why we can be successful
Let’s Clear Up the Biggest Point of Confusion
When we say we are on firm legal ground, we mean exactly that.
There is nothing in antitrust law that prevents Congress from setting a minimum freight rate.
Antitrust laws stop private companies from colluding.
They do not stop Congress from setting public standards for interstate commerce.
That has always been settled law.
So legality is not the issue.
If It’s Legal, Why Hasn’t It Happened?
That’s the real question.
And the answer isn’t the law.
The answer is political will.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
This industry is broken in a way that makes a lot of powerful people a lot of money.
Hidden spreads
Hidden margins
Arbitrage
Exploitation
Chaos
That chaos isn’t accidental.
It benefits brokers, private equity, and large interests who know how to profit when drivers and small carriers have no transparency and no leverage.
How Congress Actually Moves
Congress doesn’t move because something is “right.”
Congress moves because pressure becomes impossible to ignore.
Right now, trucking is easy to ignore:
Drivers complaining
Small carriers barely surviving
Everyone divided
That looks like background noise.
We change that.
What We’re Asking For (And What We’re Not)
Let’s be clear.
We are not asking to control the market.
We are not asking for anything radical.
We are asking for guardrails so the market can actually function.
That means:
A minimum freight rate so trucks run above cost plus profit
Transparency, so everyone knows what the real numbers are
$1 per mile for drivers, so the industry stops rewarding unsafe, illegal, and exploitative operations
That’s it.
This Is Not a New Idea — It Already Worked
From the 1950s through the 1970s, trucking was:
Stable
Professional
Profitable
Why?
Because there were guardrails.
When those guardrails were stripped away in 1980, chaos replaced order.
That’s not ideology.
That’s history.
What Actually Stands in the Way Now
Not the courts.
Not the Constitution.
Not antitrust law.
What stands in the way is power.
And power only moves when enough people push in the same direction.
Not by yelling.
Not by fighting each other.
Not by chasing distractions.
But through:
Organization
Discipline
Unity
Numbers
Why This Moment Matters
Eleven thousand signatures matter.
They prove this is real.
But political will happens when this becomes impossible to ignore:
When shippers want stability
When carriers want survival
When drivers demand dignity
When the public understands this is about safety and the supply chain, not “trucking drama”
What AFFTRA Is About
AFFTRA is not noise.
AFFTRA is not chaos.
AFFTRA is pressure with purpose.
We are not blocked by the law.
We are blocked by power.
And power moves when enough people stand together.
That’s why this fight matters.