Off the top of this week's podcast, National Association of Small Trucking Companies President David Owen underscores the value of what NASTC calls the "Best Three Days in Trucking" that are their annual conference.
He openly regretted interrupting the untold number of conversations happening over the Oct. 29 dinner, where attendees get that value through networking, yet he had matters of importance to address.
Namely, Owen was introducing the keynote speaker Overdrive's own Small Fleet Champ finalists had just opened up for, if you will: Current Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Derek Barrs. As you’ll hear in this week’s Ovedrive Radio featuring much of Barrs' talk, the Administrator would call back to moments in the Small Fleet Champs’ presentation, where 11-30-truck competitor David McKinney of Lexington, Alabama-based McKinney & Sons Transfer choked up paying tribute to the literal and figurative family who’s supported him through decades trucking.
Likewise Kevin Otto and his “truckers are survivors” quote invoking his and his wife Liz’s Otto Transfer. It's been a whopping 80 years since Kevin’s father Charlie started the business hauling livestock back in the 1940s.
[Related: Champ-finalist fleet and the brokerage-AI shift]
TruckWise owner Kevin Haderlie, Shannon Sanders of KST Logistics, too: Keep tuned for an edition of the podcast in coming weeks featuring all of them from the stage and in our pre-event conversation, bringing the champs together for idea-sharing, camaraderie, and more, of a piece with the mission of the NASTC conference.
Barrs' address invoked the values on offer instilled by family, by faith, and spoke of his mission with FMCSA to root out what he called the “garbage” of fraudulent, in-many-cases-overseas actors hijacking all manner of trucking businesses -- in some cases the freight markets themselves.
He teased investigations conducted, and ongoing. 2,500 trucking companies registered in a single county? He asked for a show of hands if that was something that made sense to anyone in the audience. "How many people have 2,500 trucking companies in the counties that you live in?" he asked. No one raised their hands.
He spoke to regulatory efforts to strengthen not only well-publicized and new vetting of ELDs and training providers on the federal registries, but a possible regs change with potential to remove states’ ability to offer the written CDL test in a language other than English -- that particular notion, put forward first with proposed legislation more than a year ago and since, drew applause from the audience.
Owen was optimistic about the FMCSA's future with Barrs' ongoing efforts. "We now have an administrator who understands, appreciates and has a really good grip on what you guys do" as small fleet owners, he told the assembled. Take a listen:
As noted in the podcast for further reading:
- Overdrive's Small Fleet Champ winners and finalists.
- Reporting on the ground in Illinois for demonstration of backend ELD manipulation last week.
- Reporting on CDL-school removals and reinstatements, and the emergency request to the White House to change self-certification rules for schools.
[Related: No sideline cynics here: Voices from TenFour D.C., truckers' advocacy counterbalance]
