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Association, said the FMCSA did listen
to the various groups’ concerns as it
improved its original approach. Changes
“BluNtly, if there is a Bad shipper out there eliminated what he called a “known
who is iN fact twistiNg arms oN a driver or should have known” provision that
to violate a rule, well, mayBe that shipper placed too much responsibility on ship-
should Be takeN out of the picture, right?” pers, receivers and intermediaries who
could not be expected to know what
he said. “the highways are there to service rules a driver would potentially violate.
the trade, aNd we all waNt them to Be as That rule would have been potentially

safe as possiBle.” perilous for intermediaries, whose
industry standard is to avoid direct
communication with drivers.
—Bruce carltoN, presideNt aNd ceo of the NatioNal “In the proposed rule, they wanted
iNdustrial traNsportatioN league the brokers to reach out to the carriers
or to the specific driver and say, ‘Hey,
do you have enough hours for this?’ We
reduced payment, denied access to the loss of future business. That possibil- strongly oppose our guys doing that,”
best trips, etc.,” the Register said. ity eventually was dropped in the final he said.
For carriers, it’s long been illegal to rule. Maverick’s Newell said in an inter-
try to coerce a driver to violate rules, so “There was sort of an ambiguous view Jan. 11 that his company doesn’t
the new rule may not be a “sea change” sense that having direct normal busi- “foresee a huge problem internally on
for them, Sharma said. ness conversations could somehow be our company.” The carrier had already
However, the rule brings shippers, deemed to be coercion, and our reading started having classes to train employ-
receivers and intermediaries under the of the final rule says that a shipper or ees on how to comply with the rule.
FMCSA’s regulatory realm. Pianka said receiver can have those normal conver- Executives and operations personnel
the ATA will be looking to see how sations that they would encounter with were practicing responses to various
much overlap there will be between this any service supplier, and not have that scenarios.
rule and existing whistleblower protec- translated immediately into a coercion,” “Everybody’s got to be on the same
tions enforced by OSHA. He said the he said. page. … It needs to be a consistent mes-
ATA is concerned about potential dupli- He said an example would be, “You sage across the board,” he said. “‘We are
cative enforcement now that a new pro- keep sending me drivers who only have not going to do this.’ ‘This cannot be
cedure and a new enforcement agency 30 minutes left on their hours of ser- said like this.’ Things like that.”
have been added to the mix. vice. I’ve got a seven-hour haul here. He said that, as with other areas of
“On the whole, we think that Why are you doing this?’” trucking, communication and relation-
shippers and intermediaries and so on “That’s not coercion,” he said. ships will be important in successfully
should be our partners,” he said. “We “That’s just saying, ‘Look, we need navigating the regulatory environment.
should all be committed to drivers oper- a better relationship between our Maverick’s technology enables its back
ating within the rules, and this extends companies.’” office employees to estimate how many
prohibitions that motor carriers have hours a driver has been on the road. It’s
always been under.” For saFety’s sake accurate to the point where the driver
Bruce Carlton, president and He said shippers, like carriers, approved his logs, and an internal
CEO of the National Industrial have no interest in taking actions that system has been built that can predict
Transportation League, a shipper group, result in a safety issue or rules viola- when a driver will arrive at the desti-
said that while the rule’s initial draft tion. “Bluntly, if there is a bad shipper nation. It can predict hours of service
was too vague, the final rule is “a per- out there who is in fact twisting arms accurately, but not exactly. So the car-
fectly livable solution.” on a driver to violate a rule, well, maybe rier must still communicate with the
Under the rule’s original wording, that shipper should be taken out of the person operating the vehicle, and for
a shipper could have violated the rule picture, right?” he said. “The highways that communication to occur success-
by telling one carrier that its driver’s are there to service the trade, and we all fully, trust must be built.
potential hours of service violation want them to be as safe as possible.” “People forget, this is still a people
forced it to find another carrier — the Chris Burroughs, senior gov- business,” Newell said. “People come
argument being that the first carrier ernment affairs manager with first. You’ve got to have relationships
was being “coerced” by the threat of a the Transportation Intermediaries with the drivers.” ATR

22 arkansas trucking rePort | issue 1 2016