AmericanJobCreators.com Dispatches from the Road
Western HiWays trucking company
headquarters sits among the oil derricks and citrus groves just off Highway 65
in Bakersfield, CA. Its 13 drivers haul
everything from fresh produce to new cars, giving life to the industry adage,
"If you bought it, a truck brought it."
The health of American trucking, which itself supports
about 7 million jobs, is closely tied to the health of our national
economy. In fact, roughly 70 percent
of all goods in the United States move by truck. As part of the
AmericanJobCreators.com initiative to expose the true scope and costs of
federal regulations, we visited Western HiWays Safety & Human Resources Director
Doug Grove and Operations Manager Kelly Grove.
The federal government regulates
commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) to ensure the safety of both the truck driver
and the general public sharing the road. Almost everything on or in a typical long-haul
truck – which runs about $120,000 each – has a
corresponding federal regulation administered by the Department of
Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, including special licensing, training, and equipping
rules to account for the unique safety challenges of trucking.
AmericanJobCreators.com Dispatches from the Road
Editor’s Note: Congressman Darrell Issa has staff from his Oversight and Government Reform Committee in California right now meeting with local job creators at their places of work to hear their stories of how federal regulations are impacting their ability to hire/grow/provide for their families.
Businesses were selected from among the nearly 1500-and-counting participants who’ve logged into www.AmericanJobCreators.com to tell Congress how they’ve been bearing the burden of federal regulation.
This is the first in what will be a series that gives a real-life look at what federal regulations mean for California’s Job Creators.
The White House announced a host of initiatives designed to
save American businesses $10 billion over five years. The target for
the savings? Overly burdensome federal government regulations, which
cost small business owners as much as $10,500 per employee. The news
is welcome for job creators struggling to survive in the Obama
Economy, and shows that months of House Republican efforts to shine a
light on these job killers are yielding gains for American families
and businesses.