OTA Dispatch Issue 2 2020

WHO WOULD EVER have thought that we’d be attending Easter services this year watching familiar yet “socially separated” faces on YouTube? And, when else have we stopped and given thought to whether or not we really “needed” something badly enough to risk venturing out of our homes and taking a chance at contagion with a virus that seemingly holds the power of life and death? Life has certainly taken an unexpected turn amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It originated on a distant shore yet in a world drawn closer through abundant air travel it made a beachhead in several key cities and spread from them to impact all fifty states in America. Indeed, the entire world has been touched to a greater or lesser extent and we all await word from informed sources that the disease process has crested, and we are heading down the back side of the wave towards normalcy. How long we’ll wait is anybody’s guess. But while we wait, we certainly have had to realign our lives. In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or changing the linear order of an ordered set. That seems to describe what we have all been doing. No more do we routinely get up, get dressed, go to work, eat in restaurants, meet with people, conduct sales, go to church, shop in grocery stores, etc. as we have all been accustomed. Instead, our life has been re-ordered as “non-essential” businesses have been shuttered. Some of us have been laid off or told to work from home, while others continue to work outside our home but only after adopting a new set of guidelines that have resulted in a new awareness of “social distancing,” “personal protective equipment,” and perhaps a new appreciation for disinfectant spray and wipes. As I ponder all that I have seen discussed ad nauseum on local and national television news shows and splattered across the front pages of digital newspapers one thing comes into a rather clear focus. There has been a visible metamorphosis of the relative appreciation individual Americans have for truck drivers and trucking in general and deservedly so. In my regulatory experience I have more often than not had to field complaints from citizens and special interest lobbies that lament that trucks are not ecologically friendly, are not wanted on main streets of towns that have sprung up along what were originally lonely highways, interfere with bicycle and pedestrian traffic, deter the ability to build pretty streetscapes with overarching trees, pedestrian refuges, and bicycle lanes, are too noisy with their exhaust brakes, and difficult to travel alongside on freeways just to name a few of the complaints from the public. In this crisis, how many of us have witnessed the specter of empty grocery shelves or understood that manufacturing facilities lacked raw materials from which to create the important things in our lives (think of toilet paper)? Who brings those groceries to be found on our store shelves? Who delivers those raw materials from which the things we desperately need, or desire, are made? Yes, it is the commonly disdained truck driver who keeps the engine of the American lifestyle revving. And, when the going gets tough it is universally understood that it is trucking that offers the prospect of returning us to a resemblance of more normal times. Trucking keeps America moving. In order to ensure that this can occur, efforts must be made by government and regulators to keep trucking moving. Indeed, such efforts have been made; however, I can’t help but wonder how long the public appreciation for trucking will remain after this crisis is behind us and everyone falls back into their comfortable old routine of expressing a “not in my backyard” attitude towards trucks and trucking. Shortly after 9/11, church attendance skyrocketed as Americans sought security and answers. After things calmed down, church attendance fell back to previous levels as God was no longer needed and placed back on the shelf until needed again. Will the current appreciation for truckers delivering the necessities of life to us dissipate in similar manner until the next time we have a public crisis requiring their support? Will governmental and regulatory discretion to allow trucking to operate without unnecessary shackles carry forward or will the rubber band snap back? Will the prosecutorial discretion that allowed efficient truck operation without negative public impact evaporate once the crisis is over and allow the emergence of overzealous roadside officials? Will there be any scrutiny and evaluation of relaxed regulations that worked well without adverse public impact? Can we take the time to memorialize the lessons that have been learned? In my experience, the proper response to any emergency requires immediate establishment of effective (recognized) command and control, clear communication, and a willingness to think outside the box. In the present instance each of these was implemented less than optimally. The trucking industry is truly grateful for the work done by all involved; however, there seemed at the outset to be some level of confusion about who was to do what regarding the declaration of an emergency. Precious time was lost as REGULATORY COMPLIANCE Pandemic Ponderings and Permutations By Gregg Dal Ponte, OTA’s Director of Regulatory Compliance Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch 8