Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/989498
Voices 12 | Overdrive | June 2018 American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear's accusations that individuals "of OOIDA interests" had made death threats against him and bomb threats against ATA offi ces was met with more than a little skeptical musing by Overdrive readers. Responding to Spear in May, the Owner-Operator Independent Driv- ers Association said it was "patently false" that the organization had any- thing to do with the alleged threats. ATA declined to elaborate on Spear's comments, published in the logistics journal DC Velocity. Owner-operator Andy Soucy, posting in the Overdrive's Trucking Pro Facebook group, noted that it seemed following this year's death of OOIDA President Jim Johnston, "the ATA is testing OOIDA's stance with b.s. ac- cusations and tactics. Sadly, the ATA will stop at nothing to manipulate regulations to better their own bottom line. It's one thing [for ATA members to] want to better control their own employees, but they also want to impress their own policies upon the rest of the industry, because their own policies also hold them back. Their solution is to infl uence regulators to level the playing fi eld by causing harm" to the rest of the industry — their competition. Examples of such at work, other readers noted, could be seen in ATA's advocacy for the electronic logging device mandate that imposed new costs on carriers, most of them out- side of ATA's larger-carrier member- ship, as well as long advocacy for the proposed speed limiter mandate. OOIDA's statement said its eff orts to challenge the ELD mandate in recent years are "energizing truckers across the industry to activism in the legislative and regulatory processes. Mr. Spear not only went out of his way to marginalize their concerns, but referred to them as 'amateurs' in the process." Regular readers may recall Spear's "amateur-hour advocacy groups" reference to those protesting the man- date late last year. OOIDA went on to contend that ATA and Spear's "pursuit of divisive policies and use of disparaging words has fueled the acrimony not only in our industry, but among his own members." OOIDA board member and Reev- er Transport small fl eet owner-op- erator Monte Wiederhold wondered whether Spear was suff ering from ELD fallout. Wiederhold added that whatever the calculus behind Spear's accusations, they're sure to further one OOIDA goal: boosting member- ship. "The comments of Mr. Spear are certainly not what one would expect from someone in his position," he said. George Kincaid, responding to Soucy's post in Overdrive's Trucking Pro, wrote: "I think that the ATA is realizing that everybody is seeing through their rhetoric, so now they're resorting to defamation to try to elim- inate those who oppose them." A trucker commenting as "Big E," however, bemoaned what he called too much "bashing" of ATA. He urged the associations to lay off one another and "focus our eff orts on what we can agree on that is harming both carriers and truckers. Once that is done, we can mediate the other issues like responsible industry groups should. "If ATA and OOIDA would team up on a single topic they agree on, such as [hours of service] fl exibility, they might just be able to do some- thing worthwhile for the industry. They could show some real strength with both carrier and driver backing." ATA's claim of driver threats draws responses Says people "of OOIDA interests" have threatened ATA and its pres- ident, Chris Spear. Says tying any threats to OOIDA is "patently false" and harmfully frag- ments the industry.