Chapter 26

At 1700 I sent everyone home; it had been a mind-boggling day. I issued more executive orders today than any previous day of my presidency, but they were desperately needed to keep things moving in the direction I thought was necessary.

As a result of all those orders, there were plenty of agencies, states, departments and unions unhappy with me. One of those orders that caused people to be unhappy was an expansion of national emergency directives.

The first one was a change in the Department of Transportation rules for over the road truck drivers, allowing them to drive more hours before a mandatory rest period.

Today’s trucks were like sitting in your easy chair and driving with controlled temperature, automatic transmissions and quiet in the cab. Most even had a sleeping birth and a bathroom. We needed emergency materials to the west coast, not sitting in the rest areas.

Another part of that was the companies that had or controlled the electronic logging for the drivers and trucks. The electronic logging device simply shut off the truck when the driver’s time was up.

Even if it was in the middle of an intersection or traffic jam! It allowed one twenty- minute restart and run to allow the driver to get the truck off the road and then the engine had to be off for eight hours minimum. Those companies had to change the settings on tens of thousands of trucks. Those people were upset with me.

The next was a waiver on Department of Transportation weight limits. Doing that allowed the trucks to carry more freight if there was room. It also required more changes to the electronic logging devices on the trucks.

Many of today’s trucks monitored the truck weight automatically by reading the air pressure in the air suspension systems. More weight on the truck required more air pressure in the system to keep the load and the truck somewhat level and a smooth ride for the freight. When the pressure hit the limit, buzzers and bells went ringing and the truck computer limited truck operation. More to be changed by the dealer’s shop tech people. They were unhappy.

The next part of the Department of Transportation waiver was the weigh station and portable over the road inspections. We have all seen them - a truck pulled over and several officers looking over the truck and the driver and another officer with a handful of papers.

The officer was checking the driver hours and comparing them to the logs, toll tickets, bills of lading - who sent the freight - where it was from - where it was going - what the freight was and to see if the placards displayed on the side of the truck matched the freight. Also, where the driver bought fuel last as fuel tax was an important revenue in some states.

There was even a system to divide up all the various taxes on trucks among member states.

Sometimes they even cut the security locks off the trailers to inspect the freight. Depending on conditions, each stop could take forty-five minutes. Cross three state lines and there was the possibility the truck could get stopped three times.

Two lights out on the same corner were a twenty-five dollar fine; a brake light was fifty. A tire that was at the wear bars was fifty dollars, two tires was a hundred and it was out of service - call a tire company at a thousand dollars for a road call in some places.

If a drop of oil fell on the officer while he was under the truck inspecting, it was out of service - fix it or call the tow truck. All those were upset with me, the officers were now doing other things, investigating accidents, playing cards whatever.

The states were upset - no more fine money for the politicians to spend. It was easy to write big fines for out of state truckers, they knew very few would be able to come back to court to contest the ticket. They would just pay the fines.

The west coast longshoreman union was upset with me. They were at the end of their contract, threatening a work slowdown and strike - the negotiations had been going on for months. The executive order I signed also extended further talks out one hundred and eighty days. They were upset because they saw the emergency as leverage in the talks.

Their attorneys were going to appeal the executive order and the unions were going to strike in two days - emergency or not. They were depending on their political clout influencing the judicial system there. ‘We shall see,’ I thought.

I was ready to close my office and walk through the tunnel when Troy called me back to a phone call from Japan. At first, I thought it was going to be Jake. He, Mindy and their kids were over there for two weeks.

The call was from Japan’s Prime Minister Shichirou Masao. I had made the call two days ago to ask if Japan would send any cruise ships to help move the former citizens of Hawaii to the mainland.