I Write, You Vote

Midterms Loom - Here is some writing that has landed on their desks - maybe you should scream into the void of Kakistocracy along with me?

As many of us await The Red Wave on Tuesday, where it is expected that The Republican Party is going to re-assert control of the United States House of Representatives, I would like to remind everyone that ‘democracy’, even our defective and emaciated zombie version of it, requires a little more effort than voting.

Subsumed as we are to this Kakistocracy, occasionally opportunities do arise for those of us at the shitty end of the proverbial stick to say what needs to be said to those who need to hear it.

On that note, I would like to share with you two pieces of my writing which have ended up in the highest halls of power in the land. Maybe they were ignored, maybe they were considered, maybe not much was accomplished, at all, BUT, they had to see what I said, and for a millisecond, I had entered their consciousness and temporarily fanned out the jenkem which normally poisons their minds.


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In 2018, on a Twitter account which may yet be resurrected by Comrade Musk, I had gained as a follower the Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie.

Believe it or not, Congressman Massie saw what I was saying about the trucking industry, and specifically my critiques of the then newly enforced ELD Mandate.
He was on the house Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and one of the questions they were investigating was the effects of this new mandate. Of course the FMCSA, being staffed by a caste of overly credentialed Nerds who imposed this on us with no consideration for reality, had created a monster; to his credit, Congressman Massie wanted some input on this from an actual trucker. He asked me to submit a letter to the committee, which I did.

The sad part of the story is that this all took place right along with 2018 midterms, and this particular question was scuttled; though, on the bright side, the FMCSA did alter HOS rules not long after, and gave truckers some wiggle room. The Palantir is still required, however, and I will not rest until the mandate is crushed.

Here, in full, is the letter I submitted to the Congressman -

To the Distinguished Members of The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee:

My name is ____________, a resident of the Town of __________, in Upstate New York.  I write you in regards to House Resolution 6159, https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr6159/BILLS-115hr6159ih.xml, specifically in regards to section 1 paragraph 1, which states - (1) conduct a study to determine how many "employees" (as defined by section 31132 of title 49, United States Code) who must comply with the electronic logging device requirements issued pursuant to section 31137(a) of title 49, United States Code, have ceased being operators of a "commercial motor vehicle" (as defined by section 31132 of such title) as a result of such requirements; 

As one of those employees who have ceased being an operator of a commercial vehicle, almost exclusively due to the ELD mandate, I would like to put forth my experiences and observations as part of your study.

First, allow me to provide some relevant background information on myself and the unique experiences I have in the trucking business, and some suggested reading relevant to my experience. 

My background in trucking goes back many years; my grandfather was a mechanic and driver starting in the late 1950's, employing his experiences as a platoon sergeant in the Canadian Military, where he was an operator and mechanic of Sherman tanks in both the European and Asian theatres of WW2. My father and both of his brothers lived and breathed trucking as children; my father still drives for a living, my late uncle Bruce owned and operated logging trucks, and my uncle Chris gradually moved from being a driver to a manager, and later started one of the biggest third party logistics providers in Ontario.  I worked for a trucking company in Hamilton, Ontario during evenings and weekends while in High School, and in fact obtained my CDL before completing the twelfth grade at age 18. 

In the 21 years since I began my career, I have driven large commercial vehicles, including B-trains, turnpike doubles, logging trucks, and triple road trains.  I have hauled nearly every commodity imaginable, in all 48 contiguous United States, every province and territory in Canada, throughout Western Australia, and in the north island of New Zealand.  For those interested, the travel and geography website, Atlas Obscura, conducted an interview with me about my experiences, which can be viewed here - https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/exit-interview-i-spent-20-years-behind-the-wheel-of-a-big-rig.  As you may imagine, I have enjoyed the freedom and independence offered from trucking, the agency to make my own schedule, not beholden to a boss in my face every day.   The ELD mandate, as you will hear, has removed that agency and very much made 'The Boss' an unwanted rider in my truck.

Since the implementation of the ELD mandate, truckers like me have been presented with many adverse situations, lost revenue, and various unnecessary constraints in our day to day lives, including the following:

- Being unable to make it all the way home after a long week, or many weeks on the road.  Many trucking companies do not have the ability to make contingencies for drivers who run out of time within reasonable driving distances of home, especially if the company they work for is based in another part of the country.  Typically this 'problem' was solved through paper log adjustments after the fact, which, though illegal, had been standard industry practice.

- As some on the committee are aware, parking is a major issue facing truckers, especially in certain areas and corridors, such as DC-Boston, Chicagoland, and Los Angeles, amongst many others.  As the ELD is tracking every minute of our operations and recording 'infractions' for later billing by Law Enforcement, many drivers have to make the choice to curtail their days far earlier than normal in order to find parking, which cuts into revenue generating time and hampers route planning and pick-up/delivery schedules.

- The ELD mandate necessarily exacerbates the ability to comply with Federal Hours-Of-Service (HOS) Rules, which are also problematic and unnecessarily constrain the ability to plan our days and work around the vagaries of life on the road.

- The ELD mandate prevents truckers from following their own unique physical rhythms, and compels drivers to ignore the needs of their body to instead follow the dictates of the clock as enforced by the ELD.  I like to take naps as required, and don't need the 10 continuous hours off that the FMCSA mandates we must have every day.  I and many others get by on 6-7 hours of sleep a night.  Another consideration is where we run out of time; if there are no facilities nearby, nor anywhere to eat, a 10 hour vacation in the middle of nowhere is rather inhumane.

- There have been many requests for exemptions from the mandate, and the HOS rules which the ELD enforces, by various sectors of the trucking business which service different industries with varied requirements not accounted for in the regulations.  When so many industries request exemptions from the rules, it begs the question that perhaps there is something wrong with the rules themselves.

I would beseech the distinguished committee members to consider the 'human element' involved here.  No one likes to be unnecessarily monitored as a requirement of their employment, much less for days and weeks on end; especially so when that employment requires that your workplace physically become your home away from home.

Imagine for yourselves, that due to delays beyond your control, it is a Saturday morning.  You have been away from home for nearly 12 days, and you have only 4 more hours of driving to get home.  The ELD tells you that your HOS only allow 1 more hour of driving.  Your company is based in another state, their nearest terminal is hundreds of miles away, and they are in no position to make other arrangements for you.  Must you miss a weekend with your family and friends after nearly two weeks on the road for the sake of 3 hours?  What if you decide to drive those three hours anyways?  The ELD has made a permanent recording of the violation regardless of whether you are caught.  The DOT, during a standard carrier audit, can easily find this, months after the fact, and then issue a fine; usually to the tune of many hundreds of dollars, something most drivers trying to get by can ill afford.  

Imagine, once more, that you have been held up at a customers loading dock for most of the day.  As they did not get you loaded until 4pm, you will be stuck in metropolitan rush hour traffic.  If you keep the truck parked at the customer until after peak traffic, as many drivers would have done before the implementation of ELDs, you will be deducted all of this time from your available driving time, per HOS rules.  You are now incentivized to drive in heavy traffic, exposing yourself to higher risk of accident, and further contributing to congestion, because the ELD clock is ticking, and you will lose available productive driving time otherwise. 

Many would say that it is Unamerican to have the government intrude so deeply into the daily activities of someone simply going about their business.  It also begs the question, is this mandate in contravention of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search, in so far as that it enforces a government 'search' on your every move?  For most long haul truckers, our trucks are virtually our homes.  Would you allow a government tracking device into your home? 

The FMCSA would claim that we must have this mandate to improve safety on the roads, but this completely ignores that car drivers are considered at fault for 71% of fatal collisions between big trucks and cars, and are 10% partly at fault for same, as cited in this report by The American Trucking Association:  

https://www.trucking.org/ATA%20Docs/News%20and%20Information/Reports%20Trends%20and%20Statistics/02%2012%2013%20--%20FINAL%202013%20Car-Truck%20Fault%20Paper.pdf

One must also look to the experiences of other countries who have similar levels of truck traffic and similar modern highway infrastructure.  Canada has yet to implement their own ELD mandate, though one is planned to become law in 2019.  Controlling for population, Canada has fewer truck related crashes and fatalities, despite having longer and heavier trucks, farther distances between major cities, much more inclement weather, far more two lane roads, and HOS allowing 13 hours of driving per day in a 16 hour window, rather than 11 and 14 here in the United States.   Australia and New Zealand have similar statistics, and also have far more flexibility built into their HOS regulations.   New Zealand has only two lines in their paper log books and allow for up to 13 hours of driving per day.  From my personal experience, their terrain and roads are much more difficult to navigate than in America, yet they also do not have the level and number of problems seen on the roads here.

For a comparison between America and other countries commercial vehicle accident statistics, look here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103211/

It strikes me that there are other factors causing America's road safety problems, and these factors haven't much to do with trucks and the people who drive them.  Of the problems that are caused by trucks, the issues are much more complex than simple fatigue.  Many problems caused by drivers owe to a lack of experience.  As a consequence of the extremely high turnover rates at many carriers, there are a very high number of newly hired drivers on the roads.  Often, these new drivers undergo only minimal training regimens, which are driven by those same carriers, and are mostly inadequate in offering enough experience to prevent the problems the ELD mandate seeks to correct for.   These truck driving schools and training regimens are also subsidized to the hilt by various state and local governments in the name of 'jobs', but overlook the impact undertraining has on public safety.  It cannot be stressed enough that the ELD mandate will exacerbate the turnover problem, in causing experienced professionals such as myself, with many years of experience, to quit, and thus necessitate putting many more unexperienced drivers on the road.

Many of the problems identified in this submission have been extensively examined in Penn State Sociology Professor Steve Viscelli's book, The Big Rig, ISBN: 9780520278127,    https://www.steveviscelli.com/book.  I would advise those members of the committee to avail themselves of Professor Viscelli's book, written over 10 years of study, as it contains very valuable insights into how the American Trucking Industry operates and is regulated.   In addition, it discusses the impact of regulations, and the influence of large legacy carriers, and how they are antagonistic towards driver respect, driver agency, and concern for the motoring public.

In conclusion, as a man of honor, skill, and many years of experience, I resent with great conviction the notion that I must have my privacy and professionalism undermined by a government mandated tracking device. There is no evidence that this sacrifice on the part of millions of drivers is necessary, nor is it likely to produce the objective results the government claims it desires.  To my knowledge, no studies were undertaken by the FMCSA to justify the mandate.  It is quite the example of how the government operates, however, that the FMCSA has just concluded a country wide tour seeking input from drivers on how the mandate effects them, nearly a year after the mandate became law.  Imagine if they would have done that beforehand.  

My many years of experience operating in other countries, which have much more reasonable regulatory frameworks, tell me that the infantilization of truck drivers in America is completely unnecessary.  This mandate is nothing less than the imposition of a virtual DOT officer as passenger to every truck driver in America.  In essence, it appears to be a form of government social signaling, allowing the FMCSA to erroneously claim to the public that it is solving a problem which does not exist, while effectively guaranteeing that far fewer experienced drivers will remain behind the wheel.   I vehemently refuse to continue driving professionally while this mandate is law, and as such, my family is taking a major financial hit while I work at a much lower paying job, and the motoring public is denied a safe and professional operator whom has never been involved in a collision.  Thank you for your time and due consideration.

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Let’s fast forward to the years of Wuhan Plague, and turn our attention this time to a Think Tank, a rare species of Think Tank, whose project can best be described as advocating for the working class from a conservative perspective.

They are called American Compass, and are headed by a fellow named Oren Cass.

American Compass launched a project called The Edgerton Essays -

The Edgerton Essays are a joint project of American Compass and the Ethics and Public Policy Center, featuring working-class Americans sharing their perspectives on what they wish policymakers knew about the challenges facing their families and communities. The goal of the essays goal is to help inform policymakers and pundits about what matters most and why to the vast majority of Americans who have no day-to-day connection to our political debates, focusing especially on those who have not earned a college degree.

They very graciously hosted an essay by yours truly, which was put together with dozens of other essays by working class Americans, and printed into a beautiful book which landed on the desk of every member in The House and Senate.

All of this is to say - if you don’t have the ear of Thomas Massie or your own Congressional Representative, there are organizations out there who are doing their best to take on Leviathan for us, and some of them aren’t Fake and Ghey grifters of the NGO/Foundation/Non-Profit Industrial Complex.

Here is my contribution to the Edgerton Essays, titled “How Essential Are The ‘Email Job’ Caste?” reposted from American Compass.

Despite the impact of “Stupid-19,” life rolls on in a very essential fashion for myself and many other workers. In my case, I work in energy distribution, and here in the cold northeast, the “propane must flow” if homes were to be kept warm this past winter, and some level of comfort is to be maintained for those stuck inside from sickness or unemployment.

Many of those “stuck inside,” however, are part of a particular caste that a favored podcaster of mine likes to call those with “e-mail jobs.” Many of them work for various levels of government or as middle managers within every corporation in America. Many, if not most, of these people will never have to work 75 hours a week, drive and/or grind it out in terrible weather conditions, and then get home too late to put their children to bed.

Seventy-five hours a week? No, I’m not making this up. Many people working in essential services such as utilities maintenance or trucking regularly put in this kind of time. Thanks to the “COVID Emergency,” many trucking operations have been granted Hours-Of-Service waivers which allow their drivers to exceed legislated maximum working hours. Sometimes this might be necessary; often it is not. But you’ll never catch the “e-mail job” caste pulling 75-hour weeks. In fact, they often use tools such as these waivers to cover for their own incompetence and disorganization. As a colleague of mine quipped, “If we can’t get it done today, just blame COVID.”

Well, I’m tired of “blaming COVID” and letting this caste of people off the hook. Everyone knows about billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, and the many deleterious effects their influence has on society. Very little, however, is mentioned (again, save by some podcast hosts) about the more insidious and distributed effects of an entire class of managers who have very real and direct power over the lives of workers.

As others have noted, we don’t have a battle between the 1% and 99% – it’s more like a battle between the 20% and the 80%. Many within that 20% are what author Barbara Ehrenreich describes as the “Professional Managerial Class”: managers and human resources drones who spend much of their time in meetings that produce nothing but policies which paternalize workers and produce no material benefits for us. It is this portion of the 20% that needs their power reckoned with, and reigned in.

Those HR and other middle management types make “busy work” for themselves, though it is darkly ironic that the “busyness” in which they are engaged often results in making my work more difficult and time-consuming. Not to mention that their salaries, which they justify through the busy work, leave less behind for those of us who are actually “doing the work.”

Long before COVID lockdown overreactions were imposed upon us, the more libertarian-minded were already well aware of this dynamic, given our innate skepticism of regulation and observations of reality. Those of us subject to OSHA or the DOT or any number of “Health and Safety” managers have had to work around being treated like children or criminals as a matter of course.

In fact, one of the bright spots of COVID, at least for me, has been a reduction of in-person interactions with many of these management types. My company office hasn’t had a safety meeting in over a year, and I haven’t seen an area manager nor middle manager in the same time. And guess what? The work—the real work—still got done, and despite everything going on, our customers remained warm.

If we are going to have a collective discussion about “the working class,” it might be time to consider keeping these managers and enforcers away from us on a more permanent basis, given that they produce little of value and do not improve our lives in any way. In an economy made increasingly zero-sum by forces beyond our control, those in the “e-mail job” caste are literally taking money out of a pie which would be more deservedly enjoyed by the families who do the actual work.

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Alright, that’s it for now.

On Tuesday, go and vote, and when you are done voting, consider what you see around you, what damage has been foisted upon our society, and the work that needs to be done to repair it all, and say something.

Power concedes nothing without a demand!

Full disclosure - I am but a ‘Permanent Resident’ in these here wonderful United States, and have no voting rights. If you are one of those people who for whatever reason doesn’t normally vote, or doesn’t vote at all, do me a solid and vote on my behalf - consider a vote cast against your local Covid Regime Enthusiast Congresscritter as a small token of appreciation towards your enjoyment of my writings here.

Thank You.