Advocating for the rights of truck drivers
Mission Statement
TrucksUnited is being founded as a Not for Profit 501(c)4 Organization to bring the trucking community together and fight for the rights of truck drivers and the trucking community as a whole. There are many problems in the industry regarding excessive delays at shipping and receiving facilities costing drivers lost pay, failure of shipping/receiving companies to honor the RateCon (a kind of contract) also leading to lost pay, overloading of trucks at shipping facilities and refusal to remove excessive weight from the trucks leading to drivers being forced to run in an unsafe condition, and damage to trucks/trailers. All of these issues, and more, cause truckers to lose pay and trucking companies to lose revenue. In all of these cases the burden lands squarely on the shoulders of truck drivers, often in the form of fines and strikes on their records that affect their ability to remain employed, and are entirely avoidable. Drivers are required by Federal Law to know and obey the law, but authority is vested in no one to help drivers enforce the rules. The burden of non-compliance falls squarely on the shoulders of drivers and the shippers/receivers know this and exploit that fact. TrucksUnited is going to change this paradigm through a combination of social media campaigns, application of big data technology to track and solve problems, class action, lobbying, and community outreach. Trucking is the life blood of American industry, and truckers are out there every day making sure that blood flows. They deserve better.
Community
We will build a community through massive social media outreach. In addition to our own website, Trucks United will be very active on various social media platforms and provide regular updates to the community through podcasts and video uploads to sites like YouTube, Rumble, etc. We want to be approachable and maintain an open dialogue with the trucking community. Social media will also be utilized for advertising, fundraising, and outreach.
Lobbying
TrucksUnited will be actively lobbying at the State and Federal level for better laws and regulations and the removal of laws and regulations that are burdensome or oppressive. This means building relationships with our law makers and regulators. They can't fix it if they don't know what's broke, and it's our job to tell the story and make sure they know. In situations that are particularly egregious, Trucks United will work with attorneys around the nation to pursue legal remedies to redress particularly unethical behavior and seek redress of abuses against drivers. This can include class action in situations where many drivers have been abused.
The App
Develop an app (Yelp for truckers) that gathers/aggregates performance data about shippers/receivers and uses that information to interface with broker load boards to act as a pricing tool that can be used to impose monetary penalties on shippers and receivers that waste the time and resources of drivers and cargo carriers. The app will be named A-Driver. In the military, an A-Driver, or alternate driver, is the person in the passenger seat. They are there to help you navigate, keep you awake and watch your blind side. They have your back and are with you for the whole ride, in the same way we want to be there for truck drivers everywhere.
Not a Union, a Community.
TrucksUnited is not a Union, we are a community. I love the idea of collective bargaining, but I am not a fan of Unions as they currently exist. Social media now gives us the ability to create communities and work toward a common objective outside of the rigid members only Union structure. I want to help everyone in the trucking industry as a whole, not just members and people who donate. Not everyone has the means to contribute, but everyone needs help sometimes. We can best help the individuals by addressing the big issues that affect everyone first. All truckers get their time wasted and lose money. All truckers are abused by shippers/receivers in one way or another. By addressing the big issues I believe the smaller issues will resolve themselves. If not, we’ll tackle them in turn.
Making it happen
Continuous fund raising. Money makes the world go around, and we will need lots of it to carry out our mission. In addition to traditional fundraising methods, we will be offering memberships, merchandise, the ability to make donations through social media, as well as the funding methods mentioned in the discussion of the app above. Some ongoing partnerships within the trucking community may also be possible. Selling the idea of a more efficient and prosperous cargo transportation industry isn’t hard to do because everyone benefits. It’s simple, everything comes by truck.
None of this can happen without you. It’s up to every truck driver to come together and make the changes we want to see. We’re not just truckers, we are Trucks United and we’re a community.
Please share the social media links below and get involved. Tell your friends, family and fellow drivers. Together we can make this happen.
QUESTIONS?
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