Now this smack is funny!!! RAils is the future my arse!!!!
I can just see the congestion, and confusion at the rail yards now. Not to mention the traffic situation. (I bring this up because, how many of new warehouses, and even the old ones do you see rr tracks?)

As far as efficient, maybe, maybe not. what if a train had to stop at big truck crossings?!?!?!
What if the trucking industry was government subsidize instead of brutalized?

I hope everyone will forgive me if i am not inclined to follow Buffett's lead here and invest my savings into the railroads. I'm gonna take a chance here and continue to invest as I have. I realize that this flies in the face of almost certainly valid financial advice, but I have seen the railroads up close and personal, and I cn see no way that they are gonna be the savior of the country and the future of freight.

And in truth, I have some ever so slight doubts that the highly touted "mandatory team driving" concept is gonna come to pass. In the event that it does, then I shall be found gripping the steering wheel of nothing larger than a Ford Ranger. Since it is clear to me that along with mandatory teaming comes no choice of my mandatory partner, I shall simply give up rather than take my chances in lifes lottery. I am sure that many of you are truly wonderful people, and I greatly enjoy meeeting you on the internet. But that does not mean that I want to share the accourtrements of my little 48" box on the road with you, nor do I want to listen to your choice of music as I enjoy my rest period.

Nothing personal, but if Tip's world comes to pass, I shall not enjoy the 'benefits".

Carolina I did not say the future is in the rails, I said there is future in the rails meaning there could be potential for growth, but you will never get rid of the OTR freight market

So, to get back to the original topic of this convoluted mess, and bearing in mind that the original poster asked the question one day, and then checked back in the next day, and has never returned to the site at all, doe any of us yakking our butts off here have the faintest idea how you would calculate the carbon footprint of anything?

As part of this old ladies gabfest, I searched Yahoo, Google, and Wikipedia, and came up with a blank on information for calculating the carbon footprint of anything more significant than a 3 bedroom house.

And quite frankly, since the whole concept of a carbon foortprint seems to be something that only has appeal to back to the earth types and democratic presidential candidates, I suspect that in the entire scheme of things, it's not important enough for any one of us to spend out time worrying about.


Now, after that brief moment of sanity, back to the thread, Warren Buffett, choo choos, and the theories of why we will all be living our lives in the presence of unchosen partners in 5-8 years. LOL!!!!

Burky I've suggested that team driving will in a few years become the accepted norm. Not thru mandated gooberment legislation but thru the fact that the gooberment cuts HOS to the point where solos can't make enough money and companies won't be making enough to allow solos to run. I could be wrong, it did happen one time before, but my prediction is the public citizen safety groups will eventually be able to lobby the congress to change laws that they know nothing about.

__________________

Hey, brothers. I hope I'm wrong about it all, too.

But I think we're being herded like a bunch of dumb cows to mandatory teaming, generator-equipped trucks, and lots more trains with fewer trucks.

I have my fingers crossed.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

That's a small step on the road to "Tipsterism" and I am saddened to see you stepping that way. I will pray for the remains of your soul, though I should warn you in advance that my prayers tend to be left unanswered, or be spectacularly unsuccessful. So if something unplanned happens, it's probably gonna be my fault....

Brother, nothing is unplanned in this world. Not in the old USSR, not in Russia, not China, not even in the US of A. Well, when you go to vote for your local dog-catcher or go down to a Wal-Mart to buy crap, you may have a say, but that is about it. Even then, your choices have been influenced through incessant advertising. Even then you are being led around on a leash.

This is because we commoners can't be trusted with something as awesome as true democracy. So, elites control everything, thank Buddha. Don't even begin to think Congress, the Supreme Court, or the President has much say over your life. Washington and all the politcos are all part of a grand illusion. They are really only puppets who answer to our true masters, masters who do their level best to maintain stability so we can in turn have a peaceful society.

And plan, plan, plan is what the elites do. Warren is one of those elites.

I can only imagine how bad a truly "random" world, with imperfect, greedy people having possession of nuclear weapons, would really be. Hitler will not be allowed to happen again. The elites ensure Hitler will not happen again, and they are trying to keep our greedy, individualisitic, idiot selves under control to ensure something worse than Hitler won't happen. They are also trying to keep the economy churning by making sure a certain number of people have good-paying jobs. This takes planning. Lots and lots of planning.

Welcome to the real world, gentlemen.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

To point to a fine example of what I'm talking about, just in case there are a few skeptics out there who need an example, look no further than the recent debates of presidential candidates.

Who are these guys? Who said THEY would be the ones up on stage and not some other group of guys? Who decides? Who decides who even begins the journey down the road of "politico"?

Did somebody ask YOU who you wanted see up on that stage? Hell no. They didn't ask me, either. This is because they don't give a #### what your or I think.

Who are "they"? Our real rulers, of course. These guys have already decided whom you are going to vote for come Nov 2008. If you prefer somebody else to be running for president, then TOUGH. You're not supposed to be the one who chooses.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

Just thought I'd give you a little help, first off, move your warehouse outside of Seattle, it will help because driving a big truck in that mess you call Seattle burns alot of fuel and idle time.

A 670 Volvo with a D12 pulling that light of a load in "normal" weather can get up to 6.8-7MPG You'd be better off getting a smaller straight truck, which could get better mileage. Years of engines change things as well, I am unsure of the new models, but check out Volvo's website.