OOIDA slams Teamsters’ change of heart on EOBR bill

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GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. — The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has condemned the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ recent decision to support the US Senate’s proposed bill that would mandate electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) for heavy trucks.

OOIDA says it views support of EOBRs by organized labour as a change of heart driven by their desire to ban owner/operators and replace them with employee drivers who can be organized.

“(S)upport coming from the Teamsters, who filed comments to the government in 2007 opposing EOBRs, proves that this is more about attacking independent contractors and small businesses than safety,” said OOIDA executive vice-president Todd Spencer. “It could open up a huge Pandora’s box with the IRS on misclassification of colossal proportions.”

OOIDA also says that another proponent of EOBRs, the American Trucking Associations (ATA), is disingenuous about using research for arguments supporting a mandate.

“Considering that none of the research has changed on EOBRs and the ATA has attacked that very same research to oppose the new Hours-of-Service regulations, it leads us to believe this is more about trying to squeeze more driving hours or ‘productivity’ out of drivers, maximizing every second of the 70-hour work week, regardless of safety,” said Spencer.

OOIDA officials further noted that the current EOBR rulemaking has been estimated by the Obama administration to cost the industry $2 billion, as one of the seven most expensive regulations pursued by the administration. 

“EOBRs are no more reliable than paper logbooks for tracking Hours-of-Service and are actually a possible danger to our highways. We hear every day from truckers whose companies use the devices to harass drivers into driving more hours. Anyone who claims there is a connection to safety either doesn’t know, or is counting on others not knowing, and is actually selling no more than an overpriced record keeper,” Spencer said.

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  • Wow OOIDA slamming the teamsters for changing their minds on EOBR’S, where OOIDA has done the same thing when they cmae out for EOBR’S for the bad actors and now their against them. Don’t you think that’s comes under the heading of the pot calling the kettle black.

  • Wow, why don’t you stay off our web site….show a little respect? The HOS rules have become the product of a special interest cesspool, which includes the teamsters union. There are a number of organizations sticking there filthy hands into the mix for power and advantage, not safety. OOIDA is the only one that has stood by the hard working men and women small business owners actually doing the work. They have been the most fair and level headed advocates for safety with an approach that respects our constituton, the facts involved and the needs of small business owners which have been the backbone of this country.

  • Correction… The HOS and EOBR rules have become the product of a special interest cesspool, which includes the teamsters union. There are a number of organizations sticking there filthy hands into the mix for power and advantage, not safety. OOIDA is the only one that has stood by the hard working men and women small business owners actually doing the work. They have been the most fair and level headed advocates for safety with an approach that respects our constituton, the facts involved and the needs of small business owners which have been the backbone of this country.

    The Teamsters have every right to advocate for their members to work an 8 hour day. But it is somewhat dirty and underhanded to try and stick that into the HOS rules and impose it on everyone. There is too much of this sort of thing going on with the FMCSA regulations.Safety regulations should be based soley on pure, objective science and allow maximum freedom for business to operate within that frame work.

  • I think old beachbum should go back to his union beach and stick his head in the water forever. We are already way over regulated and no better safety records than before but costing everybody 50 percent more for transportation and that is we need in times like depression unions and idiot’t figuring out what is best for them not the country as a whole