ANP has detailed, multiple times, exactly what would happen if trucking stopped, no food or water on the store shelves as most grocery stores do not have enough in stock to run more than a few days without deliveries, and if there is a run on stores, as has happened during severe weather events, we have documented that within one day some stores are almost emptied of survival and basic food supplies such as milk, water, batteries, etc.....
The issue is the ELD Mandate set to be enforced starting December 18, 2017, and while the 19,000-member group “ELD or Me” held nationwide rallies on December 4, 2017, notifying media, giving interviews, some of which will be seen below, it appears that "big business" and the national media, are completely ignoring them.
Local media reported as I can find articles and interview clips, but nationally, they are being cast aside. Understand that 97 percent of trucking companies operate fewer than 20 trucks, yet it is the other three percent of bigger companies that are behind this mandate that will actually come out on top, while these smaller businesses all are forced to lose money.
Via American Trucker in an article titled "Small business committee becomes the latest ELD battleground":
ELDs “are promoted as ‘silver bullet’ solution for highway safety despite distinct lack of evidence,” he said. “In reality, they are economic weapons for driving smaller competitors out of the market like me by increasing our operating costs.”
Wiederhold added that the ELD mandate is expected to cost the trucking industry $1.8 billion annually. “It is the most expensive regulation in trucking history,” he said.
“The trucking companies I talk to are pleading to stop this mandate,” added Marty DiGiacomo, owner of True Blue Transportation out of Harrisburg, NC, who testified on behalf of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies.
“They just can’t afford a $700 GPS device with $30 to $50 monthly fees. Trucking always a fluctuating business; you cannot depend on everything staying same all the time,” he emphasized. “No one size fits all – you cannot work that way in trucking; we have crane companies, tanker fleets, towing and recovery, and food service operators. You cannot put one set of guidelines in place and run electronic logs for everyone; it will create a nightmare, havoc, and a lot of extra cost.”
While the ELD devices are being cast as a method to make conditions "safer" on the roads by electronically monitoring each mile on the road for truckers, no actual data has been presented to prove the assertions that it would make anyone safer, but the even bigger issue here is that whether the truckers are on the clock or not, these devices will be monitoring every movement they make.
As can be heard by a woman interviewed locally, she doesn't just use her truck to long haul, but the truck is her home as well, so it would be like the government telling any one of us that they have the right to monitor our movements in our own home, keep track of every person we visit, every stop we make, even when not "on the clock." Think about that, and listen below as the news reporter states clearly the ELD devices will monitor where these truckers are "at all times."
It is a massive violation of these truckers constitutional rights, treating them like criminals, even if they never even received a violation or a ticket.
Another man from the Fresno rally explains why this will force consumers to pay more for goods, and could cause some deliveries to slow down to a crawl:
Another man from the Fresno rally explains why this will force consumers to pay more for goods, and could cause some deliveries to slow down to a crawl:
Indiana's Attorney General Curtis Hill wrote a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, dated November 29, 2017, proposing an "immediate delay," in the implementation of the new requirements, saying that it would place "undue burdens on drivers and operators."
According to American Trucker, a little less than a third of trucks on the road are currently equipped with the electronic logging devices, meaning over two-thirds of the truckers on the road right now, are not equipped and would have to be by December 18, 2017, or risk huge fines, or forced to park their vehicles if they cannot comply.
The truckers feel as if no one is listening to them, the national media is ignoring them, and as one of the rally organizers, Doug Hasner, an owner-operator from north of Watertown, New York, stated, "The Congress is not listening to us. The president is not listening to us. The media is not listening to us."
So perhaps it is time for those smaller companies that are about to get slaughtered by government over-reach and regulations that benefits the mega-carriers while threatening to destroy smaller trucking companies, to strike, park their trucks, refuse to deliver their goods, which will guarantee the mainstream media's attention, Congresses and the President's, because when the trucks stop...... so does the economy.
The truckers, like the ones speaking above have less that two weeks to either comply, allow their rights to be violated by being monitored 24 hours a day, or to risk violating the law, or to simply quit doing long hauls. They should use that time wisely, since the rallies didn't garner any attention, since the courts have turned a blind eye to them and since the government is allowing these onerous regulations to threaten their livelihood, perhaps they should speak with their trucks.
Park them.
Maybe then Americans that can't get their food and supplies for the week, will finally stand up for them, speak out, call their Congress people, and help them get their voices heard all across the nation.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and December 18, 2018 is literally the end for some of these hard-working Americans that cannot afford to comply with the EDL mandate, yet cannot feed their families without the work.
Something has to be done, now.
Maybe then Americans that can't get their food and supplies for the week, will finally stand up for them, speak out, call their Congress people, and help them get their voices heard all across the nation.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and December 18, 2018 is literally the end for some of these hard-working Americans that cannot afford to comply with the EDL mandate, yet cannot feed their families without the work.
Something has to be done, now.
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