LINCOLN – The Nebraska Trucking Association has joined forces with a broad group of state and national trucking associations from across the country in support of a comprehensive policy blueprint to eliminate bad actors who exploit regulatory gaps, undermine safety, and create unfair competitive advantages in the commercial trucking industry.
The action plan, The Fight for Fairness and Safety: Paving the Way for a Trucking Resurgence, addresses seven critical areas where fraudulent and illegal operators undercut lawabiding businesses, endanger public safety, and damage the reputation and morale of America’s professional truck drivers.
The Trucking Association Executive Council (TAEC), which developed the action plan through a special task force, is comprised of trucking leaders from coast to coast. The initiative comes as the trucking industry nationwide and in Nebraska faces daunting freight demand, frivolous attacks from plaintiffs’ trial lawyers, and unfair competition from illegal operators who manipulate licensing systems, engage in freight fraud, tamper with safety records, and operate outside legal boundaries.
Nebraska Trucking Association President and CEO Kent Grisham said “Nearly all of the CDL training providers in the state are members of the Nebraska Trucking Association. I can say with all certainty that they all meet and exceed the highest standards in training. Our DMV has strictly enforced federal and state standards for CDL issuance. And it is clear that our NTA motor carrier members are among the safest and most reliable in the country. But the problems created by the bad actors across the country threaten highway safety and demoralizes our good drivers. This nationwide effort by state trucking associations is one way we're fighting for the good guys and to get the playing field leveled-out."
The Trucking Resurgence action plan identifies seven major vulnerabilities that bad actors exploit: 1. CDLIntegrity – Closing loopholes in commercial driver licensing 2. MCMIS Overhaul – Fixing America’s broken trucking safety data system 3. Cross-Border Integrity –Assuring workforce integrity at our borders 4. Non-Domiciled CDL Reform – Strengthening oversight and enforcement 5. English Language Proficiency – Closing critical CDL safety gaps 6. Combating Trucking Fraud – Addressing broker and carrier fraud schemes 7. Electronic Log Integrity – Ending ELD manipulation and hours-ofservice fraud The report emphasizes that most of the solutions are immediately actionable and do not require long, drawn-out legislation or rule makings. Most involve technology-driven solutions, including AI-powered data analysis to detect fraudulent patterns, integrated databases to prevent operator schemes, and enhanced verification systems to ensure regulatory compliance. These reforms would not create new burdens for legitimate operators but would leverage existing data more effectively to identify and eliminate bad actors.
The report builds on recent federal actions, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s order strictly enforcing English language proficiency requirements which resulted in more than 5,000+ drivers being placed out-of-service for safety violations, and another order cracking down on the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, many of which were issued improperly or illegally. The TAEC recommendations would extend similar accountability measures across all identified problem areas.
The Nebraska TruckingAssociation will continue to work with the TAEC as well as federal and state officials to ensure that progress is made on each of these areas. Regardless of how long or any challenges that exist, the Nebraska Trucking Association remains committed to paving the way for a trucking resurgence.
The full report is available at www. truckingresurgence.com The Nebraska TruckingAssociation ( NTA) is the statewide trade association for commercial trucks and affiliated businesses. NTA delivers the essential knowledge, contacts, services, political representation, and partnerships that help our members continue to deliver the goods to Nebraska communities and throughout North America.
