The Trucking Alliance, which when it comes to numbers is without doubt one of the smaller trade lobbying and help teams however which incorporates a number of the larger gamers in trucking, has lengthy centered on questions of safety in its efforts to shift public coverage.
After a tumultuous 2025 within the intersection the place trucking, security and politics all got here collectively in typically sudden methods, the group is laying out its agenda not only for 2026 however for years to return, freely acknowledging there are some shifts within the regulatory panorama that may take a couple of years to ferment and develop.
On this three-part joint video and editorial collection, Freightwaves is presenting highlights of an interview editor at giant John Kingston carried out with key members of the Trucking Alliance’s management workforce: Steve Williams, the co-founder and president of the Trucking Alliance, in addition to the chairman and CEO of provider Maverick USA; Lane Kidd, managing director on the Trucking Alliance; Greer Woodruff, govt vice chairman of security, sustainability, and upkeep at J.B. Hunt Transport Companies (NASDAQ: JBHT); and Brett Sant, senior vice chairman at Knight Swift (NYSE: KNX).
The complete video of the 4 Trucking Alliance leaders might be discovered right here.
On this joint video/editorial providing, these 4 officers focus on advocacy for steps that may have a direct impression on drivers behind the wheel. Whereas theoretically all regulatory measures in trucking could make their method all the way down to these steering the tractors, these suggestions could be felt probably the most contained in the cab.
There have been some current wrecks which have caught the general public’s consideration partly due to video that confirmed tragic crashes the place the truck driver very a lot seems to be at fault. There was a November crash in California that took three lives. An August unlawful u-turn by an immigrant within the U.S. with out authorization additionally led to a few deaths. Video of each had been broadly circulated on-line and by varied media shops.
“With many transformational modifications, typically it simply takes one episode of incident for big modifications to happen,” Kidd stated. With the eye these two crashes created, Kidd stated, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy additionally has taken discover. “Sean Duffy and the management at FMCSA are in all probability extra attuned to the trucking trade than any earlier appointees I’ve seen within the final 20 years,” Kidd stated.
Hair testing stays a precedence
Whereas the 2 cited deadly wrecks had no proof of drug involvement, they’d the impact of mentioning that difficulty as nicely. If there’s been one difficulty that has outlined the Trucking Alliance, it’s been not simply medicine however advocacy for hair testing of drivers, slightly than urine testing, to find out if a driver ought to be faraway from the street.
“These different drivers that use medicine and drink behind the wheel, and you already know aren’t correctly skilled and do unsafe issues on the market harm the repute of the overwhelming majority of protected skilled drivers,” Woodruff stated. “That’s a part of why now we have this agenda. We need to shield the reputations of the actually good firms on the market and the actually nice drivers on the market.”
Regardless of the rising acceptance of leisure marijuana utilization–although not but on the federal degree–Kidd stated “I don’t suppose it will likely be a heavy elevate to maintain marijuana as a prohibited drug within the trade because it pertains to hair testing.” However he additionally famous the paradox: the Division of Transportation will “disqualify a truck driver if that driver fails a urine examination for drug use. The Division of Transportation won’t disqualify a truck driver if he fails a hair check for drug use.”
Progress on requiring a hair check, which may detect marijuana utilization lengthy after precise consumption, had been making progress in suits and begins for a number of years. The Trucking Alliance was optimistic about hair testing changing into a part of normal driver regulation, “however we noticed the Biden administration cease on a dime after the primary Trump administration left workplace,” Kidd stated.
The regulation had been transferring by way of the Division of Well being and Human Companies, “however for no matter motive, the Biden administration stopped it and it didn’t transfer ahead for 4 years,” Kidd stated.
Discovering one other route
A conventional rulemaking to attain hair testing is just not seemingly, Kidd stated. “I feel now we have to search out one other method,” he added. There are “another ways in which we’re and into consideration that may give the FMCSA the flexibility to go forward and acknowledge hair testing in the present day.” A method to get that applied is predicted to be disclosed by the Trucking Alliance within the coming weeks and months.
One important security reform the Trucking Alliance backed totally was the institution of the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, the vault of names figuring out drivers who’ve failed drug or alcohol assessments. Woodruff described it as “massively profitable.”
“It has recognized drug and alcohol use and it has taken these drivers out of service till such time as they undergo the substance abuse {and professional} necessities to return to a security delicate job,” Woodruff stated.
However returning to the Alliance’s constant theme, its lack of hair testing means the Clearinghouse is “poor.”
coaching faculties
One other space of reform the Trucking Alliance seeks that may have an effect on drivers themselves is tighter regulation of driver coaching faculties.
Within the white paper the Alliance produced along with its checklist of targets, it stated “probably the most persistent criticism of truck driver coaching faculties is that many colleges prioritize velocity and revenue over security, producing graduates who’ve solely the naked minimal abilities obligatory to acquire a CDL. This may pose a danger to public security and units new drivers up for failure of their careers. The core difficulty stems from faculties which have a brief curriculum, slightly than a complete security training.”
Kidd stated an initiative by DOT’s Duffy would “revoke the privileges of about 3,000 faculties as a result of it regarded like they weren’t performing as they need to have been.” The tip consequence, he predicted, could be “a greater curriculum and a extra strong coaching system on the faculties.”
Trying over the sweep of the proposals being made by the Trucking Alliance, Woodruff stated the priorities had been “aspirational, they usually’re not going to be solved shortly.”
“We’ve received to construct consensus inside the trade and with the regulators,” he stated. “There could also be some laws required. So there’s quite a lot of heavy lifting right here to get issues completed, and we’re dedicated to that.”
Extra articles by John Kingston
5 State of Freight takeaways: tighter market is holding
Louisiana staged truck accident indictment widens as trials and sentencings loom
In Flowers Meals drivers’ case, worker arbitration vs. litigation difficulty can’t be neglected
The publish Trucking Alliance’s security agenda 1: reforms that hit the motive force cab first appeared first on BigRig.