Posted on Apr 28, 2008 - 11:54am by Mark Spearman in Trucking
I remember first hearing about the ATA in truck driving school. The instructor told us that they were for trucking companies, not drivers. I just forgot about them as I thought he was just saying that’s an associations for owners. Then I noticed all large companies are members. Then I noticed any company associated with them destroyed many careers and always had a bad reputation. Now I was starting to dislike them.
I have been learning more and more about them as I try to figure out what drives the industry to support legislation that is harmful to it’s own well being. The trucking industry seems to me like child that will beat it’s head on the floor when it’s mad. The more I learn about what drives the poor legislation, the more I uncover about the ATA. Bad things, like speed governers and DAC, just seem to point to the American Trucking Assocation everytime. Most truckers are well aware that the ATA is bad for the industry, but I don’t think we all understand the extent.
First and foremost, it’s ran by a pure politician, CEO Bill Graves. The guy’ has important guy hair and all, but does he know trucking? Alright, the hair thing is a cheap shot, but how many trucks has the leader of the self-proclaimed “association with the most clout” driven? He’s got a hell of a record for human resource management, but its the American Trucking Association, not so much need for HR guy to solve the companies trucking ills. Would an HR person be happy that a trucker was involved in legislation concerning Human Resources?
Their Chairman is Ray Kuntz, a freight broker. That’s right, a broker. Need I say more?
The ATA puts the impression out that it represents truckers. It never says that, but it implies it. Members of the non-trucking public and government would be easily confused by their statements. An individual who does not own a truck is not welcome in this club, but anyone else connected to trucking is. The dues for membership are based on the gross revenue of the company that is a member. I would assume, the larger the carrier, the more you pay, therefore the more influence the company has with the association.
Along with this false impression, they put out obviously slanted statistics that it presents to the government as fact. They do this with very little opposition. The driver shortage is their most obvious misuse of statistical information.
It appears to me that the ATA are the go-to people for Washington when it comes to transportation. When the government wants to know what to do with transportation in the case of a disaster or pandemic, they are working with other politicians, brokers, shippers, and receivers that are connected to the ATA to create policies. Do you think any of those people care about the well-being of the driver during a crisis?
I would encourage anyone to visit the ATA’s website. You will be enlightened when you learn everything that they are involved in. Everything from labor laws to getting free money from the government for wasteful and ineffective efforts like “Highway Watch”. Highway Watch is a program that took a large amount of government funds to train truckers to look for security problems on the highways. It’s turned out to be a farce where the give you free DVD’s and pens to claim they trained a person.
They do benefit the trucking industry in some legal efforts. Lawsuits from crashes, tax law, and shipping disputes have set precedents that benefit the entire industry. They maintain a high level of watch on these topics because it benefits the entire industry.
They highly support the DAC service. If you have a problem with one ATA company, forget all of them. They will blackball you with inaccurate reports that only a paid lawyer can get removed.
For a chuckle, you can go to their job board at Get Trucking. There are many jobs posted there, however it is the same job for the same company posted many times.
It is important to watch what happens with the ATA. You can bet, it they are involved, it is not going to be in the interest of the driver. You can watch their website and create a Google news alert to keep an eye on them.
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I’ve never been able to find a complete listing of all ATA members, but it’s always been my understanding that there were major shippers, financing folk, lawyers for shippers, etc as members. The ATA is a group trying to impact legislation to the benefit of all of these groups. Because of the shipper involvement (I’m talking people like Wal-mart, Proctor & Gamble, International Paper, Automakers, etc), they work out legislative recommentations geared to benefit their favorite shippers, their insurance carriers and themselves. The drivers arent part of the process and alway, ALWAYS get burned by the ATA.
Watch any legislation, debate, media report: they always say, “truckers report”, and they mean the ATA. The fact that the ATA ISNT ‘truckers, but big corporate owners and stockholders is a message we need to get across to Congress and the news madia. The same way the ’strikes’ are finally getting the message across about the fuel surcharge needs to happen with the ATA. Last I heard DAC actually is now housed in their new headquarters near Washington-essentially, the ATA is DAC.
You can learn alot from the ATA home page.One of the things that’s very telling is the item on the left-hand side about the drivers health survey teleconference. The ATRI they refer to is the ATA’s ‘research arm’-and gets all kinds of government funding for their ‘unbiased’ research. Looks like they intend to get the contract from the NIOSH for the ATRI. The info about the teleconference says they want people to be involved in deciding what results show based on the members’ interests-you’d better believe this is another ATA call to action to make sure no real critical information gets included that might make them liable to improve working conditions! The exact quote is: “It is critical that motor carriers participate in the design of this survey so that the questions are useful to the industry in addressing driver health,” said Scott Mugno, Managing Director of Corporate Safety for FedEx Express”. Perhaps OOIDA and other groups should also demand input. It could get interesting.
As a company driver, I’ve seen these self-serving surveys many times-they never address real issues and amount to ‘push-polling’ to get the answer they want.
I guess anybody with their own authority could be considered a motor carrier for purposes of signing up for the teleconference. I sure hope some of you guys sign on to this conference, record it and report back what goes down-it could be very enlightening. Record it if possible-I’m sure we’d all like to know what they’re up to. . .another BMI/sleep apnea requirement or another hypertension change? It will be all about cutting their liability or transferring it to the individual drivers-it always is. Eventually, I fully expect them to get some kind of legislation that says they can only keep a driver for less than seven years due to health considerations-and that they have to be paid minimum wage to keep them from over-eating and thus damaging their health-lol.
You are very right. The general consensus I had before visiting their website was that they just “for” the trucking companies. I didn’t realize they were so against the driver. They’re not just for the trucking companies either, they’re for anyone that can profit from abusing a driver.
The physical requirements put in place with most input coming from the ATA is a prime example. Do they want to solve the problem that is largely induced by the very nature of the job that they profit from? All I’ve ever seen is a few pamphlets stating the obvious. Yes, obesity is largely controlled by the individual, but trucking places us in a very difficult environment to maintain our health. What other industry could weed out their fat people with legislation? The ATA companies want to use you up until your health diminishes to the point that you are a liability, then legally fire you for health reasons. Obesity and related problems are just one small example of how they promote legislation against us.
The fact that they pose as driver representatives really irritates me. They’ve got the bucks, so the media is going to buddy up to them too. OOIDA’s influence is laughable at best up against the ATA.
The ATA ’s alternate meaning is Anti Trucker Association?
I guess truckers should make a group for ourselves called the Brokers, Receivers, and Shippers of America. B.R.A.S. We could come up with all sorts of legislation against that side of the industry that would actually benefit truckers.
No, folks would mistake us for a bunch of boobs doing something like that.
I’ll ignore that one-lol! I’ve been thinking about PETT instead of PETA-People for The Ethical Treatment of Truckers! Maybe we could incorporate as a 501(c)3 and might actually get some environmentalist/tree-hugger/chicken kissin’ cash donations! We could apply for some of those grants.
I’ve been gathering info on this mess for years, Mark. Because its a forbidden subject, no newer driver ever hears about it. But, after 18 yrs on the road, I know nearly all of my friends-long-haulers, that is-have problems that can be directly related to the job. And most of them cant get any help-or any true redress. I believe the reason most carriers have such pathetic health benefits is because they dont intend to keep you till the wear and tear becomes obvious. They intend for you to get on down the road to the next company before you end up in traction. There’s a reason trucking has the highest injury rate of any career.
In about 2001, the ATRI did a study nobody can get their hands on (it’s not on their publically-available research page that I can find-but I found the notes on a 2003 workshop website Michael Belzer put on that laid it out pretty well) that said that injury claims occurred mostly to drivers over 50 and/or after they had been driving seven years or more. Immediately after that study, my carrier started starving out all their older drivers. At the same time, they courted AARP-and got an award for hiring older drivers-seems a ‘new’ old driver isnt nearly the injury threat of an ‘old’ old driver-and keeps them from age discrimination lawsuits.I managed to get thru the first couple of rounds of terminations probably only because I’m female-and they know I document EVERYTHING! So I, and all the other long-term drivers limp around with numb legs and serious back pain, neck injuries,high blood pressure, vision going bad, sleep disturbances,irregular heartbeat, carpal tunnel, IBS-and still manage to get the job done. If you report in sick for any of it, they will try to make you out as defrauding comp and will terminate you at the earliest possible minute. They even keep physical therapists on staff at all the big terminals and you’re supposed to go to them to report any problems (only an idiot would tell them anything as the company pays them and under HiPPA, they have access to the information-and you’ll be gone before you end up with a claim).
The whole court order on making the HOS address ‘drivers health’ is getting them worried. There are plenty of studies out of Europe on the damage whole-body vibration will do. The EU is trying to put a 5 to 8 hr a day limit on driving to prevent damage and having one heck of a fight with the trucking companies over there-you simply cant run freight systems the way we do in this world on a 5-hr day. Our Workers Comp system doesnt recognise whole-body vibration as causative to occupational disease and regularly refuses lower back injury as an occupational disease at all-much less some of the other things that seem to be related.
Because it’s length of day exposure, bad roads and cheap seats, irregular working hours, poor food ‘choices’ (we only fuel at Pilot-what does that tell ya about my food choices?), exposure to diesel fumes, loud sleeping environment and stress, we all have health problems that creep up on a driver that runs hard.. There are studies to show that all of these things-including sleep apnea-have causitive factors directly relating to the job. The job has changed considerably since the old Teamster Rules days-anybody remember the “drive two hours, take a break” rule? If you can actually get out and walk around on ground that isnt moving, it helps negate a lot of the effects of WBV.There didnt really used to be long-haul like there has been for the last 25 years-before deregulation, the routes were much shorter-and so was the day. These carriers know this-and they know the eleven-hour day actually made the situation worse. I believe they’re running scared-sooner or later OSHA and ergonomics is going to get a foot in the door then there will be hell to pay. that’s why they NEED to control this study. They can keep blaming it on the drivers and their ‘poor health choices’-and nobody will catch on to the fact they know they’ve used us up and worn us out-and should be liable for the damage they’ve done.
I know there will be a few drivers pop in here and deny they have any of these problems. If they dont-or dont realize they do yet, they’re lucky. But this really needs to be talked about at great length. I told OOIDA a year ago that this sleep apnea thing needed to be jumped on immediately or it wouild end up worse than the drug testing fiasco was when it came in. The didnt believe it then-I think they do now. I think we’d better stick with OOIDA on this one-they’re the only voice that MIGHT be heard in Washington-you know individually, we dont have a voice. Its a good reason to pay them the $40 and join-they more members they represent, the more clout it gives them. It’s a matter of education-I spent an hour yeaterday explaining to my physical therapist exactly what a long-haul driver’s days weeks and years look like-she had no idea and can now understand the damage better. People THINK they know what the job entails-they dont. Most studies use LTL drivers for the study as they’re easier to pin down-but the study ends up skewed because their situation isnt the same.
Since I’m going to be terminated in a couple of weeks as I’m out of leave time and havent even got to surgery yet, I’ll be on the outside for awhile and can jerk every chain I can catch hold of-and I intend to do it. Now, I have all this free time to search the internet-lol!
Well I guess I am out of luck at getting any help with my shoulders as I am out of the over the road driving part. But did you know that one of the most popular injuries is the torn rotator cuff? Its from years of the repetitive motion of the steering wheel. I have tears in both shoulders and have cramps and weakness from over compensating by inadvertantly using more forearm. The surgery recovery is eight weeks with physical therapy. Without short term disability you just have to deal with the pain. There are many drivers out there that have these tears developing and don’t know it yet. If your carrier offers you a decent short term disability insurance you need to get it or look into some on your own. Don’t wait until you need the surgery and now it is a pre-existing condition.
I had AFLAC, Tim- a policy I’ve paid $25/wk on for several years. It was sold to us all with the statement-”this will pay no matter what, right along side Workers Comp or any other insurance!” Guess what-that’s not true! They USED to pay but apparently have changed their policy and dont pay work-related injuries (and I dont have my original brochure after all these years). I had to invoke a congressman and the state’s insurance commission to get it paid. Comp turned me down but AFLAC said if I said it was work-related, no dice. But AFLAC is still selling these policies with the mis-representation that they pay work-related injury. My buddy just ran into a salesman in Oregon last week at a truck stop who was pitching it to a bunch of drivers with the usual spiel. When my buddy jumped in and told them that, no it didnt pay for work-related injuries, the guy was really PO’d. He lost a bunch of customers.
Now, this company sells these policies through workplaces, every ad they have, the damned duck quacks about getting hurt at work-and it doesnt even pay work-related injury. Since we work seven days a week, and have high injury rates, why in the world would we pay over $100/month for something that didnt pay for getting hurt at work? And if I win my Comp lawsuit, I’m supposed to pay them back. I think the whole thing is seriously un-ethical. Seems like everybody thinks truckers are fair game.
I know about the rotator cuff stuff-know several guys that had the problem. It’s pretty common. Dont know what the answer is in your case, though. If you drive company, you can go comp. No way a driver shouldnt have a disability policy-it’s just too risky.
I worked for a health insurance company as a computer programmer for a while, so I got to see the inner-workings of the health insurance insurance at a level nobody should have to see it.
AFLAC had the guts to come into our company to try and sell that crap to us!! The strange thing is that there sales pitch was so good, some people actually bought it. If anybody should have known better it was people in the industry. The stuff is junk insurance and you’re very fortunate to have them pay something. I feel sorry for folks who buy into their old folks home insurance. It’s really going to suck to find out you’re not covered the way you thought after a lifetime of payments to them.
Health insurance has a unique business model. The poorer service you give, the more money you make. If you have millions of dollars worth of claims setting with “problems” that prevent you from paying, you make interest off of that money. Then there’s another twist that applies to many trucking companies that are self-insured. The insurance company administers the claims, but they work with the companies money. So, if the company’s money is setting out in the market instead of paying claims that have “problems”, the company really enjoys the administrators bad service. Moral of the story - self-insured companies are always a bad bet for any type of health coverage.
There are some companies that actually care if you can believe it and they wanted all claims paid on a fair and timely basis. I’ve even seen companies pay claims that they did not need to just out of care for their fellow man! It was rare, but it did happen. Sometimes these payments were outrageously high too.
Another thing I always was amazed at was that certain employees, like upper level management, got special treatment. Usually, they were on a separate and much higher quality set of coverage. Even if they were not on better coverage, their claims were routed to special people in the insurance company to ensure timely and correct payment. The level at which their information was guarded for privacy was also on a different level.
Health insurance ALWAYS negotiates the price down. All of this time spent on negotiation actually adds to the total cost of health care. So you do not really get the level of coverage they claim you do. For example, if you have a $1000 claim on an 80/20 plan. You pay your $200, but the insurance company takes that and negotiates their $800 down. So, the actual bill is much less and you paid the percentage on the full amount. These negotiations usually happen on large blocks of claims, so there is no way you could say that your particular bill was negotiated down.
Do you know who runs the Departments of Insurance in most states? Leaders of insurance companies! Nobody in government could begin to understand insurance, so they let the fox guard the hen house.
I could rant forever about health insurance in general, but truck drivers get an even worse deal than the average covered worker. Did you ever notice that trucking company staff is usually on a different coverage than the drivers? That’s because the cost of the insurance is lower for the staff, so they can afford to offer them more.
My biggest problem with the ATA on health insurance is that they lobby for legislation that promotes an even worse situation for the driver! “Well, he’s got high blood pressure, can’t drive, we’re legal to fire him with no other reason and it’s not our fault.” Then they are only required to cover that driver for a while on COBRA after the law disqualifies them.
On another note, if the ATA had any morals at all, they would not accept members who scam people with the rip-off lease plans. Lease-plans are great for the companies! They get equipment paid for and release themselves from the costs and responsibilities of having an employee.
Do I think that the government should just step in and fix all this with public health care. NO! They would be even worse. We simply need to legislate for fair health care coverage laws and enforce those laws.
It’s all about NOT enforcing the laws we have. The ATA is just one lobbying group in Washington working to screw the little guy. Truck drivers on average simply dont pay enough attention to this stuff-too busy doing our job 100 hrs a week. I know about the different levels of coverage-I see it at my employer. And, when I figured out, since I pay $61/wk for my portion of the ‘health benefit’ (they dont even call it insurance, since it almost isnt-another self-insured rip-off), and the administering insurer says the company pays 12%, how can my COBRA be $700/month? How do they get away with having me pay over the 150% they’re allowed by law to charge me?
I am not sure how they figure your Cobra payment. I think that they are allowed to charge whatever amount that they would charge an individual, but I’m not sure what the law is.
I do know that if you let the COBRA drop, you are going to have a hell of a time with your next insurer. Letting coverage lapse opens the door for everything to be considered a pre-existing condition. If you don’t let coverage lapse, you’re next insurer is more lenient on time considerations for pre-existing. Nice how those insurance companies stick together on that isn’t it?