James Jailet has a great article up at CCJ. In the article, Jailet quotes Joe Rajkovacz of the Western States Trucking Association (WSTA) who says that drivers for small trucking companies and/or owner-operators need to do more than “just say no” to every safety-compliance initiative that comes up. His comments were brought about because of the “Beyond Compliance” initiatives put forth by the FMCSA favor bigger companies and their built in scalable advantages.
John Maxwell, a leadership author and coach, frequently talks about how any idiot can point out a problem. But it takes talent and intelligence to bring solutions to the problems. In fact he doesn’t allow his team to bring problems to his attention unless they also bring potential solutions.
As drivers, brokers, logistics professionals, we are the experts in the industry. We need to follow Maxwell’s philosophy and lead in the area; we need to bring our expertise to the table; we need to bring problem-solving solutions to the public and to organizations like FMCSA.
Like it or not, erroneous or not, to a lot of Americans, the trucking industry is dangerous. And if that perception is going to change we need to help change it by one, educating the general public about how safe we are, and two, helping to further advance – not stand in the way of – greater safety-promoting regulations and/or technology.
Thanks for reading.