Two calls this week highlight driver advocacy efforts in D.C.

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4Scott Grenerth with Trucking Solutions Group today
Those of you who’ve read this blog with any regularity are probably well familiar with Fikes-leased owner-operator Scott Grenerth (pictured with a new custom-designed bike at the Great American Trucking Show this past August — Grenerth is also coproprietor of the rideandroll.me site cataloging biking trails in proximity to truck parking). I first met Grenerth when I ran with Jazzy Jordan last year and, since, have had the opportunity for a long cycle with him and more than one sit-down for dinner and conversation in my East Nashville neighborhood, through which he runs somewhat frequently.  

He testified on behalf of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Oct. 12 before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending on how new fuel-efficiency standards for Class 8s as well as emissions regulations will impact small business truckers. You can read his testimony here.

Grenerth is perhaps the best trucking representative to testify on federal environmental regulations. As I became aware in our conversations from the beginning, and as he reiterates in his testimony, his background is in environmental education — he’s worked as a naturalist in the past, giving various guided environmental tours and conducting environmental education classes with his wife, whom he married on Earth Day in 1995, the two only then adopting the “Grenerth” surname.

Yet, as his testimony makes clear, he is opposed to the new heavy-duty truck fuel-efficiency standards. As he noted in the testimony, speaking of the one-size-fits-all approach the Environmental Protection Agency took in developing the new rule, “It excluded input from small business trucking about how best to address fuel efficiency in an industry that is as varied as the American economy. It ignored investments in clean air made by trucking under previous EPA rules. It failed to fully examine the benefits of less expensive and likely more effective options that could have an almost immediate impact.”

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Read his full testimony when you can, or call in to the Trucking Solutions Group’s call at 3 p.m. Eastern today (Wed., Nov. 2) via (712) 432-0075, using PIN number 550718# when prompted.

MCSAC meeting discussion on Truth About Trucking Live Thursday
You’ll recall I wrote about driver advocate Frederick Schaffner’s move to make good on the momentum coming out of the Truck Driver Social Media Convention around driver advocacy by being a presence at last week’s meeting of the FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. Schaffner will join Allen and Donna Smith to discuss results on the pair’s Truth About Trucking Live online radio show tomorrow Thursday, at 7 p.m. Eastern. For details on how to call in or to listen online, visit the show site here.