Labor, climate costs loom large for trucking in 2024
WASHINGTON — While election-year politics may gridlock Congress from passing meaningful truck-related legislation in 2024, the potential for a change in administrations could be a catalyst for finalizing two regulations that have major cost and operational implications for the industry.
Proposed rules to tighten standards for independent contractors and on carbon emissions from heavy trucks — both of which are undergoing final review at the White House — also fit squarely within the administration’s biggest policy priorities: labor and climate.
“We’re likely to see an already slow and increasingly paralyzed Congress slow further as both parties try to prevent the other from notching significant wins,” P. Sean Garney, co-director at Scopelitis Transportation Consulting, which specializes in trucking regulations and legislation, told FreightWaves. “Outside of a few must-pass pieces of legislation, I don’t expect much to get done unless an unexpected crisis emerges.
“Of course, the calculus for the administrative agencies tends to be a bit different. Here, the Biden administration will be looking to accelerate its agenda ahead of the election to show constituents it’s delivering on its promises.”
Randy Mullett, a transportation consultant and principal of Mullett Strategies, concurs that regulation — not legislation — will be the driving force behind trucking policy next year.
“I’m not too worried about legislation, because when Congress comes back from their holiday break they’re going to be focused on things like emergency funding for wars and federal budget extensions,” Mullett told FreightWaves. “And remember, the first presidential primary comes at the end of January.
“But the regulatory agencies are going to be smelling blood in the water, because we may have a change in administration, and if so, they’ll need to get any regulations out sooner rather than later,” Mullett said, to give final rules time to take effect before a new administration can attempt to repeal them.
One of the Biden administration’s agenda items, a new proposed rule addressing the distinction between independent contractors and employees, will “make waves when it’s delivered,” Garney said, given that analysis of the proposal shows it would likely tilt the playing field heavily toward employee status.
The policy change would place a heavier burden on trucking companies that rely on independent contractors to show that their drivers are in fact independent workers and not employees, potentially disrupting relationships that have been mutually beneficial to owner-operators and large carriers.
“Just because an owner-operator has a lease with one carrier for an extended period of time does not mean that they can only work for that carrier, or that they are dependent on that carrier for work,” according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, in comments filed on the proposed rule. “Each individual case must be examined in its totality.”
It would also boost employment costs for carriers that choose to convert contractors to employee drivers.
Also anticipated to boost trucking costs is the Environmental Protection Agency’s new emission standards for heavy-duty trucks beginning in model year 2027 and extending to 2032. The new standards, which would rely heavily on a switch to electric vehicles, add roughly $15,000 to the cost of a new sleeper cab, according to EPA estimates.
Source: freightwaves.com
