Truckers are stepping up for America. Now, it's time for America to step up for truckers.

Truckers are stepping up for America. Now, it's time for America to step up for truckers.

Started
April 15, 2020
Petition to
Secretary of Transportation and 1 other
Signatures: 41,366Next Goal: 50,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Small Business in Transportation Coalition

Over the past month, truckers have stepped up for America to ensure the supply chain stays intact during the 2020 COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. They have done so at great personal effort, sacrifice and risk. American citizens, including teenagers and police officers, have, in turn, responded to truckers' plight and have tried to help truckers find food on the road to keep the deliveries coming. The government could be doing so much more --from providing testing locations that accommodate big rig trucks... to distributing masks... to dealing with Mega-brokers who are exploiting independent truckers during this difficult time and causing freight rates to drastically fall.

We, the undersigned Americans, support America's 3.5 million truckers. We hereby petition the Secretary of Transportation to stand down on current public policy plans to replace truckers when this crisis is over by ushering in driverless trucks. That is not the way to #ThankATrucker after all truckers have done for America. We believe this planned obsolescence will not only eliminate driver jobs but will endanger the motoring public. We contend you cannot replace human judgment on the road, which is grounded in empathy, with artificial intelligence and autonomous machines.

We also call for Congress to replace the current Federal motor carrier regulatory model. 

For FY 2019, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requested a $665.80 million budget from Congress, which included $284 million for Motor Carrier Safety Operations and Programs and $381.80 million for Motor Carrier Safety Grants. Over the past 20 years, this agency has been allocated over $5 billion for internal operations.

Here is what American taxpayers have gotten in recent years for their money:

*The 2018 Large Truck Occupant Highway Fatality Rate is at a 30-year high in the immediate aftermath of the onset of Electronic Logging Devices. Because truckers are regulated by the clock and paid by the mile Big Trucking induces truckers to speed to maximize productivity. Drivers should be paid a base salary plus performance incentives so they are not working under stress to avoid starvation.

*When you do the math, 2.4 occupants of large trucks died every single day in 2018.

*In 2017, 4,889 large trucks and buses were involved in fatal crashes, a 9-percent increase from 2016 (this has now been skewed to lower the percentage to 4.9% by removing certain vehicles, which, when combined with trailers still constitute a commercial motor vehicle over 10,000 lbs).**

*The number of large trucks and buses in fatal crashes has increased by 42 percent from its low of 3,432 in 2009.**

*From 2016 to 2017, large truck and bus fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by all motor vehicles increased by 6.8 percent, from 0.146 to 0.156.**

*There was a 40-percent increase in the number of fatal crashes involving large trucks or buses between 2009 and 2017. **

*From 2016 to 2017, the number of fatal crashes involving large trucks or buses increased by 8 percent.** 

*The number of injury crashes involving large trucks or buses increased 62% from 2009 to 2015.**

*From 2016 to 2017, according to NHTSA's CRSS data, large truck and bus injury crashes increased 4 percent (from 112,000 in 2016 to 116,000 in 2017).** 

*From 2016 to 2017 the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes increased 10 percent, from 4,251 to 4,657, and the large truck involvement rate (large trucks involved in fatal crashes per 100 million miles traveled by large trucks) increased 6 percent, from 1.48 to 1.56. The number of large trucks involved in injury crashes increased by 5 percent, from 102,000 to 107,000. The number of large trucks involved in property damage only crashes increased by 3 percent, from 351,000 to 363,000. The number of buses involved in fatal crashes decreased from 234 to 232, a decrease a mere 1 percent.**

**SOURCE: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/safety/data-and-statistics/461861/ltcbf-2017-final-5-6-2019.pdf

We now call on Congress to #SaveTruckers and specifically provide an economic stimulus package to #SaveSmallBusinessTruckers who are now on the verge of going out-of-business. Without same, America's supply chain will suffer a terrible capacity crisis when manufacturing spontaneously returns to full force and there are no longer sufficient trucks to service our supply needs. 

Please save America's truckers from extinction and #MakeTheRoadsSafeAgain.

MEDIA CONTACT: James@truckers.com

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Signatures: 41,366Next Goal: 50,000
Support now
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