American Truckers United - Safety, Security, Sanity – with Shannon Everett – (Part 2 of 2) - [Ep. 262]

Linda J. Hansen:  Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101 Breakroom Economics® Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host and the author of Prosperity 101, Job Security Through Business Prosperity, the Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck® and the creator of the Breakroom Economics® Online course.

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I believe this will lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement, and retention, and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. Listen each week to hear from exciting guests and be sure to visit prosperity101.com.

Thank you for joining with us today. I have a follow up interview with Shannon Everett from the American Truckers United, and for those of you who were listening last week, we were touching on the issues in the trucking industry that are affecting all Americans and our safety, our security.

This is something that not only affects our safety on the roads in terms of making sure we have English speaking drivers, drivers that understand our transportation laws and our driving laws, but it also affects our national security as the immigration crisis brought in so many illegal citizens, not always for positive purposes. So the amount of trucks and drivers on the road that are not only impacting our safety, but they are carrying things that are impacting our national security. So before we get into some of that and how this whole journey has affected you personally as well, Shannon, I'd like you to just kind of reintroduce yourself, tell us how you got involved with American Truckers United.

I know you have a history in the trucking industry, but in a short capsule of how you started it, and people can go back and listen to the previous episode to find out the long story of what happened in Arkansas. But you are a co-founder of American Truckers United, a very necessary organization. I'm just so honored to have you on again.

So thank you, Shannon, for being here. I want you to introduce yourself to the listeners.

Shannon Everett: Thank you, Linda.

I've been in the industry for 25 years. I'm the son of a trucker. I grew up in the trucking industry and went straight out of high school and drove a truck for my dad and worked in a dispatch, made my way into sales and helped my father expand from 50 trucks to 1,000.

We sold that back in 2015. I stayed on and managed it for the buyers, which was a public company, in 2019 is when I laid off over 400 people. That was due to competing with foreign drivers, abusing visas. There's a long story and my efforts in talking to legislators about that and the Trucking Association.  But essentially, I put that down until in 2024, I saw people being killed.

I had a prophetic word spoken over me. I felt called to it. Then I saw the crash of Scott Miller and I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing, so it was at that point that we created American Truckers United and we started being an advocate for the voice of the American truck driver on the issues of immigration for the American trucking companies and for the crash victims who have been impacted by these loopholes and these abuses. 

Linda J. Hansen: Well, I really appreciate your service to that and walking through that open door and accepting that call. If the listeners heard the first part of our interview, they know that from the very first interview where I heard you, I tried to get a hold of you like that very first interview.

I literally reached out to you on X, I think. And you have a lot of followers. So I'm sure my message got lost, but I was trying hard to get a hold of you because this information is so important.

I'm just so grateful that you're here with us today. So in the first part of our interview, we talked about your efforts at the state level, both in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and to get some really common sense legislation passed to close the loopholes in terms of safety and security in the trucking industry. I know that those loopholes are at the federal level as well.

Can you talk to us about how those state level things have led to more activity at the federal level and what's happening at the federal level? How can we help? How can we as citizens help make sure we do close these loopholes and make our roads safer?

Shannon Everett: I would say that we're a high trust society. There's a lot of things that we haven't written laws for because we expect it to be just acceptable standards and common sense. It's stuff that we shouldn't have to write laws for. In a lot of places, especially in this situation, there's already a federal law in place. So why codify it into state law? 

Well, because what if the feds don't enforce the law? It's a matter of public safety. So that's what we ran into here, and that's what we talked about in the first episode. We ended up being successful in the state of Oklahoma in passing SB 20, Senate Bill 20, which is the Secure Roads and Safe Trucking Act of Oklahoma.

So essentially, we codified into state law. So irregardless of what the feds do with executive orders and what the next president does, we now have state law in the state of Oklahoma that says if you don't read or speak English, then you're not allowed to drive a commercial motor vehicle. If you are driving a commercial motor vehicle, you'll be placed out of service.

We will impound your truck. You'll be fined $3,000 and you must bond out by paying that fine before you pick up your truck and bring in another driver. The same applies for a non-domiciled CDL. If you're operating on one of these new non-domiciled CDLs that are issued to non-citizens and you can't prove who you are, you can't provide us with a valid work visa, and you can't provide us with a valid proof of citizenship, you're out of service, your truck's impounded, $3,000 fine. Same thing goes for a guy on a foreign CDL.

If you're here on a CDL from Mexico and we can't validate your identity, we can't validate that you have a proper work visa, we can't validate that your citizenship is aligned with the issuing country of the commercial driver's license. The reason that matters is we have a reciprocal agreement with the country, Canada, in USMCA that says, hey, Canada, you can come down here and we can go up there. The problem is they don't send Canadians.

And so the big game is, oh, we'll cheat the system, we'll let a bunch of people from Southeast Asia immigrate into Canada and we'll send them down there as truck drivers and let them work for a fifth of what an American truck driver would. And so the new law in Oklahoma says your passport has to match the country of your license. And so if you have a Canadian license, you better be a Canadian.

Or you're out of service, your truck's impounded, and you have a $3,000 fine. All of that has been done to restore back to the trucking industry in Oklahoma what we already had five years ago. So all of that was already in place and wasn't being abused.

And so really, we're just resetting the clock. Okay, feds, you're not going to enforce the law. We're going to codify in the state law here what's acceptable for Oklahoma.

And what's important here is that this is a model for everyone in the country to set a standard because everybody says, well, this is a federal issue. No, federal law says that the state, we have state's rights, and the states can enforce a higher standard on commercial motor vehicle safety. They just cannot enforce a lower standard.

And so what we're trying to do is put a higher standard. So every state has the right to put a higher standard on these commercial motor vehicles. 

Linda J. Hansen: Perfect. Is there legislation right now that is at the federal level that people can express an opinion about? Or do they just need to call their elected officials and say, we need to close this up and look at what this state legislation is and codify it into federal law? 

Shannon Everett: And so the good thing about battles is people like to watch battles and battles get a lot of attention. So the battle in Arkansas started reverberating up into the federal level. We started, we had a phone call with the staff of the vice president, making them aware of the issue, asking for help.

They agreed to take the issue over to the president's staff. So they did that back in February or so. And then we sent a letter to the Secretary of Transportation in March.

While we're working on these battles at the state level, we were firing off letters and stuff up to the federal level and saying, hey, Secretary Duff, will you please help us with this issue? And so we had engaged with one of the leaders in the FMCSA, was working with us on the issue. 

Linda J. Hansen: Explain to the listeners the FMCSA.

Shannon Everett: So the FMCSA is an agency underneath the Secretary of Transportation and underneath the Department of Transportation that's specifically focused on commercial motor vehicle safety. The acronym is Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 

And so Duffy had come in with some new staff. And so we had someone inside the FMCSA that was communicating with us. They had promised us in early March, hey, we're on this, we're not ignoring it. We got a bunch of plane crashes right now, and they did. But this matters and we're focused on it, and a month later, we got a surprise announcement. It was the President of the United States who had issued an executive order.

If you take House Bill 1569 from Arkansas and the issues that we're trying to address, the executive order was addressing those issues. If you take the letter that we wrote to Duffy, he just did it. So we're very thankful for that. And the executive order, it was a home run on English proficiency because the president did exactly what we were trying to do, which is put them out of service.

But then on the non-domicile CDL and the foreign CDL, he really called for an investigation. He wants more data, so we just issued another letter last week, giving him some more data and giving him some more information to pursue on that.

I think Secretary Duffy is supposed to have him response on the 25th about those issues, so our letter is calling for them to revoke and ban non-domiciled CDLs. Non-domiciled CDLs did not exist. Maybe they issued 10 or 20 here or there, I don't know. But as an industry expert and having talked to multiple other industry experts, none of us had ever heard of or seen non-domiciled CDLs issued to non-citizens. I have spoken to leaders of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which is this nonprofit group that the FMCSA puts in charge of all the out-of-service criteria and all that.

I got completely flabbergasted that non-domiciled CDLs were being issued to non-citizens. I've talked to leadership from previous administrations at the FMCSA that said there's no way they're issuing non-domiciled CDLs to non-citizens. So what's happening right now is a complete new phenomenon.

The fact that it continues to go on, and we're screaming over it from the mountaintops, and everybody's looking at it as if it's been some kind of acceptable standard that's been in place for decades. It's not. It's this giant gaping loophole that has been abused over the last four years, and continues to sit there being abused, even though it's almost like the house is on fire, everything's burning. There's somebody at the fire department saying, there's a fire, it's burning.

And they're like, oh, well, that house has been burning for five years, so just let it, like there's no reaction. It's like, what are we doing? I've learned, I have a deeper respect now for an act of Congress, because I think that's how everybody feels now when you're working on stuff.

It's just like, this seems really simple. Like this wasn't, there's no, so there's no law that's been written. There's nothing codified in that says, hey, we need to give non-domiciled CDLs to non-citizens.

This is completely interpretation. And so, at some point, somebody said, oh, well, this could mean that we should give these to people that aren't from the country. And so, when I go back to saying they were the architects, that first guidance came from the American Trucking Association.

They sent out a guidance that said, well this could mean that you could give CDLs to non-citizens, and then the FMCSA issues guidance, and then it just. 

Linda J. Hansen: It just goes, this is one of the things. So, listeners, this may seem overwhelming to you, and it may seem like well, wait a second, this is common sense, right? Well, as we've learned, a lot of things that are common sense don't actually happen in government.

You mentioned that it's the last four years. Well, that was the immigration crisis. I mean, this is the intentional destruction of the safety and stability of our nation through bringing in millions and millions and millions of undocumented, illegal aliens.

It was planned, it was purposeful. For those of you who don't agree if you're listening to this and you think we're wrong, I invite you to just keep researching. You can also go back and listen to some of the podcasts that I've had regarding immigration with Tom Homan and Todd Bensman and Ben Berkwam and others that have really brought out the issue.

So those are some of the podcast issues I've had in the past. And you can see the progression of the immigration crisis. Now, in this current Trump administration, the security at the border has increased, we're tracking down on these things, it's working.

So it's like we have to do things in so many layers. I know you and I were talking about why are things happening so slowly? I said, a lot of times they're drinking water from a fire hydrant. I mean, there's so many things happening. Like, it's insane, right? But this is critically important. These fights are not for the faint of heart too. So for the average listener who is going to call their elected official, the federal switchboard number, by the way is 202-225-3121.

So make sure you call and say that you care about this issue and you want there to be legislation that closes these loopholes. I'm sure if you go to the website, americantruckers.com, you will find language, information. There are steps there that you can take to be an advocate for this.

So you'll find all you need on their website. But 202-225-3121, you want to call there. You want to call and say that you care about this issue. But for those of us who've often been on the front lines of things that might impact someone's money flow, it's not always easy. I want to just let people know that this has been a personal battle for you too. You've faced some threats.

You've faced opposition. It's not been easy. So I just want to appreciate that and whatever you want to share about that. I don't want to scare people away from getting involved because we can't. But here's the thing, when we're on the side of truth, truth always wins. Truth and time go together. Truth always wins. God tells us not to fear.

If He puts something in our hearts to be a voice about, we must do it and we will be successful. So Shannon, share a little bit about your personal journey. But then give an encouragement to listeners who see this problem and just think this is insane. I'm sure that really probably everybody listening, is listening and saying, this is an insane issue. Why are we even dealing with this? Right. But we are.

So we need to fix it, and so how would you encourage those people, even if they might face some opposition? 

Shannon Everett: Yeah, in 2019, when I first brought this issue up, I had that same outrage about me. I had met with several of our legislators and I had a large company, so I had an open door to those people and was able to go in and tell my issue. But I quickly met opposition with the Trucking Association.

I can remember there was one of our federal representatives at a meeting, and there was a lot of us trucking executives sitting there. I asked the representative on stage, I said, what are you going to do about all of these illegals driving commercial motor vehicles on our highways? And he said, Shannon, I didn't even know that was an issue.

So we had a meeting. He said come to my office and let's talk about it. So we had a meeting after that. At the same time, I get called in by the Trucking Association. And they're like, hey, I've been getting a lot of phone calls about you bringing up this issue.

You need to put this down, and their exact words to me in that office were, you're going to knock down a wasp nest and not have no wasp for it. I said, I don't know how to take this, but I'm going to tell you right now, this matters to me.

These people's jobs matter to me, and this is a common sense issue. So really, that's so the battle started in 2019 with that first confrontation, and it was them telling me to shut up.  I went and met with my legislators and every time I got the same message. Well, I agree with you. This is an issue, but we can't really fight. We can't go against the Trucking Association. You're going to have to get the Trucking Association behind this. We can't go out here and just represent one person. You're going to have to get more people outraged about this. The problem was, for some reason, I could see all of this from the perspective that I had in the seat that I had. I was fortunate enough. I could see what was taking place, but everybody else didn't have all the puzzle pieces. I couldn't build a coalition back then.

I did end up knocking down a wasp nest and received a death threat in the year 2020. And so I put the issue down. I was like, man, I don't know what's going on here. Nobody wants to help me. Nobody wants to talk. Now somebody's threatening me like, what is all this? I didn't work on the issue for four years. I'm actually thankful for that now. So I would just say that God has a way of using everything.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes, He does.

Shannon Everett: And so I call that my cave time and my cave time cave. I think everybody gets caved. I know everybody gets caved. 

Linda J. Hansen: I've had cave time. 

Shannon Everett: Yeah, and so use that cave time to get closer to the Lord.

And that's what I did. So for those four years, I sharpened my sword. I got close to the Lord and I found fellowship with Jesus Christ, so I came out a completely different person. I'm thankful for that. So the way God used that was in 2024.

Shannon's a new man. He's got fellowship with the Lord. And now Scott Miller gets killed in front of him with the same mechanism that was used to replace all those truck drivers. So God convicted me and spoke very clear to me, you can do something about this. You're supposed to be doing something about this.

I have a choice. Scott Miller didn't have a choice. Martin Ryan didn't have a choice, so that spoke very clearly to me. I answered that call and when you look at the logo of American Truckers United, and I talked about in the first episode, there's a coin on the top of the truck that talks about this being a spiritual battle. And it is. It's a spiritual battle for me. It's a spiritual battle for all of you, whatever it is that you're facing.

But also on the license plate of the truck is Psalm 34. The license plate says Psalm 34. And Psalm 34 is a Psalm that King David wrote from the cave of Adlam. When he was in his cave time. So that psalm is very important to me and speaks very clearly to my heart. It's one of the verses in there and I think Psalm 34:8 says, taste and see that the Lord is good.

I think the message I have for everyone is that when you're in God's will, there's nothing to fear and it's all good. I would much rather be in the will of God facing whatever it is that I have to face, than to be outside of the will of God in fear or worry about something. If I can encourage anyone today, God wants you to face whatever you're afraid of.

He will do that with you as long as you take Him with you, so the significance of it is first fellowship with the Lord. Then He will very clearly speak to you and tell you what it is He called you to do what He wants you to do. Then He will very clearly open the doors that he wants you to walk through. He will very clearly close the doors that He wants closed.

So that's that's the walk that I've been on for the last two years, really. Or I guess last year is just trusting him saying, yes I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing and this is what I'm going to do and I trust that that he's going to open the doors that need to be open and take care of me and my family and the American truck drivers and communities.

You know, if I can stop one Scott Miller or one Mark Bryan from being unnecessarily killed, then it's a victory. I think we're doing that. 

Linda J. Hansen: Yeah, well obviously, your recent statements would be a great way to close the interview, absolutely. But there is one more question I'd like to ask. I think of employers that I have tried to encourage to educate employees about all the issues that affect their jobs. And just in a short statement, what would you tell the employers out there? Twofold answer.

One, how would you tell them to educate employees about the importance of this issue to their jobs? And two, employers who believe in the Lord, who would love to share the love of Jesus with their employees? So a twofold question.

Shannon Everett: Yeah, and it's so in this matter for employers, this is much bigger than just truck drivers and truck driver jobs. This also economically impacts the billing clerks and the dispatchers and the customer service clerks and the accounting clerks.

If they can bring in a bunch of non-citizens to displace the American workers, why would you think that they're going to protect your accounting job or your customer service job or your billing job? So it affects all of us to have to draw a line and say,  hey, we have a border for a reason. You have to come in here legally. You have to pay the same taxes that we do so that people can't steal your jobs.

If we allowed a steel company to come in here and dump a bunch of steel in from a foreign country using slave labor, you would put all the steel mills out of business.  If you allow your competitors to come in from a foreign country and dump a bunch of foreign workers in here against your workers, you're going to be put out of business and your workers are going to be without a job. And so I go back to it's a spiritual battle.

We have to fight it spiritually. So I would say first, dig in and pray. Get in the word of God. Draw close to Him and get ready for a battle. I think one of the interesting things about the word of God is no one was ever free from battle. David had to kill a lion. He had to kill a bear. Then he had to fight Goliath. Then he had Saul pursuing him. And then he had his son Absalom. I probably got that name wrong. But it was battle, battle, battle, battle, battle, battle, battle.

So we're going to constantly have battles. So the most pressing thing I can tell anyone is lean into God immediately, because whatever you're going through, He's going to get you through it. And He's going to get you to the next one and the next one and the next one.

And you will find the courage to stand up and face whatever fear you have, whether that's a financial situation or like for us, it's this border situation. But God has a great plan for us. God has a perfect plan for us, as He explains in Jeremiah.

But that plan is in His will. And so are you in His will? Are you in His word? Are you listening to Him? Are you letting Him guide you? Because if you are, you're perfectly fine. No matter what's going on, no matter what's coming at you, if you're in His will, it's fine. It's okay. 

Linda J. Hansen: It's okay. It's perfect. Romans 8:28 says, we know that all things work together for good for them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. And you mentioned your cave time. For those who may not really know the story of David in the Bible or what we're referring to when we say cave time, it's I think there's times in life, like you mentioned for you, where our plans get disrupted.

The Bible also says we make our plans but the Lord directs our steps and it's like, it's all about plan B, I say and being able to let God take that and show us what He wants to do with that and He will use everything for good in our lives. If we let Him, He turns ashes to beauty and it's incredible.

So I love what He's done in your life, in what he's doing with American Truckers United. I could talk to you forever because this issue is so wide reaching into all of the different industries and facets of life here in the US. So, really around the world, but when we look at what's happening with the US trucking industry and these loopholes that need to be closed up for safety and national security, this is incredibly important.

So listeners, I invite you to get involved, go to the website, americantruckers.com, sign up to get their newsletters, follow, what are your social media handles?

Shannon Everett: It's all @ ATUtruckers. So on Twitter, it's that on everything, whether it's TikTok or Facebook.

Linda J. Hansen: Okay and they have great videos, reports, new things coming up all the time. You want to go to their website, follow them on social media and stay up to date because you have no idea what's happening on the roads that you're driving on, that your loved ones are driving on. And you have no idea the ripple effects of this really into the businesses across America.

We all need to be more aware. So I'm not trying to scare anyone or tell people, oh, you don't know. It's just who knew? Like, this is such a common sense issue. Like you said, we're a trusting society. We think, common sense rules, right? But it doesn't. And so we all need to be activated to make sure we change this and make a positive difference. So Shannon, thank you again. And if people want to get in touch with you directly, they can do so right through the website, correct? 

Shannon Everett: That's right. You can either register our emails there or phone numbers there. You can call us. You know, I really appreciate the opportunity to share the story and the mission of American Truckers United with you today.

I really appreciate the fact that people like you care about these grassroots issues. These issues affect not only the American trucking industry but everyday Americans, and it takes getting the message out. It takes people caring for one another, caring about each other's issues, even though you're not in the trucking industry, you see that this is a common American issue that affects everyday Americans. And just like that time when I got up and spoke in committee, you're taking that step of faith right now, just by spending time with me and allowing this message to be recorded on your podcast and get out to the people. So I appreciate that. I really appreciate you having me on the show today. 

Linda J. Hansen: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it, and may God continue to bless your efforts. Thank you. I'd like to say a special thank you to the listeners. Thank you for spending time listening to this episode and a special thank you to our prosperity partners, those who give financially to help us keep the podcast on the air. If you'd like to become a prosperity partner, please visit the prosperity partner link on our website.

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