It's time for a strike!

In the 70's we went on strike and it lasted around three weeks, we were regulated at the time and was able to do some good but the feelings didn't last. Now we face a bigger threat than just war, we are just about to lose everthing we and I do mean we have, the economy is bad and it is a direct result of high prices at the fuel pumps. The time for blame is past. WE must act! $4/gal and the rates haven't changed since the early 90's. If you do the math we are broke already and if you think that finance companys care then you are in another world. For example a 500 mile trip paying $1.40 pays the company $700 with FSC included. Truck averaging 5 or 5.5 mpg uses 100 to 90.9 gallons to run plus idle time and 10 hour brk. Fuel cost will very anywhere from $400 to 445., leaving between $300 to 255 for paying the driver $180 based on $.36cpm. Leaving the rest to pay the bills for the truck, such as plates, permits, insurance, phone bill, electric, dispatcher, broker fees, trailer rental, etc., and were is the money for truck payments? The ones who are the bosses, so to say have these, plus they have to pay bills at home! Company drivers are just now seeing that it is already affecting them, thier bosses are not going home broke if they already have enough to retire and don't see the reason to through money down a dry well. If you can read this and still ask about a strike, you will when you don't go out on the town with your spouse and they ask why. Ask yourself what you would do if you were in the bosses shoes. The trip was a ideal one and doesn't actual work like that because of outside influences such as weather, type of terran {hills, mtns, wind, etc.}.

 

Forget about a strike...it will never happen. The problem is with the deals we have struck with OPEC and the deep roots that the powers that be have with them. Now...watch as the dollar declines you will see the price of everything go up more and more because it simply takes more dollars to buy foreign anything, including crude oil. Our economic problems are much deeper and more serious than we think. Yea, Exxon is cashing in and so are many politicians that are tied to oil. If you manage to pull off a strike...more power to you, but I think you will only be pacified and patronized by this government. It's time for some serious changes to be made. Every working person I know was richer and more confident eight years ago. Gas was $1.46 when Bush took office and now it's more than doubled in seven years...mission accomplished!

 

Yes let's blame Bush for

• The economy
• The War
• The Tsunamis in Jakarta (after all, did he not order the nuke detonations)

/SARCASM...in case ya didn't know it

 

My 2 cents .
The way I see this mess with the fuel is , its not the companies that own trucks , they are not setting the price of Fuel. The Government can do something , but at this point won't.
I know its really tough for the O/O drivers , even they are taking it easy on the roads . My husbands company has asked to lower their speed and now they are setting the speed back on the trucks .
How did everyone manage to do a truckers strick before ?
If you all dogtailed on the road , you would all be still working, and saving on fuel and yes I think people would notice.
This day with jobs aplenty a strick might be iffy for company drivers.
Good Luck in what ever is decided

 

I told one of my old employers that if that was so, then trucking companies are a nickel a dozen.

Especially since they run continuos ads in every publication...and brag about how large their latest orientation was. These ads cost them 10's of thousands of dollars annually, if not monthly.

It really must be frustrating to know that you CAN'T keep a driver, when they are so cheap

 

my daddy drives a truck and my mom doesnt work because she has had a hip replaced from a bad accident when she was hit by a truck on the ice.
but my daddy gets out and works very hard every day to keep my and my mom and sister safe with a house to live in and food on the table. and i think that carolina thunder is right about some people cant afford to go pay all the high prices at the stores because of how much fuel cost and then put gas in their car to go to work. because we have been learing about the oil prices in school and what it is doing to the prices at the store. and ny daddy doesnt make a lot of money but we get buy and yes he owns his truck but he says that he is going to stop driving for a week or two weeks or how ever long it takes but he says that it will be hard to do because there wont be a whole lot of people that will do it too.
but he is trying hard but he says if somthing dont happen then he will have to sell his truck and work for sumone and dont lke that thats why he bought his own. but all i am asking is for some more people to stop driving with my daddy and try to change things a little bit for every one because if you dont what will hapen to the kids that people are trying to raise.
im only 13 and my sister is only 5 but i know what goes on out there because my mom and dad tell me what happens and i watch the news and do homwork report in economics so im not stupid!!!!

 

Truckers across the South Eastern US have been spreading the word about a shutdown of trucks starting on April 3rd 2008 untill........It's time to unite TRUCKERS and let our ACTIONS speak louder than words.

 

lol...going to get flamed with this one.

I was listening to XM yesterday on a trucking biz show and it was very entertaining. The host spent his entire show talking about the strike people want and tried to get people to call in and such, telling him what they felt about a strike and what they would hope to accomplish. A couple of people even cancelled their business with him because of his stance, which to some is far out there.

He feels and I agree with him, that this talk about strikes is nonsense. For one, nobody can agree on what they want to strike about. hours? fuel, time at home? etc there are a million reasons. Secondly, nobody can agree on what they hope to accomplish.

Lots of callers called in in support of a strike but couldn't make a good argument for such a cause. One guy even got hung up on because he just kept going off and dropping the Fbomb. Lots of people complaining about freight rates, expecting brokers to pay them fuel surcharges for one time freight..etc. The people who complain about the industry are often those who have little knowledge about the very industry they work in.

Another caller (I missed half of the call) was about a caller who wrote an article about a letter he wrote (or suggested to write) to clients. He mentioned the mandated federal fuel surcharge...of which there is none. He had no business knowledge and had no clue how to compete in todays market place.

Lots of people gripe about brokers skimming off the top. Its their job! its a free market society! THey are in the biz to make money; and who if any that works with brokers actually try to negotiate the rate instead of just taking it as it is? many people suggested putting a cap on how much profit the brokers can make, but scoffed and stuttered when it was suggested the same thing happen to themselves...that they too fall under a fed rule that limits how much profit they get.

Most everybody shops at WM because of price beause they want the lowest price possible. Yet the same people gripe and fail to understand thats how our economy works.

So what if you can't take the freight...then don't take it. Negotiate if possible, shop around, work with the shippers directly.

The problem that many people dont realize is that the professional and successful truckers who are in this for a career have their costs down to a T, they know how much they make, how much it costs to move their truck, and they have steady freight with good / great pay.

So yeah, come on strike...bring it on. Lets weed out those that cant last during hard times. Lets do that, because it will raise the freight rates for the rest of us still here.