YES!!!! Let's STRIKE!!!!!!!!

I have been working with David Webb on Sirius/XM patriot on a one hour pullover May 23rd from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EDT. Next week a press release goes out to major media, and Hannity may get involved too. The point of this first stoppage, only for an hour, is not to disrupt anything, but to be SEEN. If the news media thinks we are serious, people who count WILL notice. They know we vote. They know the people in cars driving past vote, and the people in cars driving past are PISSED about $4.00 gasoline! Everyone can pull over for an hour. No one will get fired, or lose any freight. Picture driving down the interstate with hundreds of trucks pulled off on the shoulder. We may get four wheelers joining in just for the heck of it. This really CAN work if we get together! Listen to FOX talk on Monday, Brian Kilimeade and friends. David Webb had me on his show Saturday afternoon talking this pullover up, and there should be ample press about it next week. I'm asking for your help. Believe me, the administration is worried. Obama announced today he was extending oil leases (which doesn't really do any good, because permits are what the drilling companies need) so he could look like he was doing something. Make some noise, it will be fun! Join us for an hour, what can it hurt?
More info at www.teapartytrucker.com

 

I will most likely be to busy making money to worry about how others run their business( as in the oil companies) or what commodities people whine about buying
Add To your request to get the heck off the road and find a parking space when they have the big show

 

IMHO, a strike is pointless. I believe a political decision has been taken that long haul trucks are too hard on the environment and too inefficient. All the regulations and recent crap heaped on the trucking industry are aimed at making truck transport slower and more costly than rail. In the end we'll all end up pulling containers from the local rail head out to local shippers and back.
All a strike will do is convince more people that using rail for line haul is the quicker and cheaper way to get things done.

 

this has to be one of the funniest threads ive read in a long time

a "strike" of shutting down for a hour aint gonna do ####. now shut down for a day? maybe. but you have too many illegals and too many contract workers that are not gonna do it. all the russians,bosnians, mexicans, arabs etc. that are pulling for .10 a mile plus a green card every year.

and all the company guys (im a company guy). i dont pay for fuel costs, i dont pay for repairs, i dont pay for anything so the rising prices of fuel and freight- dont matter really to me. i still get paid the same mileage rate whether the freight price is $1000 or $2000.

now if i owned my own truck it'd be a completely different story. i say keep your nose down and if you dont like what your doing sell your truck and go to wal mart as a greeter.

 

yeah and the Branch i knew of, (green lettering Branch, with green trucks) have long since gone out of business...

like notarps said, every stinking year someone talks stupid about shutting down or going on strike......ain't gonna happen. save the bandwidth here for other threads.

 

I always hear that some drivers can't afford to shut down, and thats crap.
Repo man and the banks don't want the trucks. They want to keep the payments rolling in. Strike could change everything, and/or break the economy. It would not last more than a day or two. The country could not take it.

BUT

I don't see it ever happening. The backbone of this country is trucking, but there is no centralized organization, spokesman or leader. Who is going up to DC with a list of complaints and demands? There is no voice for the truck driver. With a leader standing up to DC, changes could be worked out and things changed without a strike.

Fuel is only one problem. The companies should be all over DC for that alone, but they are not. I spend 700.00 to 800.00 every other day, but I'm a company driver. I can only imagine how much they spend in fuel each month. I can't imagine how O/O's make it.

Everyone has complaints about different things from hours of service to the gestapo in some of these scale houses. I got an overweight ticket on northbound 85 at Ga - Sc line, in Ga. Trailer tandems, were 32,900. Thats right, 32,900. They pulled me around back and split weighed my axle's, one was 19,200 & the other 13,700 ... and they would not let it go. He wanted 17,000 or less on each ..... period end of discussion. I pull a hopper bottom trailer, fixed tandems. The ticket was 110.00 And I bet that DOT Officer had a very nice dinner, on me.
So, there are tons of things wrong with the system. But you can't just up and shutdown. Need someone in DC to try working with them, and if agreements and changes can't be agreed on, then it's time to show we are serious, and shutdown.
Kind of what union leaders do.
Am I missing something somewhere? Is there a voice? A leader? If there is, I haven't seen any good changes in the past 15 years.

 

give it a shot yourself man. I absolutely agree; people do need leaders who understand the situation and are willing to try to do something about it.

 

Did you ever hear of a fuel surcharge ? Fleets with trucks that get better mpg actually make more as fuel prices go up .
No voice ? Tell that to all those OOIDA dues paying members but I do agree with the lack of changes .

 

OOIDA is a good organization, but I don't see them trying to pull truckers in general together. I've never seen them in truck stops actively recruiting members and explaining issues they are fighting.... by the same note, I don't see the Teamsters doing that either.
Unions organize and work as one. In the 90's UPS went out on strike. UPS management scrambled to keep the trucks running and actually put managers and office people in trucks. I think 4 were killed in accidents before UPS gave in. OOIDA is not a union, and even though they do try to represent O/O's and contract drivers, I don't see them actively gearing up for any strikes, or making any demands from congress & D.O.T. that directly stand for the general company driver. I don't see them trying to get any petitions signed or anything that doesn't have a direct link to OOIDA members...... ever. A lot of the issues they are fighting are from things that have happened already, not a general overview of what is going on right now.
Unions usually sign 4 year contracts, and when time comes to renew contracts, that is when strikes happen..... when agreements can't be met. I'm not trying to put OOIDA down in any way, I think it is great that they do make an effort, but some things listed in the "Accomplishments" section of their web site, still continue to go on every day. We, as company drivers still have no leader to report problems to, and it can take years to fight injustices that happen to us everyday, where as with a union, you report things to your union rep, and they begin addressing issues right away. With a union, you are paid from union funds while on strike. That is one reason you pay union dues. I don't think OOIDA will do that. Please don't get me wrong.... I am grateful that OOIDA makes an effort, but unless every driver out there is a member of OOIDA, they are really a small nuisance to D.O.T. And if they become powerful enough to call for a strike, (or I should say a shut down since "Strike" is a union term) I would honor it and shutdown. They are just not powerful enough to make that call...... yet.

I also want to add that the FMCSR are fine. The big problem is that when the FMCSR was given to the the states, they also were given the right to make any rule more strict.... this is why you can be legal in one state, and not legal in the next state. I feel this is by design, just to keep drivers confused. D.O.T. really is not in the business of safety.... they are a money making machine. Don't believe that? We are human and mistakes are going to happen. The D.O.T. stance is that we must be perfect.... why fine a driver for drawing his off duty time line 15 minutes short?? It's a paper mistake.... but it's also a hundred bucks to the D.O.T. and thats a load of crap. They very seldom give you the 15 minutes to correct or catch up your logs, because the law says they can make any reg more strict. Do you feel it is right that your truck only runs 65 mph, but you made a mistake in your log that make it look as though you were running 75 and speeding? Even though it is impossible for you to go that fast, you still eat that ticket, and the D.O.T laughs all the way to the bank, or to the officers pocket. The problems are not so much in the rules, as the gestapo type enforcement of the rules. That needs to be changed. And the rules need to be unified so they are exactly the same no matter what state you are in.
Most D.O.T. officers don't have a clue how to drive a tractor trailer. I think before you tell me how to do it, you better be able to do it your self.

Also, things are going to get even worse. Thats right, we are now going to start seeing the effects of CSA, so get ready to get burned even more.

I'm happy with my job, BUT I have also begun applying for jobs with teamster backing.

And please, don't get me wrong, I'm not slamming OOIDA, I just think our power is in our numbers and unity. It's almost like an all or nothing situation.

I will be retiring in 8 years, and I almost bet the issues we face today will still be around 8 years from now. It took congress 7 years to raise minimum wage from 5.15 to 7.25, even though congress didn't miss any year without a raise during that time period, and I think they will drag these issues on as long as they can. Sort of like " ignore the situation and it will go away" mentality.

The best way to screw something up, is to let the government control it. It all works great in theory, but not in actuality, and as long as it works in theory, congress is happy with it.