In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, Track back through last week’s big trucking-issues hearing in Senate Commerce's Subcommittee on Transportation, Freight, Pipelines and Safety to work through some of the pressing issues ahead of the next highway bill, due in 2026.
Featured trucking witnesses before the subcommittee:
- Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh
- American Trucking Associations’ leader Chris Spear
- Teamsters Union president Sean O'Brien
In the podcast, featuring audio from the hearing, witnesses debate driverless truck development and regulation, and automation's role in safety. You’ll hear about the huge rise in cargo theft the subcommittee also addressed in a hearing early in the year, aided and abetted by identity theft and double brokering increasingly plied by organized rings.
Overdrive Radio's sponsor is Howes, longtime provider of fuel treatments like its Howes Diesel Defender all-weather mileage booster and winter anti-gel treatments to get you through the coldest temps, the Howes Multipurpose penetrating oil, and other products.
What you won’t hear is any mention of the term non-domiciled CDL, though in response to a question from Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Teamsters President O'Brien referenced carriers' recruiting of overseas or otherwise foreign drivers for temporary work in the U.S. The non-domiciled CDL is one that U.S. states can issue to such drivers, who don’t have permanent immigration status but rather hold temporary work authorization. Some states don’t issue these CDLs, and many others haven’t been issuing non-domiciled CDLs this way for very long. Yet the practice has certainly taken off over the last several years. Overdrive's own Alex Lockie's last-week-released research illustrated the recent-years growth all around the nation with a 50-state accounting -- download the 20-page report via this link or by completing the form below.
Recent surveying of Overdrive's mostly owner-operator readers revealed a majority opinion that states should not be able to issue non-domiciled CDLs to foreign workers in the U.S. temporarily.
As for the next highway bill and the Senate subcommitte's safety focus writ large, there’s a whole lot more than just these CDL-issuance issues to chew on. In the podcast, let the tape roll to catch your elected representatives and the associations that represent trucking business owners and operators in action, interrogating the wide array of trucking issues of importance:
[Related: Overdrive reporting reveals at least 60,000 active non-domiciled CDLs]
[Related: Truck-ownership traditions staying alive: Owner-operators Lucas Zach, Harlan Martin]
