VIDEO RELEASE: RegulationNation – Doug’s Story

California Trucking Company Battling Bureaucrats, Red Tape
 
WASHINGTON. D.C. – The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today released “Regulation Nation: Doug’s Story,” a new video in which veteran truck driver Doug Grove – safety director at SanBernardino, CA based Western HiWays – explains how the burdensome rules andregulations government bureaucrats force on small businesses don’t align with the realities of the road.  Doug explains how rules like the Department of Transportation’s Hours of Service regulation jeopardizes more than just the 7 million jobs American trucking supports, it makes survival and hiring harder in an industry responsible for delivering roughly 70% of all goods.

 
“I don’t think they’ve taken time to come out here and see what it’s really like,” Doug Grove said of Washington regulators.  “Every time you go to the store and look on the shelf, don’t even have to be the store, it can be over there in Washington, D.C., the table that they sit at, that had to come in there on a truck.”
 
The Department of Transportation’s Hours of Service regulation is one example of just how detached small business owners believe regulators are from the reality of American job creation.   Intended to protect against drivers operating without enough sleep, the rule doesn’t take into account the realities of actual truck driving.  By mandating a consecutive 14-hour day – 11 actually driving – the rule keeps the clock running even during loading and unloading stops, which often last for hours and provide drivers an opportunity to rest.
 
“You’ve got drivers going into these places to load, and sat eight to ten hours.  That’s on the clock,” Mr. Grove said.  “If they sit there eight hours, they can only drive three hours.  If we didn’t get our mileage in, don’t matter.  Once your 14 hours are up, it’s up.”
 
On top of the 4,257 new federal regulations in the pipeline – 219 of which will carry an annual price tag of $100 million or more – compliance with existing government red tape cost small businesses an average of $10,500 per employee in 2010, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.  
 
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