That's your right. I have never had to kiss anyone's ##### to hold a job. And I could always go back to work for anyone I ever worked for because I was as good as any driver that they had. Not better but as good .

What exactly is your point here?

The thread is about the total lack of action of the OOIDA regarding certian issues. Not your ability to do the same thing I can do.

You commented that Covenant was a good company on another thread....which makes me wonder, if you ever drove a truck in the past 10 years.

__________________
He has erected a multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,
and eat out their substance........

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

Declaration Of Independence
__________________

King George or Obama ????

Hey they say I need 50 post's so untill I get 50 post you don't need to worryI"m just Talking.

Oh I forgot and just whats wrong with Covenant? Do you work for them or have you. I did .
I now drive a mail truck from Arkansas to Texas $22.00 hr. $264.00 a day or $1320.00 a week.It's a 6 wheeler. home every night.Plus i get $1600.00 Social Security .Not bad for a 65 year old Fa*t. And yes OOIDA has done a lot for the trucking industry.Are you afraid to call them and ask or dou only believe negative things without checking your facts.
My son and several O/O i know of are member's of OOIDA. Take care friend and Happy trucking. Danny

Thankfully I have worked for one of their subs..So I do know what I'm talking about.

And thankfully, this site allows more than 2 people in my iggy list.

You're number 3.

__________________
He has erected a multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,
and eat out their substance........

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

Declaration Of Independence
__________________

King George or Obama ????

Your loss not mine friend.Good Day

There have been excellent points about OOIDA made in this thread. I was a member for a couple of years before giving up on them in disgust.

They do things half-####### and then sit back and loudly proclaim how great they are, but what have they accomplished?

I recall back many years ago, they tried tackling the "lumper" issue. Their success was getting a rule passed where a receiver could not "force" you to hire a lumper. If you chose to do the job yourself, you did it with manual equipment. They claimed success!

Remember when they went against the companies who were doing lease purchases. Complainants were saying the companies they were buying the trucks from had too much knowledge of the LP contract and were able to cause a lease operator to fail and lose his truck close to the time of payoff. OOIDA went to bat for these guys.

The result? OOIDA called it a win! All the companies did, such as Cal-Ark, MVT and others, was to put their "leasing office" in a portable building out on the lot! Nothing changed for the lease operators! The same info was available to the powers that were!

Let's see. what else? Currently, OOIDA has made clear their opposition to speed limiters in Canada, which will effect those of us who go into Canada. OOIDA has given it lip service and not much else. Now, Quebec has set the law to go into effect Jan 1, 2009. OOIDA says they will do nothing until then.

What they are talking about doing is using the NAFTA arbitration panel to resolve the issue. How ironic is it, that OOIDA advocates ignoring some of our obligations under NAFTA, only to use the agreement for it's own personal gain.

Has anyone heard of the [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. ? You probably haven't. OOIDA has but they are doing nothing to oppose it! Read the Bills content. If you don't want to do that, [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. The bill, which is stalled in the Congress, would mandate, by law, EOBR or "Black Boxes" not just in buses, but in ALL commercial vehicles! How many of you knew that? And as I recall, OOIDA is theoretically opposed to Black Boxes. That bill would also mandate BY LAW, all the changes in DOT Medical Exams that FMCSA is currently considering putting up for comment. Why is OOIDA not at the forefront of the fight against this bill?

Let's get to my pet peeve! The Mexican truck issue. OOIDA allied themselves with unlikely allies, The Teamsters and Public Citizen, the latter who has never done anything good for the trucking industry.

They used their bully pulpit to spread fear amongst those who didn't know any better, urging their membership to call their Senators and Reps. They urged their membership to go to the FMCSA comment section and show their displeasure by commenting on the proposed Pilot Program. At the time, they had a membership of 150,000. The comments left on the FMCSA comment section numbered 2300 and some change. Some admitted openly on the overnight trucking shows to leaving as many as 26 comments on the site "anonomously. 90% of the respondents were against the proposal and 75% of the comments left on the site were variations of the talking points, (which have since been shown to be false) that OOIDA gave it's members. None of the comments had anything to do with safety, as pointed out by FMCSA in it's notice in the Federal Register. The comments were racist, some obscene and all totally off the mark!


But over the past year, it boosted their membership by 10,000.

All I can see OOIDA doing for the American trucker is nothing but spreading propaganda and extolling to all how they are the only voice the American trucker has!

We're over 11 million strong! I think individually and in groups, we have a much louder voice if we could all find a common ground to agree on. And it wouldn't cost us $45 a year to do it!

I listened to a political analyst the other night, who compared this years voting by Republicans, to truck drivers.

Lots of voices...who couldn't come together to save their own lives. He went even further to state, the trucking industry could completely control an election outcome, if they would pull their heads out of their ### for 5 minutes.

__________________
He has erected a multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,
and eat out their substance........

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution,
and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

Declaration Of Independence
__________________

King George or Obama ????

I've been a member of OOIDA and my feelings have been mixed. I live just a mile away from thier headquarters and have been inside many times doing paperwork for insurance, authority, etc. They went after a company called Ledar now SLX which is by far the most the worst outfit I've ever come across. It's bizarre and the old lady that runs the show over there is incredibly rude. She's so rude that when I first met her I thought she was just joking on some of the comments she made because they were so out there. She makes us Truckers look like level headed saints. I'm glad they went after that company. Although I've never worked for Prime I've heard a lot of horror stories from the 90's and they went after that company. They manage to keep the insurance rates, half way decent. The insurance people have always been good about getting my Oregon insurance forms faxed quickly. They have also made it easier for Truckers to aquire thier own authority. The bad things is that I've never seen them back a strike, and they often turn thier noses to the guys protesting. When you go inside the building, there is no open door policy. You feel like your going into some wierd cult. When they built thier new extension, they took out all of the truck parking spots so drivers had to walk over there from some adjacent truckstops. It's not a far walk from the truckstops but still they had plenty of space, it's just that they didn't want trucks in there. I like to think I got that changed because I had several heated conversations with the Todd Spencer, and next thing I know they put in about 5 parking spots for tractor-trailers. They have done some good things, but I think they need to start backing these drivers when you see these O/O strikes.

Legally - they are not allowed to back or sanction any form of protest or strike...


their "forum" is through lobbying lawmakers (period).

THUS

they have very little political power when it comes to putting pressure on those who make a truckers life problematic.

They can raise their voice - but it does little good when their voice carries so little weight.