OTA Dispatch Issue 3, 2020

4 Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch FROM THE PRESIDENT Jana Jarvis OTA President/CEO WE ARE NOW into the sixth month of COVID restrictions that have impacted every aspect of our professional and personal lives. As the pandemic began, trucking was called upon to deliver the essential goods that everyone rushed out to buy. Business volumes peaked in March, but quickly dropped to recession levels by mid-April. Our nation’s best economy on record fell into the deepest, shortest recession in history by declining 32.9% in the second quarter with the steepest pace of job losses since the Great Depression. Federal stimulus dollars helped to shore up the economy and by June consumer spending was back up to 93% of January levels; however, the economy has only regained 9.3 million of the 22 million jobs lost the previous three months. By the middle of May, we began to open the state. Counties outside of the tri-county area moved into Phase 1 and then shortly into Phase 2, while the Portland metropolitan area stayed mired in Phase 1 restrictions. Numerous warnings cautioned Oregonians to treat the virus seriously to avoid an increased infection rate, but summer came and with it the celebration of graduations, weddings, and family gatherings that quickly increased the virus spread. And then the restrictions tightened, and new guidance came that masks were necessary everywhere—both indoors and outdoors—and gathering sizes were restricted, impacting churches, events, and summer fun. As a result of these early restrictions, we had already moved our TMC Maintenance Fair to late September and our Safety Conference to early October, but we hoped that August would bring improvements that would allow us to host our Annual Convention in Bend. Unfortunately, the infection rate kept climbing, leading to additional group gathering restrictions that have forced us to move this event to November. And, in these “dog days of summer,” I can’t see clearly when all of this will end. We have our hopes pinned on a vaccine, but it will take months to manufacture, distribute, and apply this vaccine across the world’s population. Some of our members, UPS and FedEx to name two, are building freezer farms to store and distribute this In spite of the danger of infection and civil unrest, drivers move goods to stores, homes, and businesses. miraculous vaccine when it becomes available. Significant investment in these facilities that can refrigerate to minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit is part of the distribution plan but, uncertainty surrounds who will get access to the vaccine first—much less the cost involved. And over all of this coronavirus chaos, we have massive political unrest. Portland is featured daily in the national and international news as a center of riots, damage, and destruction in the name of equality and social justice. Portions of downtown Portland look like a war zone—a war that happens nightly. Other cities have experienced this unrest as well, putting our drivers at risk as they work to deliver the goods that everyone needs. As if exposure to the virus wasn’t enough to worry about, drivers run the risk of physical assault when they enter these areas of unrest. Yet…trucking keeps on moving. In spite of the danger of infection and civil unrest, drivers move goods to stores, homes, and businesses. Technicians show up to keep those trucks moving, and office personnel show up to direct where those trucks are headed. As an industry, trucking simply shows up. And, as seems to be the theme these days, politics is in the mix to further influence how this pandemic and the social unrest will play out. In Oregon, we had our second special session this summer with no public input other than “invited testimony.” Decisions in how to cut state budgets, get unemployment benefits to thousands of workers, and change policing standards happened in the dark of night. Most legislators, both Republicans and Democrats, were unable to see the details of what was being proposed until the last minute. Leadership decided that in order to expedite the process they would limit invited testimony and precluded both the public and other elected leaders. Senate President Peter Courtney stated that public testimony would have “to take a back seat” because the issues were so urgent they needed to take action. At the same time, Speaker Tina Kotek blamed the failure of their attempt to push public employees to the front of the unemployment line on Republicans, even though it was a Democrat that cast the deciding vote to oppose. With the Capitol closed to the public it was anything but a transparent process.