Editor's Column
July 2009 8 TrucKers News I n what is something of a surprise, President Obama last month tapped Anne Ferro as the new ad-ministrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Ferro, the president of the Mary-land Motor Truck Association since 2003, doesn't seem to fit Obama's call for change. And the Inter-national Brotherhood of Teamsters, which threw its support behind Obama during the presidential cam-paign, was quick to let him know its disapproval. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa wrote in a letter to Obama that Ferro is the wrong person to head FMCSA because of her truck-ing-industry party line. We cannot support a candidate who represents the Bush administra-tion `status quo' rather than embrac-ing your call for change, Hoffa wrote. But the nomination won praise from trucking groups such as the American Trucking Associations. As head of MMTA, Ferro supported the current hours-of-service rule. Ms. Ferro's extensive experience in pro-moting driver, vehicle and highway safety will serve the nation well, ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement. According to the White House, Ferro, who was the administrator of Maryland's Motor Vehicle Admin-istration between 1997 and 2003, has extensive experience in driver and vehicle safety. She led the Mary-land agency's campaign to imple-ment a graduated licensing program for new drivers as well as a model for older driver research and garnered a reputation as a tough but fair regu-lator, Graves added. While Ferro still has to be con-firmed by the Senate, her nomina-tion comes in the wake of anoth-er trucking issue that has ruffled the feathers of the Teamsters. After killing funds to the U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking pro-gram and the Mexican govern-ment's retaliatory tariffs on more than 80 U.S. goods Obama prom-ised to restart the program early this summer. The Teamsters, along with some other trucking and safety advocates including the Owner Operator Inde-pendent Drivers Association, have opposed opening the border to Mex-ican trucks for years. If the Obama administration carries through with its pledge to reinvent the cross-bor-der trucking program, it would ap-pear on the surface to drive another wedge between the union's support-ers and the president. But there are still several other is-sues on which Obama could appease the Teamsters. These include the proposed Employee Free Choice Act or card check, potential new in-dependent contractor classification legislation and the easing of feder-al oversight of the Teamsters, which Obama has previously hinted could happen. Card check allows employees to sign an authorization card to gain union representation instead of or in addition to a secret ballot. This has been a controversial and hotly contested bill since it was intro-duced in the spring. Independent contractor classification legislation hasn't gained a great deal of mo-mentum as of late, but as a U.S. sen-ator from Illinois, Obama sponsored a bill to revamp how independent contractors are classified. examined both issues in April. As for easing federal oversight on unions, which was put into place to eliminate the influence of orga-nized crime, Obama said during last year's campaign that this is some-thing he would consider but made no commitments. That's something that I'll abso-lutely examine when I'm president of the United States, he told in response to a report that he pri-vately told the Teamsters he would end federal oversight. Conspiracy theories aside, Obama's latest trucking-related moves set the stage for an interest-ing summer and beyond. exiT oNly todd dIlls Surprise Move Obama's pick to head FMCSA garners praise and raises some eyebrows ediTor's jourNal randy grIder Randy Grider is editor of . He is the son of a career trucker and holds a CDL. He blogs regularly at . Write him at . It was with great sadness that I received the news that LauraLee Fraley has died. She was a member of our 2006 Great American Trucking Family. LauraLee was a team driver with her husband, Jimmy Fraley, and an amazing woman and friend to our staff since her family's 2006 triumph. She often wrote me and former executive editor John Latta just to stay in touch and talk about all things trucking. Her cheerful, fun-loving personal-ity was impossible to ignore. The last time I saw LauraLee and Jimmy was in 2007 at the Mid-America Trucking Show, when John and I had dinner with them. A few months later, LauraLee sent me an e-mail telling me that her cancer had returned after several years of remission. Over the months, John and I each e-mailed her with words of encouragement. Often she was the one trying to offer us hope and enthusiasm. Near the end, LauraLee's mother took over giving us updates as the cancer spread. We knew that things didn't look good but hoped for a miracle. We find solace in knowing that she was a special person who had a positive impact on everyone she came in contact with. Maybe that's a miracle in itself. r.i.P. lauralee