Overdrive

December 2014

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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PULSE December 2014 | Overdrive | 5 By Max Heine Editorial director mheine@randallreilly.com O wner-operator Vince Stupp of Hart- ford, Wis., remembers meeting an owner-operator couple from Maine last December. They were all parked, prepar- ing to deliver wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. He learned they had been part of the effort for eight years. "They told me each year they go into Arlington, take a wreath and place it on their son's grave," recalls Stupp, who is leased to Spoerl Trucking, based in Ixonia, Wis. "After they told me that, I was speechless. So it's my turn to give something back." Stupp is giving back by joining with dozens of other drivers to deliver wreaths this year, which is the 150th anniversary of Arlington. The Truckload Carriers Association, one of the biggest supporters of Wreaths Across America, has a goal to cover all 235,000 headstones at Arlington, said TCA Executive Director Brad Bentley. That would require 66 truckloads of wreaths. A record 143,000 headstones were covered at last year's event, which drew 30,000 people. Another big crowd was expected for this year's Dec. 13 wreath-laying. If you're read- ing this in time, you still can be part of the initiative by visiting truckloadofrespect.com to apply for a route or to buy a wreath for your truck or for placement at Arlington. Those wreaths won't decorate the graves of any of Stupp's relatives, but he has close ties to the military. Stupp's wife, Judy Stupp, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1968 to 1992. His father, Paul Stupp, received a Pur- ple Heart during World War II. Vince Stupp served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army. "I had six very close friends that are on the Vietnam (Veterans) Memorial wall," he said. Now, with Wreaths Across America, "It meant so much that I was able to give something back." The nature of the driving profession, especially for those in long-haul, doesn't leave much time for contributing to one's communi- ty or a special cause. For many, too, it doesn't provide much in the way of extra income, es- pecially for those with a family, \WÅVIVKQITTa[]XXWZ\_WZ\Pa charities. That's one reason it's so encouraging to see Stupp and other owner-operators, as well I[OMVMZW][ÆMM\[QVKZMI[QVO- ly supporting projects such as Wreaths Across America. Likewise, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Associ- ation's Truckers for Troops raises money every year to send care packages to military personnel stationed overseas. Though most truckers are not vets, they share with them a special bond of what it means to spend long periods of time away from home, quietly serving in the support of oth- ers. That owner-operators and ÆMM\[IZM[W_QTTQVO\WOQ^M· _PM\PMZITQ\\TMWZITW\·[PW_[ a keen appreciation for those who gave all they could. 'My turn to give' Association and the Na- tional Association of Small Trucking Companies. Rajkovacz says the bill focuses on preventing public release of data not deter- mined to be predictive of motor carrier accidents. "That gets to the heart and soul" of what the early 2014 Government Accountability 7NÅKMZMXWZ\WV+;)_I[ identifying: "The vast ma- jority of violations had no correlation to crashes." The problems too often have resulted in a muddled safety picture that the general public and data-hungry brokers and shippers use to make judg- ments of motor carriers large or small. The reliability of the scoring for such purposes, often putting the life of a business on the line, was ranked No. 1 by readers in a list of problems in Overdrive's ongoing CSA's Fallout series. (In addition to this month's installment on 8IOMÅVLW\PMZZMXWZ\[^QI OverdriveOnline.com/csa.) Yet FMCSA continues to cling to the belief that pat- terns of violations, whether with obvious crash relation- ship at the individual-viola- tion level or not, are worth using for scoring purposes. And so, as Rajkovacz predicted, trucking turned to Congress. Prior to the mid- term elections, he noted "I'd eat my hat" if H.R. 5532 ever got "through a Demo- cratically controlled Senate." With the November elec- tions putting both the House and Senate in Republican hands, it appears to have a better chance. Rajkovacz's digestive system no doubt thanks the American people. To hear more from Vince Stupp and see photos from last year's Wreaths Across America event, see the video on Overdrive's Featured Truckers playlist at youtube.com/OverdriveMag.

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