President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration will get to entirely remake the executive branch with new appointees for agencies like the Department of Transportation, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and more.
Plus, with at least 52 Republicans in the Senate, he'll have the votes to get appointees confirmed and legislation moving.
In recent months, trucking regulation, mostly carried out by federal agencies like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, has slowed or completely screeched to a halt. (Think of the recent blown deadline for action on broker transparency.)
According to Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) Senior VP of Government Affairs David Heller, that's the norm during the changing of the guard.
"When an agency is close to presidential election, the regulatory process will slow down," said Heller. With the head of the DOT and FMCSA potentially out the door before Spring of 2025, the leaders typically don't make any big changes, especially on divisive issues.
That's why, according to Heller, the trucking industry saw a flurry of activity out of FMCSA and DOT in Spring of this year, when the agencies released their Unified Agenda goals, which signaled intentions on everything from broker transparency to speed limiters and more.
"A plethora of rules go out the door in Spring, but they came to a halt in May," said Heller. "Anything released after that will be subject to Congressional review. Now that the presidential election is over, the process can start up again."
Therefore, there's a "window of opportunity" once Trump gets in office and makes his appointments for regulators to get moving on big issues, Heller said.
TCA, by the way, congratulated Trump on his win, and Heller said he looks forward to working with the Trump administration and its agencies on advancing pro-trucking regulations.
Here's how Heller said a Trump administration would impact TCA's work advocating for trucking.
Trump's impact on AB 5, independent contractors
Heller said "preserving the independent contractor model" in trucking represented one of his top priorities, and that he "can't imagine Julie Su will be in the mix at the Department of Labor."
Su, the Deputy Director of DOL, has led the department in an "acting" capacity since March of 2023. Since then, she's been twice denied confirmation as DOL administrator by the Senate, largely over her support of California's AB 5 rule, though she says she doesn't support the rule going national.
Su's nomination was met with resistance from the trucking industry, with American Trucking Associations (ATA), Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and TCA each voicing concern over the role Su played as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency in passing California's AB 5 independent contractor legislation, which OOIDA President Todd Spencer called "the most disruptive worker classification policy to be enacted anywhere at the state or federal level."
Under Biden, but before Su's nominations, the DOL sought to repeal a Trump-era independent contractor rule that made it easier to classify workers as ICs. The final rule the DOL came up with under Biden remains under fire from Congress.
Trump's past DOL leadership sought to make it easier for independent contractors, and Heller said he was "looking forward" to working with his administration on that front.
Trump's impact on EPA, the California Air Resources Board
Just like Trump's DOL pick will likely have opposite leanings to Biden's, Trump's past EPA pick had no shortage of differences with CARB.
Heller said TCA is "not against environmentalism, but changes have to be done in the right way." Trump has openly spoken about halting EV mandates and criticized the weight and range of EV trucks.
Currently, CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation needs to receive a Clean Air Act waiver from the EPA, which would allow the ACF to take effect. The ACF sets sales requirements for so-called "zero emissions" (ZEV) trucks within the state and requires certain fleets -- namely port drayage operations and “high-priority” fleets with 50 or more trucks -- to purchase and operate ZEV trucks.
Heller said TCA will definitely be "talking about emissions regulations" with the Trump administration, so this rule could take a backseat for a while.
Trump's impact on trucking legislation
Heller applauded the wide range of trucking-specific legislation introduced in the House over the last year or two, including the DRIVE Act, which would ban speed limiters, a bill with money for truck parking, and another bill meant to let FMCSA fine bad actors up to $10,000 for issues like double brokering.
[Related: New bill would let FMCSA fine double brokers $10,000, crack down on shady actors]
But Heller also pointed out these bills haven't gone anywhere.
"A couple bills got introduced in the last Congress, but we're not at that state in the game where bills get moved on their own," he said. "They get attached to much larger omni-legislation, like a highway bill, and, lo and behold, Trump and the new Congress will be taking up a new highway reauthorization bill."
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by Biden, "is expiring in 2026, so it's under the purview of the newly elected Congress," which is expected to hold Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
While those bills might not get passed on their own, they "certainly can get addressed in the next Congress," as Heller works to "keep those conversations going."
In that next big bill, "truck parking should definitely be included" said Heller, as it was "erroneously absent in the last one."
