Hammer Lane Blog

The great partisan gulf that separates Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill is so yawning that Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood this week publicly stated that, in his opinion, it is “very unlikely” that passage of a highway reauthorization bill will occur during the current session of Congress.

As reported by Ken Orski in his latest transportation-related Innovation NewsBrief, in Sec. LaHood’s view, the differences between the House and the Senate are too great to be resolved in the polarized pre-election climate of the next ten months.



Rep. John Mica is riding herd on the highway bill in the House.

According to Orski, those differences include the insistence of Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), Chair of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, on a five-year bill vs. the Senate’s equal determination to proceed with a two-year bill.

On top of that, there’s a House proposal to fund the bill partly with royalties from increased off-shore oil and gas drilling— a proposal that would find little if any support from Senate Democrats. Yet another roadblock is the lack of specifics offered by the House as to where the drilling would take place, how much revenue it would produce, and when that revenue would become available.

Orski said Sec. LaHood’s “overtly expressed pessimism” took many by surprise in the standing-rooom only audience at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington on January 25— “especially since in recent days there have been some encouraging signs of progress coming from Capitol Hill.”

According to Orski, those signs include Chairman Mica’s announcement that he has set the date of February 2 for the committee mark-up of the House reauthorization proposal (now called The American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act); and the as yet unconfirmed report that the Senate Finance Committee has reached a bipartisan agreement on how to provide the $13 billion in offsets needed to fully fund the Senate version of the bill. “To many people,” Orski noted, “these developments looked like Congress is finally poised to act.”

On the other hand, “Sec. LaHood’s sober outlook for the future was shared by many of his colleagues. Joining him on the podium were former Secretaries Alan Boyd (1967-69); James Burnley IV (1987-89); Samuel Skinner (1989-91); Andrew Card (1992-93); and Rodney Slater (1997-2001). Invited but not present were William Coleman (1975-77) and Norman Mineta (2001-06).”

“These will be difficult times for funding,” said Sec. Skinner: “Traditional ways aren’t working any more.” “I am hopeful but I am very concerned,” said Sec. Boyd. Sec. Burnley thought the Highway Trust Fund has “collapsed:” “Do we resurrect it, replace it with something else or devolve funding to the states?” Sec. Card expressed the dilemma facing policymakers in terms of “needs” vs. “wants.” We often justify “wants” by calling them “needs,” he said. Faced with current funding constraints, we may have to apply a stricter standard of “needs.” States and localities must be involved in this debate because local perceptions of “wants” and “needs” may differ from those entertained inside the Beltway.”

Orksi went on to reasonably argue in his piece that “Perhaps the President’s State of the Union message the night before had something to do with the diminished expectations of the distinguished speakers.”

He pointed out that unlike on previous occassions, the President “made only a casual reference to ‘repairing America’s infrastructure’ followed by a vague proposal to use half of the money ‘we’re no longer spending at war…to do some nation-building right here at home.’ High-speed rail, trumpeted in the past as the President’s ’signature’ initiative, failed to earn even a single mention. Nor was the National Infrastructure Bank, another past favorite, mentioned by the President.”

Certainly, the President not mentioning even a single specific infrastructure initiative in such a singular speech says loud and clear that his priorities lie elsewhere in this already tumultous election year.

Thirty years on since graduating college, there are only two things I learned in classrooms there that have truly stayed with me. A Journalism instructor, whose night job was reporter for New York’s Daily News, admonished us that “when in doubt, throw it out,” and that bit of rhyming advice has paid off handsomely throughout my career.

The second was my poli-sci professor’s near-constant refrain that “the three principles of American governance are compromise, compromise, compromise.” That oft-repeated alliterative utterance, along with my studies of American history in and out of school, has ever since informed my view of politics and especially of partisanship in this country.

And that is why I could only shake my head in sad disbelief when I learned that yet again the national politics of our times have proven to be so besotten by partisanship that its practictioners would sooner see our Republic mired in the quicksand of finger-pointing than have either side offer the other even the thinnest reed of compromise that they might then together pull our federal government out of the ghastly hole of inaction in which it is intractably if not permamently now stuck.

I am speaking of course of the widely reported failure of the so-called Super Committee of Congress to end the debt crisis.

As The Wall Street Journal put it, “The deficit-reduction super committee, stuck in a partisan deadlock, faces an almost certain collapse—raising the threat of disruptive military spending cuts and a resurgent public anger at Congress as it struggles with the basic tasks of governance…. the committee is expected to announce Monday that it failed to reach its mandated goal of writing a bipartisan bill to reduce deficits over the next 10 years by at least $1.2 trillion.”

Note well that the committee’s “mandated goal” wasn’t just about hitting a specific number, but also doing so in a bipartisan manner.

“The stalemate was the latest sign of partisan deadlock in Washington, which members of both parties do not expect to lift until the 2012 election has clarified which party has the upper hand,” noted a report in The New York Times.

But what should be coming first from these servants of We The People– what they think they need to do to win an election (that is STILL a year away) or doing what is best for our country and all its citizens right now via compromise?

When did the ship of state run so far aground that no less an eminence– and one of the few political commentators still around who can be taken as non-partisan– than David Gergen ends up asking as he did online, “Have they gone nuts in Washington?“ He could have just as well titled his opinion piece: “Founding fathers spinning in their graves.”

In his post, Gergen argues that while “everyone knew that members of the super-committee had deep differences… such contentious disagreements have characterized our politics since the dawn of the republic, and in almost all crises of the past, political leaders have worked out compromises. As Thomas Jefferson put it in 1790, ‘In general I think it necessary to give as well as take in a government like ours.’ George Washington agreed and pushed continually for what he called ‘a spirit of accommodation.’”



“In general I think it necessary to give as well as take in a government like ours.”– Thomas Jefferson

Obviously, I am with Gergen on this. He goes on to say, and I agree wholeheartedly, that “this failure of the super committee represents a reckless, irresponsible gamble by our ‘leaders’ in Washington. It’s difficult to remember a Congress that has put the nation so much at risk in the service of ideology and to hold onto office. Partisans on both sides are grievously failing the country.”

He rightly does not stop with just blaming our good-for-nothing Congress. “An honest assessment would lay blame on the White House doorstep, too,” Gergen argues. “Yes, the President finally put up a plan a few weeks back and made a few phone calls. But he has been exercising the most passive leadership imaginable. Nor have the Republican candidates for president been any more engaged.”

And where does all this leave us, the American people and our business and personal interests? Up the proverbial creek without a paddle let alone a Washington, Jefferson, Adams or Hamilton to get us to the other side, to name just a few of Our Founders– all of whom must be spinning as furiously in their graves as the wheels in Washington are in the rut to which they have been consigned by the myopic and apparently woefully uneducated politicians with whom we are now saddled.

The only saving grace is there is an election coming up. But will enough Americans bestir themselves to turn out in droves enough to truly vote for change in how Washington works? That iwill be a true test of our democracy.

A news story posted today by The Wall Street Journal– under the hed “Fed Expresses Modest Optimism“ — reported that Federal Reserve officials today “refrained from taking new steps to charge up the economy as they expressed some modest optimism about the recovery while they continue to debate ways to bring unemployment down without stoking inflation.”

The WSJ report went on to state that the Fed’s decision-making body voted 9-1 “to leave their easy-credit policies [that’s the newspaper’s description!] unchanged for the first time since August, citing an economy that’s ’strengthened somewhat in the third quarter.’”



Will Bernanke and the Fed be able to boost jobs and control inflation?

The dissenting vote was cast by Chicago Fed President Charles Evans “because he wanted to see additional policy accommodation [whatver that means],” noted the news report.

Hearing the Fed has “modest optimisn” about the ragged economic recovery might not make Wall Streeters jump for joy, but it should bring some albeit small comfort to everyone who lives and breathes and works — or is looking for work– on Main Street.

However, I am very guarded about what this latets pronouncement by the Fed adds up to for two reasons.

Firstly, in terms of “easy-credit policies” what exactly is The Journal referring to? Maybe it is a reference to banks loaning to banks, but I for one have not heard of much if any loosening of credit to businesses or consumers. Certainly not enough to encourage businesses to start hiring again or enough to enable most consumers to buy more than just what is absolutely necessary to sustain their individual standards of living.

Secondly, how much longer does the Fed– and teh White House and Congress, for that matter– need to debate “how to bring unemployment down without stoking inflation” before they actually make policy decisions that would– hopefully– do just that?

Writing in Newsweek way back in May, columnist Robert J. Samuelson contended that Fed Chief Ben Bernanke is betting on embracing “super-easy credit to cut the appalling 8.8% jobless rate; that’s 13.5 million people, nearly half out of work for six months or more. Since late 2008, the Fed has held short-term interest rates near zero. To cut long-term rates, the Fed is buying gobs of Treasury bonds and mortgage securities: $1.725 trillion from late 2008 to March 2010; an additional $600 billion from last November through June. These purchases are known as QE1 and QE2, for ‘quantitative easing.’”

But Samuelson pointed out that it’s questionable whether “all the pump-priming” is aiding the recovery or boosting inflation. “The economy’s fate may hang on who’s right,” he wrote. “Studies by Fed economists are, not surprisingly, supportive. One estimated that QE1 and QE2 lowered long-term interest rates by about 0.5 percentage points and saved nearly 3 million jobs; the jobless rate otherwise could have approached 11%. Many private economists are less impressed; they suspect the benefits of QE1 faded with QE2.”

I am not an economist, a central banker or a politician so I won’t even hazard a guess as to whether Bernanke’s bet will in the end pay out.

But as a student of history, I know that past financial crises, no matter their root cause, that this country endured were ended– or at the very least steered toward an ending– not by endless dithering but by bold governmental action expressed by political leaders who had the ability to garner the support of both business interests and consumers to, depedning on the situation, curb inflation and/or put Americans back to work.

Here’s a hair-raising tale for driver applicants who think they only have to worry about having their urine tested: Truckload carrier Gordon Trucking has begun drug-screening all driver applicants via hair samples with the stated goal of reducing new driver accidents within the first crucial months of employment.

The hair-testing, done under company authority, supplements the minimum Dept. of Transportation mandatory urine-testing requirements.

“Research has shown most accidents occur within the first 90-120 days of employment,” says Scott Manthey, vp of safety & compliance for Gordon. “Once a driver makes it through that initial period, the risk of an accident drops dramatically. We feel that a urine test combined with the longer timeframe of a hair test offers one the best possible screening tools. We have concluded that this aids in selecting some of the safest and most professional drivers on the road.”

The program launched back in July with Omega Laboratories, Inc. carrying out the testing and has already shown beneficial results, according to Mathey. Of the 170 drivers already screened, hair-testing has detected 10 positive candidates that would have otherwise been hired.

“Beyond the candidates who have tested positive,” points out Manthey, “we also routinely have candidates dismiss themselves from orientation classes once they confirm a hair test will be conducted.”



There’s no hair-of-the-dog treatment for human hair that shows evidence of illegal drug use.

He advises that after a lot of research, Gordon Trucking “concluded that it was our responsibility to raise the bar for driver screening. While the spread of dual DOT urine- and hair-testing programs is encouraging, additional reforms need to be implemented as well. The proposals for a ‘Drug Test Clearinghouse’ should be expanded to include any drug or alcohol screen that has been medically reviewed, not just those tests mandated by the DOT.

“Additional training should also be stipulated for all Medical Review Officers and physicians involved in the screening process,”

Manthey adds. Still, he contends that “professional, responsible drivers are a carrier’s best asset. Removing controlled substance abusers from the commercial motor vehicle is a critical part of improving the safety of America’s highways.”

According to Omega Laboratories, it operates a state-of-the art drug testing facility offering the unique capability of testing hair samples for drugs of abuse. Omega has over 6,000 clients worldwide and services businesses, government organizations and educational institutions.

“I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.”

–Abraham Lincoln, on his state of mind

In ancient Greece, Hippocrates called it melancholia. In the 1780s, Samuel Johnson dubbed it “the black dog,” as Winston Churchill famously referred to it when it bit him and repeatedly so.

By the 1860s, it was appearing in medical texts as depression and that name—and its stigma—has stuck.

And both the disease and the tarnish it attaches to depressed persons through no fault of their own continue to bedevil those sufferers and to bewilder all those affected by them, including their colleagues in the workplace.

Depression that is a medical condition that severely brings down a sufferer’s mood, is long-lasting and lacks a manic component is specifically diagnosed today as Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and known less formally as major or clinical depression.

No matter what it’s called, MDD takes a huge bite out of the life of a person unlucky enough to be afflicted with it. And despite being a widespread illness in an era when personal medical issues are no longer swept under the rug at any cost to the patient, depression remains a condition that can stain a sufferer’s reputation, especially on the job, even when he or she is actively engaged in receiving treatment for the disease.

Per the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), major depression is “characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a person’s ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy once-pleasurable activities… An episode of major depression may occur only once in a person’s lifetime, but more often, it recurs throughout a person’s life.”

If that definition is not enough to give one pause, consider this medical fact stated by NIMH: “Major depression is disabling and prevents a person from functioning normally.”

That’s it in a nutshell (and no pun intended!) when it comes to depression dragging its ugly self into the workplace. Because it is a disabling illness, its sufferers who are employed can be protected from negative treatment on the job by the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

However, it should be noted that such employees are not protected under ADA unless or until they self-disclose to their employers that they are suffering from depression.

That is one very good reason why employers should train supervisors on how to recognize employees suffering from depression.

The other very good reason—besides of course good old-fashioned human kindness—to instruct supervisors thusly is to enable them to work closely and positively with depressed workers so that the loss of productivity and/or of carefulness (brought on by the fatigued thinking often characteristic of depression) will not unduly harm the quantity or quality of work that must be performed by the sufferer and his or her work colleagues.



Abraham Lincoln knew the black dog all too well.

Productibity and safety go hand-in-glove in both the truck cab and in the maintenance shop. Drivers who are depressed may have trouble keeping a schedule and/or be more likely to make critical “thinking” errors while behind the wheel as well as perhaps to be drowsy due to the uneven sleep patterns and insomnia that often accompanies depression.

Likewise, in the shop depressed mechanics and techs may have difficulty getting to work on time and then with working to established quality and quantity standards. Thieir clouded thinking may also cause them to make errors as well their drowsiness might.

And do not neglect to consider that “back office” employees and “front office” managers can be stricken with depression and see their productivity and critical thinking skills debilitated as well.

Should you think none of this applies to your workplace, think again.

Much like alcoholics, most depressives don’t go around broadcasting their illness until it becomes unbearable for them to function as demanded at work and they have to speak of it to a supervisor. Or they get called on the carpet one time too many for performance failures that they know were not intentional nor entirely under their control and feel they must at last speak up on their own behalf.

And don’t be fooled by the TV commercials and website and print ads for antidepressants that almost always feature attractive if depressed women in their 30s and 40s. Yes, depression is more common among women than men, but men– including the likes of Lincoln and Churchill– are afflicted too, as are children and adolescents.

If raw numbers are your thing, then chew on these stats from Satelllite Corp., a depression-treatment provider:

1) MDD is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and established market economies worldwide.

2) MDD affects approximately 9.9-million American adults, or about 5% of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year.

3) Nearly twice as many women (6.5%) as men (3.3%) suffer from MDD each year. Those numbers translate to 6.7-million women and 3.2-million men.

4) MDD can develop at any age, but the average age at onset is the mid-20s [right when most workers are in the ealry throes of establishng their careers no less].

As for what first-line supervisors and fleet managers can do about fighting Churchill’s black dog in their workplaces, first get up to speed on the signs and symptoms of depression.

According to NIMH, those suffering from depression do not all experience the same symptoms. And the severity, frequency and duration of symptoms will vary depending on the individual and his or her particular illness.

NIMH lists these as symptoms of depression:

Persistent sad, anxious or “empty” feelings

Feelings of hopelessness and/or pessimism

Feelings of guilt, worthlessness and/or helplessness

Irritability, restlessness

Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, including sex

Fatigue and decreased energy

Difficulty concentrating, remembering details and making decisions

Insomnia, early–morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping

Overeating, or appetite loss

Persistent aches or pains, headaches, cramps or digestive problems that do not ease even with treatment

Thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts

Pretty daunting list, isn’t it? Try to imagine having just a few of those symptoms dogging you every step of your day and night and you just might be able to imagine but slightly what a sufferer of MDD is battling– and not just at work, but 24/7.

What can supervisors and managers do to help? The first and most important step that can be taken is to try to suggest that an obviously depressed worker seek out a diagnosis and treatment.

Steps that can be taken to offer support to afflicted persons, notes NIMH, include:

Offering emotional support, understanding, patience and encouragement.

Engage the depressed person in conversation and listen carefully.

Never disparage feelings expressed, but point out realities and offer hope.

Never ignore comments about suicide and report them to the patient’s therapist or M.D.



Major depression is more than feeling “blue.” It is a debilitating illness that requires medical treatment.

A very extensive guide to understanding and treating depression can be found on the NIMH website.

Do yourself and everyone who works for you or with you a favor and review the NIMH guide.

By doing so, you might just take a bite out of that horrific black dog… and even perhaps help save a life.

The manufacturers and marketers of commercial-grade pickups and full-size vans have told me in recent days that 2011 will be a very good year for sales and— remarkably, to me anyway—that last year was even better.

“A lot of commercial pickup and van buyers are doing more than kicking tires,” Eric Guenther, Ford’s general marketing manager– North American Fleet, Lease & Remarketing Operations (NAFLRO) told me. “Last year was a good one as we saw total industry sales for full-size vans/buses increase 42% over 2009.



CNG-powered Ford Transit Connect

“Those are purely commercial fleet sales, as tracked by R.L. Polk, with fleets defined as having five or more vehicles in a local unit,” Guenther continued. “And Ford outpaced that slightly, being up 49% in van/bus sales.” As for commercial pickups, he says total industry sales were up 40% and Ford’s sales in that segment climbed 47%.

“This year sales won’t be as substantial as the big rebound in 2010, but the market is still moving in the right direction,” noted Guenther. He said Ford “does not get into specific estimates, but in general we expect continued growth in both segments for 2011 of 10 to 20%.”

He pointed out that what happened last year was the “volume customers began buying first and then, by the end of the year into this year’s first quarter, we saw stability for [orders from] big buyers and renewed purchasing by smaller fleets. Light-truck buyers are showing more confidence in the economy and finding it easier to get credit,” which together are driving up sales.

GM Fleet and Commercial’s Joyce Mattman, director of commercial product & specialty vehicles, and Brian Bowden, director of commercial dealer operations, told me much the same as Guenther.

“Overall growth for the total [commercial] industry will be 10 to 15%,” said Mattman. “We continue to see growth in the small-business buyer segment as the economy keeps recovering,” added Bowden, “with full-size pickup and van sales up 30% year to date.

“We’re seeing great acceptance of our GMC and Chevrolet HD pickups and the customers who historically buy vans are coming back,” he continued. “[Right now] we’re up 38% in pickup/van sales.”



GMC Sierra pickup

Bowden noted that GM is “not reporting a lot yet from residential construction buyers, but we are seeing van and pickup sales to firms engaged in home additions and remodeling.

“Another key vocation is agriculture,” he added. “Farmers and ranchers are out buying new heavy-duty pickups and chassis-cabs. Together, the construction and agriculture segments are accounting for 40% of sales volume this year.”

He pointed out that the third big segment for light-duty truck sales is “service repair” providers, such as plumbers, electricians, and appliance and HVAC techs.

Daimler Vans USA (DVU), marketer of the Daimler Sprinter van—now offered here either as a Mercedes-Benz or a Freightliner model– reports it sold 8,559 Sprinters in 2010– a 2.5% jump over ’09.

Ernst Lieb, president & CEO of DVU’s parent Mercedes-Benz USA, recently told the media that “we were able to not only sustain our sales performance, but achieve this increase” over the year before.” While not divulging a 2011 Sprinter sales forecast, DVU is “working off a forecast increase of 26% for the marketplace—to 240,000 units [in 2011].”

Peter Bedrosian, senior manager of product planning for Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA), which just launched the market-engineered Nissan NV full-size van, told me that based on R.L. Polk numbers and the OEM’s internal projections the “full-size pickup market will get back to two million in size in the next two years and full-size vans are headed back to their historical volume of 300,00 units in the next two to three years.”



Nissan NV roll-out earlier this year

Bedrosian added jocularly that “commercial customers can only put so much duct tape on their trucks. To be sure, there is pent-up demand out there for new light-duty trucks.”

For a look at what OEMs see as the key demands of light-duty commercial truck fleets and how they’re meeting those requirements, keep an eye out for my feature article on this topic in the May print issue of FleetOwner.



Sprinter: First “Eurovan” here– and still the largest in size

If last year’s Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) was a wake– and trust me, it was… and not by any means an Irish one– for the pre-Great Recession trucking industry, this year’s MATS by happy contrast had the feel of a very lively christening… for a trucking industry in the throes of being reborn thanks to the economic recovery finally slipping into gear.

Everyone from truck OEMs to major component manufacturers were upbeat in their forecasts for how 2011 truck sales will turn out as well as looking ahead very favorably at the action expected from buyers in 2012. However, suppliers did point out universally that the higher vehicles sales expected this year over last will be driven primarily by replacement demand and that fleets won’t substantially add to their fleets until at least next year.

And while all agreed the motor carriage segment is coming back from the recession with a leaner field of players, those carriers are financially healthy and will benefit from higher rates as freight levels grow due to the dropping out of weaker competitors since the recession hit. But not surprisingly, forecasts of vocational sales were less optimistic given the construction industry has not yet rebounded significantly.



Show floor was hopping this year in Louisville

Over-the-road fleets, it was emphasized again and again in interviews on the floor and during formal remarks given at press events, are already dealing with the return of a driver shortage, marching in step with rising freight demand. But this time around, the hunt for skilled and safety-conscious drivers is being heightened by the need for both carriers and their drivers to satisfy the new federal CSA safety rules.

New federal rules coming that will aim to boost truck fuel economy and cut greenhouse gas reductions– the “green and green” regs, if you will– were also highly topical, framing the remarks of many OEMs as well as engine builders talking up greener powertrain options, ranging from more efficient diesels to key alternative gaseous fuels– CNG, LNG and LPG– to hybrid and all-electric trucks.

The trend toward more common carriers running regional-haul trucks was clearly underscored by several OEMs that intrdouced Class 8 model variants directed squarely at this growing sub-segment.

But what was lacking from the show floor were any altogether-new truck models. No doubt OEMs had had their hands full just meeting the 2010 EPA emisisons standards let alone having to coast their way through a few years of diminished sales as well.

However, each OEM hosting a press event had something new to talk about– running the gamut from aerodynamic enhancements to highway tractors to new alternative-fuel engine offerings to driver-centric navigation-plus onboard systems.

To be sure, if past history repeats itself, a solid year of rising new truck sales as well as the need to continue differentiating their offerings in a crowded marketplace– particularly via more fuel-efficient and even less-polluting trucks and engines– it’s a safe bet that next year’s MATS press calendar will be crowded with true “all new” truck model rollouts.

Stay tuned!

“It’s like deja-vu, all over again.”

–Yogi Berra, baseball sage

It’s not quite “all over again,” but the news out of Washington DC these days sure makes it feel a lot like we’ve returned to the good old days of 1983. And that would be a good thing. Specifically in terms of seeing the elected fiefdoms of the federal government work together when they should in bipartisan fashion– that is, above politics– to resolve key challenges to our nation’s economic well-being and security.

Once upon a time, bipartisanship reigned in our nation’s corridors of power. If you were born much later than 1970, though, you may have little or no recollection of seeing in action what one professor had drummed into my hung-over head during an early-morning political-science class back around 1979: “The three principles of American governance are compromise, compromise and compromise.”

Our late President Ronald Reagan and the late Speaker of the House Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. (D-MA) already have secured a place in American history for the bipartisan deal-making they engaged in to hammer out a Social Security solution in 1983 that so far has solidly stood the test of time. That even though American politicking has in too many ways since Reagan left office veered far away from the three principles noted above, which have served our nation so well since the Constitution was ratified in 1788.

Of course, they weren’t the first national leaders to make things happen via the fine art of compromise (not to mention in their case a surfeit of Irish wit that both brought ever smilingly to the negotiating table!).

In an opinion piece penned for US News & World Report back in 2009, Matthew Dallek pointed out that Reagan and O’Neill demonstrated in 1983 that “bipartisan action can happen in swift and surprising terms on the thorniest and most insoluble of issues… the bipartisan compromise on Social Security stands in hindsight as about as striking a breakthrough imaginable in the deeply polarized political atmosphere of Reagan’s first term.”

As Dallek put it, “Reagan’s opposition to the capstone of the New Deal produced bitter fruit in his first year in office” With a fiscal cloud over Social Security, the administration declared it wanted to cut benefits for people who had retired before the age of 65.

“Republicans and Democrats alike reacted to the White House plan with a combination of disdain and derision,” the columnist noted. “The Senate voted 96 to none against while a large bipartisan majority in the House opposed it as well.”

But Reagan rebounded, establishing a bipartisan commission to figure out how to extend the solvency of the Social Security trust fund. The commission came up with a compromise that Dallek said “cemented a new reigning political consensus on Social Security”—that it was politically untouchable going forward.

The 1983 Social Security Reform Act not only reversed Reagan’s own ideological opposition to Social Security, the columnist contended, “but also identified the nation’s leading conservative as a defender of liberalism’s most cherished achievement.”

According to Dallek, Reagan biographer Lou Cannon praised the bill as “a compromise that did some things the Democrats wanted and some things the Republicans wanted.”

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Ron and Tip: Two guys who knew how to get things done– and with laughter and never any spite.

Nearly three decades on, Reagan’s and O’Neill’s ability to work together as elected leaders– not as party hacks or rabble-rousers– across not only the political aisle, but the chasm between their own ideological positions for the good of the nation bodes well for positive developments when the new Congress is seated in January.

While Reagan had to deal with a large Democratic majority in the House, the results of theis Fall’s mid-term elections mean that to get anything meaningful done in the rest of his term, President Obama will have to work with a Republican majority in the House as well as a Senate controlled only thinly by a slight Democratic majority.

Will John Boehner and Barack Obama be able to bridge their divide as Reagan and O’Neill did?

The good news so far is the President has clearly read his fresh cup of tea leaves correctly.

He fiercely defended the tax-cut deal he forged with Congressional Republicans earlier this month “against intense criticism from his own party, insisting it was “a good deal for the American people,” according to The New York Times.

Were they still around to offer counsel to Obama, I suspect Ron and Tip would slap him on the back, smile broadly and perhaps remind him of what that other great Irish wit, Oscar Wilde. once said: “Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.”

FleetOwner The Website has gone-all-social-media on you and me both.

In our never-ending campaign to inform and advance the American truck fleet manager, we long ago realized the World Wide Web is the new high ground of the Information Age, and seize on it we sure have.

Indeed, when it comes to engineering an effective and compelling web platform to enhance our editorial mission as an information source serving the trucking industry alone, I daresay Fleet Owner stands second to none.

But far from rest on our laurels, or pixels and bytes for that matter, all of us at FleetOwner– including our highly talented new-media support staff– are constantly scratching our heads and travelling the vast reaches of the Internet so we can bring you, dear reader/visitor, all the tools that can drive your success in trucking and present them all in one place- on our nifty home page.

And that brings me back to social media. Before I go any further, please take another look-see at our FleetOwner home page and locate the “Find us on Facebook” blue-logo button on the left side just above “Executive Reports.” Click on it and you get sent right to our new Social Media Newsroom page, which provides visitors who might not be familiar with social networking sites with an introduction to these services.

Our Social Media Newsroom makes this scene truly a virtual reality…

“Online readers, especially those of business publications like FleetOwner, are an increasingly web-savvy group who are demanding more and more information from a variety of channels,” points out our own Master of the Web Universe, Cole Young, FleetOwner’s online content strategy manager. “Readers also want to interact more with others within their industry. That’s what access to sites like Facebook and Twitter allow FleetOwner to help them to do.

Socila media works for me and all of us at FleetOwner– and hopefully it will for you as well.

Time was, truckers from different carriers socialized on the road over plates of chicken-fried steak piled high with all the fixins’ followed by hearty slabs of pie à la mode, three or four or more cups of Joe, and maybe two or three coffin nails before again going their separate ways down the highway.

From the 1920s on, there wasn’t much that changed about that aspect of the trucking life until the CB radio boom of the ’70s. In its heyday the CB — before its airwaves more or less sunk into a morass of let us say degeneracy — got truckers jawing with each other without even leaving their cabs, let alone having to wait until they were ordering up a blue plate special at a truckstop.

But with current hours-of-service regs being as tight as they are — not to mention most dispatchers being able to virtually ride along with drivers thanks to in-cab electronics and cell phones — there isn’t much time for brother (and sister) truckers to chit-chat over a meal or a cuppa anymore out on the road.

With the CB turned off except for maybe when local road conditions need to be checked in bad weather or to figure out an unexplained delay, there is really only one quick and easy way for truckers to shoot the breeze anymore with lots of other truckers — over the Internet.



Want to keep drivers happy? Try reaching out to them wherever they are via social media.

But there is a new-fangled way to talk to drivers that I don’t think is getting much consideration yet by fleets. At least I have not heard of any fleets leveraging this particular human resources tool set.

Yet many professional drivers and millions of other folks around the globe have discovered the incredible new way to converse is via one form or another of social media. That includes everything from Facebook and Twitter to even the video-posting sensation that is YouTube. All these outlets enable truckers 9and everyone else!) to interact informally and very immediately.

Well, perhaps you guessed it, but social media can be just as potent — if not more so — a means of connecting a fleet with the drivers it wants to keep from churning away, especially the ones a fleet will need when the economic recovery starts picking up speed and the new CSA federal safety rules start chipping away at the existing driver roster at many fleets.

Here is but one example of how much social media appeals to drivers. As a lark back on Christmas Day while killing time between family gatherings, I went on Facebook and created a group called .North American Trucking Journalists

My intent was no more than to set up a virtual café where my professional colleagues who cover trucking could talk shop somewhere that had no ties to anything even vaguely official. I figured maybe a couple or three dozen ink-stained wretches like me might pull up a chair.

They did, indeed, but as I discovered quickly in just the next day or two, so did many professional drivers. At last count, over 300 “friends” have signed on to that Facebook page (which is not promoted in any way by me nor is it managed more often than once a week by me, if that) and about 80% of them state that they are or appear to be — to me anyhow! — professional drivers. Clearly, even contact with journalists is sought by truckers!

Seriously, though, what a truck fleet is really all about is not hauling freight or providing services, but people. Above all, the people who get the job done for its customers — the drivers who deliver the goods, day after day, mile after mile.

Shouldn’t every fleet owner want to use every possible means to know them better?