OTTAWA — The Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada is officially hooking up with the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association — a 140,000-trucker lobbying group based in Grain Valley, Mo.

OBAC’s executive director, Joanne Ritchie said OOIDA’s board of directors voted unanimously at its annual Fall board meeting to proceed on an affiliation with its Canadian counterpart.

While each organization will maintain its autonomy in name and membership, Ritchie says there will be opportunities to share resources that will benefit OBAC members.

“We’ll be looking at the excellent array of OOIDA’s programs and services to determine what might be modified or adapted for the Canadian market, or used as templates to build our own,” she said. “Insurance and fuel programs will be important, as these represent critical, big-ticket items for owner-ops.”

OBAC will look at OOIDA’s services to determine what might
be modified or for the Canadian owner-op market

OOIDA President and CEO Jim Johnston welcomed the unification. “An OOIDA-OBAC partnership will enable us to have an increased presence with the Canadian government, which will benefit both our U.S. members who travel to Canada and our Canadian members as well,” Johnston said.

Added Ritchie: “This affiliation will have a huge positive impact on moving OBAC forward; we’ll benefit from OOIDA’s 33 years of insight and experience, as well as the depth of knowledge represented by OOIDA’s board and executive committee. And two strong associations with a common purpose will benefit truckers North-American wide.”

The two groups — both of which represent the interests of member small-business truck owners and drivers — have already collaborated on a few issues, mainly the controversial movement by large carriers to push government to mandate speed limiters on all trucks.

The plan to cap the speed of all trucks at 105 km/h was first drafted by the Ontario Trucking Association, and is being reviewed by governments in that province as well as in Quebec. This week, several large U.S. carriers joined a public interest group in urging Washington for a similar law in that country.

Both OOIDA and OBAC are opposed to such legislation. They’ve jointly presented Canadian policy makers with studies that show a bigger gap in speed between cars and trucks would cause more accidents. They also argue that if government wanted to bring down highway speeds, it could step up enforcement of highway traffic laws already on the books.

OOIDA was formed in 1973 as a strong voice for truckers on Capitol Hill. Since then, the association has grown to more than 144,000 members in all 50 states and Canada.

The organization has 350 people on staff, with three full-time lobbyists working in Washington. It publishes its own monthly magazine (Land Line), has a daily one-hour radio show on XM Satellite, an extensive web presence, and annual earnings of (US) $27 million. OOIDA’s insurance business alone generates (US) $95 million in revenue.