Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/252139
country at large. Therefore, most regulations simply are not needed and counterproductive. No, counter the Democrats. Businesses are all about making money and maximizing profits. To do that, busi- nesses can't be trusted to act in the public good; they'll naturally take shortcuts in safety or the environment – or screw their workers – in order to bring as much money as possible to the bottom line. So we need to put some rules in place and force them to act responsibly. When you look at those two simplified arguments, it's easy to see why a majority of truckers are attracted to the Republican Party. But here's the thing: After objectively observing this industry for almost two decades now, I have concluded that it really doesn't matter which party is in power. Trucking, as far as I can see, never catches a break on the regulatory front. Case in point: I re- member in 2000 after George W. Bush was elected president, several industry in- siders told me how happy they were to hear this because, they assured me, there was no way this administration was going to enforce the dreaded and hated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emis- sions regulations cooked up during the Clinton administra- tion. Those regulations – which seemed impossible to meet at the time – soon would be dead and gone, or at least curtailed severely to be much friendlier to fleets and F leet executives, fleet managers and truck driv- ers – really almost anybody connected to the trucking industry – tends to be conservative in nature. Naturally, an intense dislike of our current president and the Democratic Party are Standard Operating Procedure at any gathering of truckers these days. There are many reasons for this polarization, but when you boil things down to their very essence, the number one reason truckers dislike Democrats and the president seems to be one thing: regulations. There's no denying that the Democratic Party is far more regulation-friendly than the Republicans in most areas. We're seeing multiple examples of this in today's national discourse in the debates over health care, the minimum wage, banking and financial oversight and fracking – just to name a few hot-button topics. The essential argu- ment goes something like this: Republi- cans oppose regula- tions because they place unnecessary burdens on busi- nesses. Besides, capitalism and the invisible hand of the free market will force businesses to act in the best interests of its workers and the The biggest regulatory target in the country 16 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2014 PRODUCT REVIEWS, OEM & SUPPLIER NEWS AND EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT TRENDS BY JACK ROBERTS Trucking an easy mark for politicians to please voters People are afraid of big trucks – and Washington knows it.