Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/221538
PULSE Have this year's hours changes affected your income? "Yes, to a point. It's probably cost me a load here and there. It's not as big as we thought it would be. The problem with the 30-minute break is that your pretrip carries into your eight hours. It's not eight driving hours, it's eight working hours." Lewis Barnes Raleigh, N.C. | Owner-operator, leased to Schneider "It hasn't really affected my income. It's just a pain having to stop." Brandon Cag Baton Rouge, La. Company driver, U.S. Xpress "It hasn't so much affected the income, but it's a pain. The worst effect is that it makes your day longer. I don't know if the 30-minute breaks make us safer." Steve Blaney Sulphur, La. Company driver, Superior "Not so much the 30-minute breaks, but the 34-hour restart has. You have to use your hours, or you're screwed." Joe Watkins Dallas | Owner-operator, leased to Bull LLC Congestion's price W hen it comes to understanding highway problems, trucking usually gets it before the general public. That was made clear at last month's Infrastructure for the Future summit in Washington, D.C., put on by the American Highway Users Alliance and The Volvo Group. The lawmakers and association representatives were well-informed, but it was particularly refreshing to hear Joe Cowan, CEO of Baltimore-based Cowan Systems, lay it on the line from a driver/fleet perspective. Imagine what life is like for a driver who constantly deals with rush-hour gridlock and similar conditions daily, Cowan said. "We have got to do something about making this a pleasant job," he said. "The first place you start is our infrastructure." One primary problem with road and bridge improvements and expansions is that the Highway Trust Fund is going broke. Congress has passed stopgap measures for years to sustain the fund, but expenditures still exceed receipts by $15 billion a year. There has been less driving in recent years, so per-gallon-based tax revenue has declined. Also, the federal fuel tax hasn't been raised in 20 years. As California Sen. Barbara Boxer told the summit, the fund will be empty by 2015, following the expiration of the highway bill at the end of 2014, unless action is taken. Suppose there had been a 20 cents-per-gallon tax hike years ago, Cowan suggested. Not only would it have improved the infrastructure, it would've created thousands of jobs directly and indirectly. "In the end, we're going to pay twice as much instead of what we could've paid," he said. Trucking, though, never stopped increasing its share of infrastructure funding. In 2001, one tractor-trailer paid $8,050 a year in taxes and fees to operate within Maryland, Cowan said; now it costs $19,350. "What do I get in exchange for that? I don't get anything. Passenger cars got a free ride. … The system's broken." The transportation industry's complaints "The system's broken." — Cowan Systems CEO Joe Cowan, on the poor state of road and bridge funding "fall on deaf ears," Cowan said. "It has to be more of a public outcry: 'I've had enough of driving 10 miles and it taking me an hour. I've had enough of wasting fuel.' " That outcry appears to be only at whimper level. Some states, such as Virginia, have taken matters more into their own hands. Fed up with inaction and red tape at the federal level, they've made good strides in fixing their highways. Infrastructure solutions based solely on states aren't the best approach, as Cowan and other speakers argued, due to the complexities of the national highway system. Still, given the sluggishness of the federal government and its obsession with more voter-friendly benefits such as health care, I'd bet state initiatives might be the best we get in the near future. By Max Heine Editorial director mheine@randallreilly.com December 2013 | Overdrive | 3 Voices_1213.indd 3 11/27/13 9:39 AM