
A group of truckers were finally able to speak their minds regarding the upcoming ELD mandate after parking their rigs in front of a news station and taking to the streets with signs, prompting reporters to conduct an impromptu interview with the drivers.
The event occurred on Monday, December 4th outside of the WTEN News station in Albany, New York and was posted to Facebook by activist Tammy Lee.
The protest was originally scheduled for 9 a.m. on Monday morning at a separate location in Albany, but, after WTEN failed to show up as promised, the group of truckers decided to take the protest to them.
“They didn’t show up. So guess what… We’re showing up to them,” said Tammy Lee in a video posted to Facebook, documenting the event.
Truckers poured into the street in front of WTEN, parking their rigs in view of the station’s entrance and wielding brightly colored signs with slogans such as “Prayer works just fine for me! No ELD!” and “Hear our voice. We want a choice!”
“Oh, now they care… Now they care because we’re here,” retorted Lee as the camera crews and reporters made their way out of the building.
A woman then stepped out of the crowd and offered herself as a spokesperson for the group of truckers.
“It’s not really a protest, it’s just to raise awareness…,” she told crews. “The upcoming Electronic Logging device mandate… it’s pretty much the equivalent of an ankle bracelet on a criminal,” she continues, describing to news crews how the devices will track location, speed, and hours of service of a single truck driver.
She then went on to explain the financial burden the ELD mandate will place on owner-operators, and the unregulated production and certification of the actual devices themselves.
With the help of a few other truckers in the group, the woman and the other drivers got their point across with the news cameras rolling, and hope to make a difference before the December 18th deadline.
Watch the truckers’ interview with WTEN reporters below.