Facebook post is at this link, from February of 2014.
Here’s what he outlined as priority issues he’d want to address should such a thing come to fruition:
1) More resources to go after chameleon carriers shut down by FMCSA that pop up under a new name and number. “Few carriers actually get shut down by the FMCSAl” Clark wrote. “Those that do have earned it” and “damage the reputation of the entire industry” and “drive down rates.”
2) Hours: Allow once-a-week 14-hour-rule flex to 16. Also, eliminate the 1-5 a.m. restart restriction, presumably for good (history, and Congress, has one-upped Clark in the short-term on that one).
3) Mandatory pay for detention “does not go far enough” in Clark’s view. “I believe when a driver is at work that driver should be getting paid. There are many reasons we can’t keep new drivers in trucking. This eliminates one of them. It encourages dock efficiency. Efficiency is good. The driver would have to log this time on duty in order to get paid for it.”
