Truckload Carriers Association President Jim Ward wasn’t particularly surprised by the heated commentary his members shared with an Environmental Protection Agency official about emissions regulations during last week’s Fall Business Meeting.
Ward characterized the carrier executives’ remarks to Deputy Assistant Administrator Alejandra Nunez as a continuation of the ongoing dialogue the association has been having with its members.
“Everybody wants clean water and clean air,” Ward said. “I don't know any member of ours that doesn’t want to be a good steward of the environment. The fact of the matter is, we want them to be able to make sure that, as we're on this journey, let's look at all the potential alternatives that are available.”
Concerns about EVs, truck parking and independent contractor law dominated conversations at the TCA’s business meeting and Call on Washington last week, Ward told Trucking Dive in an interview.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
TRUCKING DIVE: What were your main takeaways from the Fall Business Meeting?
TCA PRESIDENT JIM WARD: I think it was probably one of our better meetings. I heard that from a number of members in attendance, just due to the lineup that we had, starting with our Fall Business Meeting on the 11th, then flowing over into our Call on Washington on the 12th. Anytime when you bring in other associations, government affairs people — like we did on our panel, the National Industrial Transportation League, Transportation Intermediaries Association and Retail Industry Leaders Association — and get to hear their perspective, it is amazing how where we align on a lot of key issues that I think we can collaborate on to keep them front and center.
On Capitol Hill, the representatives that we had come in and speak with our group, I thought were very enlightening, starting with Senator Boozman at lunch on the Fall Business Meeting. Then, Alejandra Nunez, the deputy assistant administrator for EPA, did a great job sharing with our group as to how EPA is continuing to look at and speak with members of the industry, and is open to speaking with members of the industry about the way they're looking at their continued path forward. I thought our members provided some some great feedback and asked some great questions. And I was really encouraged to see the notes she was taking.
The Call on Washington day, again, when you have 100 meetings with representatives and their staffers, that's a big deal. So the preparation for that was the Fall Business Meeting the day before, and the topics that we covered set the tone for the next day.
We’ve reported TCA lobbied lawmakers for truck parking funding. What are the prospects in an election year?
We have a lot of representatives that signed on to the bill, and so we continue our ask. It’s probably going to move forward with a continuing resolution. That’ll probably kick us down the road — and I imagine it'll be clean; I'll be shocked if there's anything attached to it. There's conversation going on right now about potential add-ons to it, but I'll be surprised. I think the last four or five have been clean. I assume this will be clean, and we’ll move into authorization in December.
I just don't expect anything to happen to any type of continuing resolution right now. But I tell you, it is a bipartisan issue on Capitol Hill. We continue to educate representatives on the issue and how important it is, especially as we're trying to transition to more minority drivers. Having well-lit, safe parking, with adequate amenities is really important.
When you're in these closed-door meetings with members, what sentiments are they sharing?
One of the big disruptors that everybody's looking at right now — and it was basically a topic in every meeting that we were in — is this shift to electrification and zero emission vehicles, and the concern associated with it, with range and weight and fueling, and charging, the infrastructure that's needed right now. It really is a concern for a lot of the carriers, no matter what size they are.
Do your members feel the freight markets improving, or anything else that you think is relevant to share?
I heard in the conversations I was in that they’ve started to see what I would call some green shoots of opportunity. But very, very minimal at this particular point in time. All are hopeful — and have been for quite some time.
That being said, I would just tell you that the other issue that I heard time and time again was this independent contractor model. There's a lot of concern by a lot of our members that use the independent contractor model to run their business, or may have founded their business under the independent contractor model, who are very concerned about what this might look like going forward, if it continues under attack.
