Welcome And OOIDA Reintroduction

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Welcome back to That's Delivered. I'm your host, Truck and Ray, and today we have a special guest with us, Louis Pugh from OOIDA. And I'm really glad to have him back on the show. He's got a lot of perspectives of things that he's working on out there to help individuals, truck drivers like yourself, owner operators, independent truck drivers that are doing things to keep America going. Louis joined us uh last year in an episode that got a lot of attention because it went beyond the headlines and actually explained what happens in Washington and how it affects drivers on the road. Since then, a lot has changed and some big decisions are being made right now for truckers that need to understand. So before we uh jump into the updates, though, um, we'll start with a quick reset for anyone who's hearing for the first time, and uh we'll have Louie bring onto the show here. Louie, how are you doing today? Glad to have you on the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I'm great. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Nice. Is the weather good for you? Where you at there?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Oh, it's a little cold today. It was pretty cold up here. I'm in outside of Kansas City. I think it's only a high 30 something today, but we don't have no snow, just a little cold and windy.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, some some of the areas of the country are getting slammed last week and now this week. Wow. What are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Yeah, I was in DC a couple weeks ago. They had all kind of snow out there, they can have it.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Exactly. I'm ready for spring myself up here in Minnesota. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

I know it's it's hard to believe. It's only the it's not even the end of February, but yeah, I'm with you. I'm ready for warm weather already.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Man, I see trucks in the ditch. Man, it's it's rough. They're getting pulled out two days later. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, 100%.

Why 2026 Highway Bill Matters

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Well, yeah, so we get right to it. Just an overview for the drivers that didn't catch last episode. You gave a quick overview of what OOIDA is all about and what drivers can do to help out. Just wanted to do some follow-up on that. Uh, what does OOIDA stand for or represent?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Let's go ahead and give it a yeah, we're the uh we're the owner operator independent drivers association. We were started in 1973 by a few truck drivers got together, decided they were going to go to Washington and get some of the problems resolved in trucking. And uh here we are 50-some years later, still feels like fighting some of those same fights. But uh, we're the largest national association representing small business truckers and employee drivers. And, you know, I remind folks, it doesn't matter whether you're an owner operator or an employee driver, we represent you. In fact, we have bills to help both sides and work with both sides. Independent driver, and our name is just house before deregulation was just a truck driver who wasn't a teamster. So I guess I shouldn't say just a truck driver, but an employee driver that wasn't a teamster. So that's what an independent driver was. So our name's a little bit dated because we were starting before deregulation, but we're here for everybody. It costs$45 a year to be a member. But I would tell people if you're watching this, call our membership department here at headquarters, tell them you saw this, and tell them I told you to give you a$20 discount. So you can be a member for$25 or renew. And uh it takes all of us. We don't have a lot of money or anything like some of our opposition does in Washington, but we do have members and grassroots, and and that's how we really move the needle. If members join us and get behind us and pick up the phone and call their lawmakers about some of the stuff that we're gonna be talking about today, that really makes it a lot easier for us to do our job and a lot easier for to get stuff moved across the finish line.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely correct, man. You guys are doing great things in an organization that has been one of the few that's been consistently fighting all over time for owner operators and small fleets, pushing back on bad policies and advocating for a safety and for firmness, you know, so that there's a there's a lot of things that drivers need to make sure to actually have you know, seat at the table, and you guys are doing that. So why does this matter now? What's the background, why it really matters? What's some of the changes of going here 2026 that we're going into?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Well, the big thing we got going on in 2026 is the highway authorization bill, or you know, highway bills we call it. That's where most trucking regulation and legislation either comes to move forward and become law or comes to die. So it's depending on what it is, whether we want it to carry on or we want to or to get it invested or we want it to pass or die. So they re rewrite these about every five years or so. One comes about, I guess it is every five years. So it's an important time right now for truckers. It's an important time to be reaching out to your lawmaker and talking about things and how rules and regulations affect you. You know, you, your business, your family, whatever.

Truck Parking Funding And Requirements

SPEAKER_02 5:19

So$2 million for truck parking. Let's start with truck parking because it's something that you know every driver deals with uh regardless of where you run or where you go. So two$200 million advocated for truck parking. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Well, actually, that's what's in this bill that just came out. That's an appropriation bill just for a year. It'll only be good until September. We consider that sort of a down payment. In the highway bill, we do have that we're trying to get in the highway bill is the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act. That's actually$750 million in parking on competitive things, and that'll be for five years. So that money's out there for five years in states, local towns, municipalities, truck stop operators, all these different people can get this money for expansion. The important thing to mention here is one, it has to be physical spots, not signs, not electronic things, telling you that there's no place to park, any that kind of stuff. And the second thing it has to be is it has to be free. So if a truck stop wants to tap into this money because they want to expand their lot or something, they can go through the municipality and they can and get this grant money, but it has to be free because truckers you already paid for it, the money's already been put out there, you've already paid your taxes, so you shouldn't have to pay for it twice. And again, that's the uh truck parking safety improvement action. It's on the house side. We don't have a companion bill on the Senate side yet, but hey, I'll probably say this multiple times when you're call your lawmakers, call your senators, your congressmen. If you don't know who that is, you can go to fightingfortruckers.com, that's a O I D A site where we list all this kind of stuff, and you can find out who your lawmaker is. You can even message your lawmaker right off of that site. It's really fast, it's really easy. So if you know, if you want these guys out here, get tired of either shutting down early or having to decide where it's a safe place to park or you know, be in violation of one of your hours. This is one of these things we're trying to do to improve that to give you more parking availability.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Nice. So won't have to fight for that spot. It'll make it a lot easier. What do you think the projection is for money like that? You think it's gonna actually make a difference? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Oh, I think it would make a difference. I don't think it's enough, it will solve the entire problem, but every little bit else. And the good thing about this is, you know, right now parking projects come out of general funds usually or something like that. Most people don't want to use that because they want to do things that are sexy. Well, you know, it ain't sexy to come out there and cut a ribbon on a parking lot for a truck, you know, so just bridges and stuff like that people like, you know. So you know how unfortunately we live in this world of we all want our stuff, but we don't want the trucks to bring it, and that's not feasible or practical, and that's what we continue to try to educate people. But I do think there's a good chance of getting this passed. We've had it through the Congress twice now and on the House floor without a highway bill. Now that we have a highway bill, everybody in DC is talking about it. It's bipartisan. So again, the biggest thing we need now is some help on the Senate. So pick up the phone, tell your lawmakers how this affects you.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Awesome. I mean, definitely one of good roads, we want good places to park, but uh also we want to be safe out there. How about the English language proficiency as out-of-service criteria? A lot of those changes. What would you say has helped that industry or that particular topic to be a better pain point for the truck industry?

English Proficiency And Training Gaps

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Well, yeah, I mean, there's been a lot on English language proficiency this year. And excuse me, I'm proud to say that Oida had a lot to do with that. We petitioned CVSA to put this back in the hours of service, or I mean back in the hours of service, excuse me, and we were successful. Our very own Doug Morris from our DC office, he was very, very adamant and did a great job at CVSA this year, getting our point across and why we needed to vote on this and we needed just to pass, and was very successful in that. You know, so I think that's been a good thing. The other things here that have been helpful is both Secretary Duffy and Administrator Barr have been very willing and eager to listen to truckers and hear what they're saying. Secretary Duffy's been taking that up the hill to the White House and getting the White House to listen. So for once, it seems like that we have an administration along with an agency and DOT that's kind of listening to truckers and listening to the problems. We've seen this stuff come out about CDL mails, we've seen all this craziness about non-domicile CDLs, and just all these problems that we're continuing to see. And, you know, I remind truckers that this is really, really a good thing, and we need to keep our pressure on this because, you know, this isn't as much of, you know, a lot of people prefer this as immigration and foreign folks coming in industry. This is a problem, and our industry has been going on for a long, long time. Even by people who can't speak the language, who are born here and raised here, they don't get trained correctly, they get sent to CDL mills, they don't get treated correctly. So I feel like the good thing you can say about what's going on, it was kind of, even though it's really a small percentage of everybody in the industry, the good thing about it is it was sort of the match that lit the lantern to shine a light on all these problems we have as far as training, driver pay, parking, too low of a barrier of entry to become a truck driver, to be too low of a barrier of entry to become a motor carrier or a broker. So all these things, you know, as bad as they are, uh hopefully we're gonna see some good come out of them. You know, it's it's a shame it's taking this long, but I think we'll get there.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's yeah, I don't want to make it too political, but you want to make it more of an industry thing for us to focus on because even after administration changes, these uh issues will still be here with us in our professional environment that we want to keep safe. So nice to see.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah, and I mean that's what that's it's so very important. Like Oida, we're a bipartisan organization. We have to work with Republicans and Democrats and whoever's in charge. So, you know, we have to work with everybody and try to get everybody to get along to get our things, because there's no there's no one party that's great for trucking, and no one party that's bad for trucking. They both sort of have their things that they're good, and they both sort of have their things that are bad. So we just gotta try to navigate through the political process.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Trucking should be bipartisan because everybody needs goods to be delivered. So a good point there. So that we're not stopping the supply chain, we're keeping it flowing for everybody. Nice. Yes, sir. Broker transparency rule. That's one of the biggest issues drivers have pushed for over the years, the broker transparency, and now a long-awaited rule is finally in effect, right? Is that correct?

Bipartisan Approach To Trucking Policy

Broker Transparency Petition Status

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Well, it's not in effect yet. I mean, the rule's still out there. We're still waiting on FMCSA to rule upon our petition. For those who don't know or don't recall, in 2020, OOIDA petitioned FMCSA on ruling on the broker change paranormality was just 371.3 rule that says all parties of the transaction have a right to see that all parts of the transaction. So, meaning for a trucker, if you take a load, a broker load and haul it, you can ask the broker to give you proof of what he was paid, how much he got paid, so you know whether he is, you know, taking too much off the top, I guess, for lack of better terms. Of course, most brokers don't like this idea. And the reason we had to petition this was because unfortunately, most brokers are making trucking companies waive their right to this regulation and their broker carry agreements. We don't feel that that's legal, that one private business entity can ask another private business entity to waive its rights to anything. So again, we don't think that's even legal. So that's what we asked for in our petition. Along with they had to provide this stuff electronically because some of the ones who do allow it, when the trucker asks, they say, Well, you need to come to our office. Well, if you're a trucker who lives in Ohio and all you do is run back and forth to the East Coast and the brokers in California, that's not really practical. And we do everything else electronically, so why can't we do this? But with all that being said, here we are six years later almost. May I think will be six years since we petitioned. Hopefully, I've pretty much, you know, I tried to get the last eight folks over at FMCSA to do this before Biden left and could rule on it. Nobody would. I, you know, I've shared with Administrator Bars and his staff that this is something you guys need to rule up on, good, bad, or different. But the can needs to be quit getting kicked down the road. It's been six years, for God's sakes. Let's tell truckers where we stand. And, you know, I know this is a contentious issue, and probably no matter how this shakes out, nobody's gonna be completely happy. But I I think something's gonna have to happen. And again, I still don't believe that FMCSA is gonna say that brokers can waive their right, because and maybe they will, but I don't see how that's legal to waive. You know, if I hired you to drive my truck, I can't tell you that you have to waive your rights to hours of service. How you know that isn't gonna happen. So why can a broker waive his rights to transparency when it's a a regulation in the big green book?

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Well, yeah, I mean, that's something that everybody needs, is know that that service has value. So even on the other side, you know, if the the margins are too small, I mean, you've got that broker that's gonna be stretched pretty thin. So it goes both ways, but yet we don't want it to be where it's flop-sided and one one way is suffering more than the other. I feel like that's it makes sense to me. We want everybody to be in business, there's plenty to go around.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Yeah, and probably with all this freight fraud and freight theft and all this other stuff we're seeing, some more of this transparency would have probably would probably be helpful in catching these folks for keeping these people from uh from operating.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Yeah, freight fraud. Man, that's uh seems to be running rampant. Like uh, yeah. Is there anything that we can do as a trucker to reach out to uh you know the government to let them know, hey, or are you guys got that covered, or how how should they work on with freight fraud?

Fighting Freight Fraud In A Down Market

SPEAKER_01 16:36

I mean, the biggest thing you can do on freight fraud is if you're a victim of it, or you think you're a victim of it, reach out. You can go to the National Consumer Complaint Database NCCDB on MCSA's website and report it there as you should. I mean, they're gonna tell you report to local law enforcement. You can. A lot of times local law enforcement doesn't really know what to do with it. If you're a member here at Oh, I didn't report this stuff, let us know. We can try to help report you as well. If you talk to our compliance department, if you're a member. But the biggest thing to keep in mind, know who you're working for. You know, it's better to take loads off of broker loadboards. And I mean, like, you know, CH, Snyder, Landstar, some of these companies have their own load board. If you're using that, you know you're dealing with the right people. If you're out here on some of these commercially known load boards, that seems to be where these up some of these people operate the most and you know, as fake and get caught. If, you know, make sure you know if you're getting asked to do things that don't sit right, call your shipper, call somebody like that, make sure. I always tell people too, make sure you got your name on the bill lading. That's supposed to be the way it works anyway, but a lot of times it doesn't. It'll have somebody else's name on there. Make sure your name's on the bill lading. You know, like I said, just if you see a load is too good to be true, it probably is. So be really, really, really careful about that. You know, I know it's tough when you got one truck and you're trying to do everything and verify these people. And in this down freight market, loads don't hang out very long on the load board. So I know these things are tough, but these are things you need to do. You need to do your due diligence. And, you know, I can't stress enough. If you're got your own motor carrier authority, you need to be finding your own freight and your own customers and use brokers as an as needed. Get you back, get you out of bad areas, something like that. Don't become a trucking business with this mindset and this business plan that you're gonna run strictly for brokers all the time. You know, you live by the spot market, you die by the spot market. And we've seen, you know, how bad it's been for folks on the spot market for the last three or four years since COVID wrapped up. And, you know, guys with contract rates and running contract rates in their own customers and own freight, it's not been easy for them either, but it's been a lot easier than those folks on the on the spot market side.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Well, have you heard of any success stories, possibly with uh certain lanes or certain types of uh um hauling, maybe a hazmat or I mean it seems like everybody's getting affected.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, I think everybody across the board, and of course, you know what usually happens in our industry is you're over here doing your little thing, mind your own business, and all this segment of the industry, you know, they get wiped out, whatever they're doing goes away or gets changed or whatever. So then these people start hunting around. Next thing you know, you got people over here nosing into your business and and trying to take your work from you and stuff. So and it happens. I mean, it's unfortunate, that's what happens. You know, that's what I always say. I always say when I was trucking, if you got something good, it ain't gonna last. It's never gonna last forever. But, you know, make it make it while you can.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Make it while you can, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:12

But but I mean, big thing, if you can get your own customers, you know, especially small guys deal with small customers. It's a lot easier to get your foot in the door, do what you're asked, be where you're supposed to be, you know, be extensive to that company. And a lot of times they'll keep you around even in the bad times because they they want to make sure their stuff gets where it's going to be. Big shippers, big receivers, seems like they just whoever's the cheapest, which I find it fascinating, maddening almost, that they don't really care who hauls their stuff. But that's just the way it is for some of these shippers and receivers out here.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Do you guys work with the box trucks and small hotshot deliveries? Do you guys help those drivers as well?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

I mean, we've got a few guys that run the hotshot stuff and and the deliveries. I mean, as I tell people anytime they ask, I put there's probably nothing out here in trucking that I don't at least have some one member doing somewhere. You know, we're our membership is as diverse as what trucking is. So, yeah, we got guys in all these different sectors and stuff, and uh, you know, they seem to be doing okay too. But again, I feel that's where a lot of these folks that they say are going now that's losing their CDL. They're going to these delivery box companies, Uber, stuff like that. We don't have to have one.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Okay. Yeah, less regulations, I guess, and less classification.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Well, if it's under 26,000 pounds, you're out, you're out from under FMCSA's purview. So you can do what you want, unless you're on highs, man.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

So you guys got events coming up. You're going to go to Matt's probably and some other shows that they can look for, get and see you guys. Yeah, we're right.

Building Direct Shipper Relationships

SPEAKER_01 21:58

We'll be at Matt's. We'll be at the uh we'll be at Matt's here next month. We got a new booth out in the lobby. We'll be at the American Truck Historical Society convention thing in Springfield in June. And then Marty's at a lobby. We'll be up at Walcott. We'll have a truck and be up at Walcott. And uh Marty will just be at little truck shows all around the country if you go to alIdake.com. Or follow our social media and kind of find out where Marty is with the tour truck and where some of us are. And I'll be at Matt's, I'll be at the ATHS show. Not sure if I'll be at Jeep at Walcott, but I'll be at those other two shows for sure. And I'll probably be at some other shows as time goes on.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Yeah, we love seeing you out there. I mean I love being out there. Yeah, yeah. You bring a good presence. Yeah, you don't.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

So man, you kind of think this is gonna be the last stop for you. You got some new things you're working on? What do you what do you see for the future for you or even IDA?

Hotshot, Box Trucks, And Membership

SPEAKER_01 22:55

I mean, as far as me, here I am. I mean, I'm here, I ain't see nothing else. And as long as but as far as us, you know, we're we're always watching what's going on, you know, no fear when it's rolling. I mean, the great thing about us, our board of directors, we're all trucker, are all truckers, the leadership myself, Todd Spencer will pass truckers. That's that's what makes it a lot of different. You've got to be in truck, be a trucker to be in leadership to be on our board. So that's good. And you know, we have over 130,000 members out here running around. They don't hesitate to call in, tell us what they're seeing. So, as I always tell people, the stuff that we're doing and we're working on, it's coming directly from the people behind the wheel, the men and women making their living driving a truck. So, you know, and sometimes I know truckers, you know, even myself, we don't always agree with what we're doing, but we always have to look at things as what's the greatest thing, what's the greatest for all truckers as a whole. Because, you know, trucking's very diverse. What works for one doesn't always necessarily work for others. But so we try to we try to go down the road where we're trying to help the most people at all possible. And some of the things we work on, you know, I got people calling still and say, I don't know why you're wasting this time with parking. I don't have any problem finding a park place to park, which hey, it's probably true. I I didn't really have that much trouble finding places to park, but I ran a certain region, knew where I was at, new places I could park that a lot of people didn't know, but not everybody's that fortunate or that lucky.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Yeah, I know it's uh it gets hard just to find a decent bathroom. I mean, a lot of places are us off there, like you know, we got some good, good, beautiful places to go to, but they don't allow trucks in there, and so yeah, it's I mean, there is a lot of parking, but should should you be parking there, you know, or you know, are you allowed? A lot of these rest stops seem like they do a lot with the architect, you know, they kind of get real involved in the building, the way it looks. And I'm like, I just we just need a parking spot.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

So yeah, near Tree Islands. That's what I get to fortunately. I guess I get invited to a lot of these DOT conferences and state meetings and stuff, especially when they're talking about commercial. And we get in, or I talk to a lot of states on parking, and that's the thing I tell them look, appreciate nice buildings, appreciate a nice place to park and rest area. But what we don't need is tree islands and all this other stuff. As much parking is what we need. A clean bathroom, running water, clean, but it doesn't have to be anything big or fancy. Yeah, just we need parking, parking, parking.

Events, Outreach, And Member Power

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah, yeah, and that helps out too with a lot of people coming into the industry. Like women coming into the industry is huge. So, I mean, you know, for for men, it may be a little different for the access or the bathroom. So we got to think about other people, like you said, not just ourselves, but others as well. So I'm glad that they're providing some safe places that are kind of well lit and place where they can use the restroom. I mean, that's seems like something really small, but you know, it's something you don't want to talk about, maybe. I don't know, but it's a necessity. We all do it.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

So yeah, I mean, it's mad and we have a bill in Congress, a guaranteed restroom access bill right now because shippers and receivers won't let truck drivers use their bathroom when they let them make you sit there for four and five hours on end or longer to load you or unload you. It's just absolutely crazy that we've had to get to where we have to have a congressional mandate to make you allow truckers to use the restroom. It's just it's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Yeah, I'm not sure if it's some type of liability or something with the lawyers or why they're just making sure people don't slip in the bathroom or something. I'm not sure what it is, but you know, I was in uh Minneapolis the other day, and it was extremely hard to get into a bathroom. But you know, that's probably because of the homeless rate or what have you, or the poverty, or I'm not sure, but it's it was bad. It was really hard to use the bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Yeah, which is just nuts.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

Yeah, it is. So yeah, that the outlook looks we're we're hoping it for good things in the future. You know, I know there's some big changes that are coming through. People are worried about the tariffs and the rebates and and all the stuff that's going on there, too. I don't know how old IDA is. What do you guys see about that? Are any prospects for that as well?

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Market stability is all we want to see. I mean, I don't I'm not a you know, I'm not a tariff expert, nor is OIDA tariff experts. You know, we we deal in trucking, we stay in our lane. What I do know is that all this flipping flopping and changing makes for a very unstable market. So whether we have tariffs or don't have tariffs, what we need is to decide something and leave it. So shippers, receivers, manufacturers, all these folks know what they're looking at, know what their costs are going to be, know how much stuff they need to order, and they can just sort of we can get this market to where it's running an equal, an even queue. And then trucking should take off this year. I mean, I know I said the same thing last year, we're looking forward to take off, but we do feel like by mid-summer we should hopefully things are going the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

We're starting to see some telltale times of that now. So hopefully by summer everybody's going strong.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

That'll be nice. You know, when I first got into the truck industry, they told me for safety reasons, nothing changes real quick. It's not like being in the office, but it seems like with AI and a lot of electronics, I've been able to be more mobile. Seems like the changes have been kind of trickling into the cab. So yeah, it's it's hard, not just in the cab, but also for the office people. I mean, they're trying to get these loads delivered too, and even though they're not driving the truck. So yeah, I hope it does get some consistency so that things can kind of level out.

Restroom Access And Basic Facilities

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Oh, yeah. I mean, we need consistency across the country now, and trucking just for consumers and stuff all across the world. I mean, it's just crazy what things are, what things cost right now, inflation.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Yeah. Well, I know the highway bill is a is a good thing. What do you see if possibly supporting the highway bill makes it easier for autonomous trucks? Um, what are your takes on that?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah, we don't support autonomous trucks. We're gonna push back against autonomous trucks as much as we can. We don't feel that one self-reporting it makes it's crazy. Like these people only have to report if somebody would die or not. I mean, we don't know how many near misses there are or any kind of thing like that because they don't have to report anything unless they want to. So you know they're only gonna report good things, you know. So plus plus, there's a huge concern in cybersecurity, there's a huge concern of parts being made in China. So, you know, we hear about this stuff where they can listen and watch. I mean, I I remind people whenever I talk about this, the trucks weigh up to 80,000 pounds, they haul anything from toilet paper to bomb. Probably it's a real good idea to know who's behind the wheel, and nobody can hijack that stuff because we know there's plenty of places in this world that don't like Americans, don't like Americans. So I've seen TV things where they hack into minivans and stuff with a laptop. So it's hard for me to believe they can't do that kind of same kind of thing with these autonomous vehicles, especially if you don't have a safety driver in there. And my second, you know, and then my other concern is what happens, you know, when there's a school bus on the side of the road broke down, there's kids, there's cars, there's all this stuff. What's that thing decide to hit if it comes around the corner and that's all going on? I mean, I'm assuming it's programmed to take the path of least resistance, which would probably be the kids in that scenario. So, you know, and I don't know. And what frustrates me with these autonomous trucks more than anything is I don't know a lot about them. I've reached out to all the autonomous truck people asking for to come visit, take a ride, learn more about these things, so I could speak, you know, with much more intelligence than just my gut and my feeling. But unfortunately, nobody's taking me up on that. So that also I find concerning.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

What do you think they'll be at Matt's? Maybe they'll have one on display like Tesla or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Maybe I guess we'll wait and see. I've seen them other places on display, and I'm always told we'll get back to you. We'd love to take you, we'll get back to you, but they never get back to me.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

I hope that's a topic that doesn't go away either, so we can help make the roads safe just as much as we want for uh, you know, these uh non-domiciles and all these other things that are out there too that uh weaken the integrity of the industry. So yeah, we want to keep it strong. Yep, we're we're only strong as our weakest link.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

So exactly.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Yeah, so we really appreciate all the work you guys are doing over there. I think a lot of people can benefit from you guys and learn more. Maybe some people don't even know. Spread the word, tell tell as many people as you can. This is uh word to our listeners out there. So if you know anything about OIDA, come take a look at them at the truck shows. Uh, they got a great trailer, got a lot of great friendly individuals out there that'll do things to answer your questions and talk to you and tell them, tell you guys about what you guys are working on, some of the new things that are coming down the pipeline and all that. So keep up the good work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Thank you, buddy. Yeah, by all means. The more members we have, the stronger we are in Washington. And again, you can if you have any questions or comments, you can always call our compliance department. You can call any, you can talk to me, you can talk to Todd Spencer, the president. You know, if you don't see the show, you can call us here to talk to us.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

You got a chance to talk to Sean Duffy or any people like that?

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Or we've talked to Duffy. I mean, Todd's talked to Duffy probably more than I have. I I talked to Mr. uh administrator bars probably more than anything. That's sort of our guy. So but no, we've had well, we've had Duffy on our semi-trailer, you know, in our truck, you know, and last year when they signed the English language proficiency regulation down in Houston or Austin, I'm sorry. Mr. Duffy was there and saw the Out of Truck was in the Out of Trailer and stuff like that. So that's pretty cool.

Pushing Back On Autonomous Trucks

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Nice. Yeah, it seems like we're getting some headways, some lot of changes that directly affect the driver for good. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Yeah, it seems like more they they understand what we're going through, uh, the more that they'll be uh on the lookout for these these bills that come through and make sure that they're they're implemented for the good versus being ignored. And it seems like it takes forever for things to get done on the heel.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Oh boy, isn't that a fact? Yeah, government moves very slow.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah, yeah. So when you make headway, sometimes you get take a couple steps forward and end up taking a couple steps backward, but hopefully we're going in the right direction, not going in the wrong direction. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, I'm glad to have you on the show. Anything else you want to let people know before we go? Maybe it's something I missed, or something else you want people to be aware of.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

I'll just remind people talk to your lawmakers. Don't be afraid to talk to your lawmakers. I hear so often from members, that's what we pay you for. I don't know how to talk to them. Well, I never met a truck driver, couldn't talk. And you can talk to them because you're the professional, you know about your industry. They don't. And let me promise you, there's plenty of people on the other side who are trying to make your job much harder or put you out of business or whatever the thing. The guarantee they're down there talking. So let your lawmakers know, and you never know where where that'll go or what that'll happen. So much stuff that we get started just because the member picked up the phone and got the ear of a lawmaker or his staff, and then it's turned into something organically. So, you know, call your lawmakers, go to fightingfortruckers.com. You can find out about what you and I talked about today, plus more stuff. And again, call our membership department if you need to renew or if you're not a member, tell them you saw this, and they'll give you a$20 discount.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Awesome. Hey man, appreciate it. So uh, for everybody out there, if you like what you see, I appreciate uh Louis Pew coming on the show here, helping us out talking about these topics so we can get it right from the horse's mouth. So we appreciate this breaking it down for drivers in a way that they actually understand. I think this stuff matters. I think everybody should be involved, not just if you're in trucking, but even if you know someone that's in trucking, uh reach out to your lawmakers and help them see the importance of what's necessary. So, like I said, we uh have a lot of links, we'll provide those in the notes for you, and uh, you can look at those. So it's good to know that someone like yourself, Louis, is out here doing great things, fighting for people and keeping the country moving. So appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Hey, thank you. Like I said, forward to team up for everybody at OOI Day and all of our members. We we all do together, just ain't me. So thank you to everybody, and thank you to all you truck drivers out here watching this. We really, really appreciate what you do. I know it's a hard, tough, thankless job, but thank you.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Awesome, yeah. So thank you again, and uh Mrs. Truck and Ray, and that's delivered.