{"text":"In order to fix a broken trucking industry, Congress must first recognize the vital role of truck drivers, OOIDA President Todd Spencer told a US House of Representatives subcommittee.\n\n\nSpencer served as one of eight witnesses for the Highways and Transit subcommittee hearing titled “Under Pressure: The State of Trucking in America” on Wednesday, June 12, in Washington, DC\n\n\n\"Unfortunately, trucking has been fundamentally broken for years, and conditions show little sign of improving,\" Spencer said.\n\n\n\"Until Congress understands the most important component in trucking is the driver, very little will change. The next steps you must take are clear – help make trucking an appealing, safe and sustainable career.\"\n\n\nThe subcommittee spent about three hours listening to the witnesses' testimony and discussing the trucking industry's most pressing issues. Joining Spencer on the panel were Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; Chris Spear, president of American Trucking Associations; LaMont Byrd Director of the health and safety department for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Jason Craig, director of government affairs for CH Robinson Worldwide Inc.; Rodney Noble, senior director of transportation global procurement for PepsiCo; Deputy Chief Mark Savage of the Colorado Highway Patrol And Andy Young, a truck safety advocate.\n\n\nSpencer, who was speaking on behalf of OOIDA's more than 160,000 members, focused on informing lawmakers about the hardships and challenges truckers face every day and asking Congress to recognize that many current trucking regulations do little or nothing to highway highway safety\n\n\n\"Our typical members spend 250 nights or more away from home and family each year,\" Spencer said. \"They deal with way too much traffic and congestion and bad and unpredictable weather while working around the schedules of all others in the supply chain.\"\n\n\nRead more: http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=74376#.XQJvwogzbIU ","videos":"[]","link":"{}","pics":"[]","canComment":true}