Transportation Secretary Duffy Speaks at Mid-America Trucking Show
Every year in Louisville, Kentucky, the Mid-America Trucking Show brings truckers and industry stakeholders from all across the country to participate in all things trucking related, whether its chowing down on some good food, admiring custom truck designs, or getting a sneak peak at the latest and greatest technology. Two guests of honor at the event were Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Derek Barrs, who both went on to speak a few words about what they and the government were doing to make trucking life easier.
Fraud Crackdown
If you have been in the trucking industry for any amount of time, there is a very good chance you have heard of the purported “driver shortage”. Duffy and Barrs never said those two specific words, but they did say that their actions of hunting down chameleon carriers, who avoid bad safety ratings by constantly starting over, is going to ultimately result in fewer drivers on the road.
“When I have small businesses, been in families for generations and going out of business, that’s because there’s too much fraud and abuse in trucking,” said Duffy. “We’re going to systematically roll back the fraud, prosecute the fraud, and I think what you’re going to see is your spot rates are going to go up.”
CDL Mills
When it was Duffy’s turn to speak, he additionally talked about another safety concern that was likely going to reduce the number of drivers on the road: fighting against “CDL Mills”: trucking schools that self-certify and focus more on getting paying customers their Commercial Driver’s Licenses than they do about the safety on the road. “We are rolling back these schools, taking away their certifications. CDL mills are a thing of the past.”
Conclusion
If what Duffy and Barrs say is true, a decrease in the number of drivers on the road is certain to happen. Combine that with recent reports indicating that the number of tons of goods being shipped across the country is increasing to near-record highs, and market rates for shipping are bound to increase, rewarding actively safe drivers with higher mile rates as the barrier to entry increases in the name of safety.
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