A major trucking advocacy organization objects to several provisions in President Donald Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill", which includes tax cuts and revisions to major social programs.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association said in a letter to House leaders it opposes the House’s reconciliation package in its current form.
"For American truckers, whether owner-operators or employee drivers, this bill surprisingly looks far from beautiful," said the letter signed by OOIDA's President and CEO Todd Spencer. "Not only has the House failed to include trucker’s top priorities, some of which we have been imploring legislators to remedy since 2017, but you have astonishingly included new taxes on our members. Regrettably, we are forced to oppose the legislation in its current form."
OOIDA's letter also said, "Not only does the legislation include a new and unnecessary tax on small trucking businesses, it makes permanent policies from the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA) that increased employee drivers’ tax burden and unfairly denies them new tax relief provisions that benefit all other blue-collar workers."
The bill was voted out of the House Budget Committee Sunday night, May 18, by a vote of 17-16. Four conservative Republicans voting present" saying the bill did not make enough spending cuts. The House is expected to vote on the bill before it adjourns for the Memorial Day holiday.
OOIDA said the bill includes what the organization said is "a new and unexpected tax on motor carriers to establish a duplicative federal reporting system that does nothing more than help freight brokers limit their legal liability."
The OOIDA's letter said the bill would create a new public website to display a motor carrier’s fitness to operate in interstate commerce – information the U.S. Department of Transportation already posts publicly. This system would be funded by a new $100 annual fee on anyone accessing the information, including small business truckers.
"Our members already pay numerous federal taxes and fees, and as part of this reconciliation process, we believe Congress should be eliminating unnecessary taxes, not creating new ones," said OOIDA's letter.
The OOIDA said that part of the bill should be eliminated.
Spencer's letter also said the bill makes permanent the elimination of the per diem deduction that benefitted many employee drivers who make their living on the road.
"We heard from members who received an unexpected tax hike after TCJA was enacted – for as much as thousands of dollars more than they had anticipated," said the letter. "As part of reconciliation, Congress should be restoring employee drivers’ ability to deduct daily meal expenses while on the road, not permanently increasing their tax burden."
Finally, the OOIDA said in its letter Congress should repeal what it called the "outdated exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that denies employee drivers guaranteed overtime compensation."
By failing to act and leaving this exemption in place, truckers will not benefit from the proposal to exempt overtime wages from taxes, according to OOIDA's letter. It added that "Even if a motor carrier currently pays their drivers overtime (despite not being required), these overtime wages would still be taxed if the reconciliation package were enacted." This means, according to the OOIDA, truckers will be denied a new tax benefit guaranteed to virtually every other every blue-collar worker in America.
The OOIDA said the trucking industry "already struggles with persistently high turnover rates among drivers; diminishing their compensation compared to other blue-collar occupations will only make the job less attractive."
OOIDA said Congress should be taking steps to ensure trucking is "an appealing and sustainable career choice for Americans."
