Trucker protest ends, tickets issued

Ducks, my question (expressed inadvertently with bad grammar)was pretty much rhetorical, but your answer was great!

 

Thank you Skip, that really explained a lot about what's going on and gave me some things to think about that I hadn't before. Two things in particular I should have realized earlier.

First the corporate rates and kickbacks. I don't know why I didn't see that earlier and coupling that with the increase of corporate trucks / decline of O/O it really puts the independents in a no win situation.

Secondly, spreading this to the farmer/logger/constuction sector. I grew up here in rural Virginia, surrounded by tobacco farms that no longer can afford to produce tobacco. Very few farmers around here bother with tobacco anymore, they've either moved on to different crops or sold the farms. The logging industry is very much alive and well here though.

Thanks again for pointing out some of my obvious oversights as well as opening my eyes to things I hadn't considered earlier.

 

We can't expect the general public to understand the trucking industry. Like someone said before, in their eyes, we're basically just a nuisance. Staging a protest on the Dan Ryan certainly didn't help the publics perception.

A friend's mother (74) was recently in the grocery store having a discussion about grocery prices with the store manager and another lady. The store MANAGER told these two women prices were going up because truck drivers were taking ADVANTAGE of the fuel prices and gouging consumers. This is what the public believes.

We all know that's not true.

There's men/women that work for large carriers, and, some who buy their own trucks to go in business for themselves. You have some drivers that still belong to unions, and just like every other industry, we've been invaded by foreign drivers. You have some drivers that go home every night/couple of nights, and some that LIVE in these trucks for WEEKS at a time. We're also regulated by anti-trust laws which keep us from having any kind of industry leadership or organized Nationwide "striking" ability.
The role that trucks play in our economy is no cliche', and we have to have these trucks moving to keep our economy alive.
Men/Women all across the country sacrifice their own personal comfort and at times, safety, on the premise of making a living in these trucks. Most of us have pride in the role we play in keeping our Nations economy flowing and our highways safe.
The service the trucking industry provides this country is invalueable.

But, this "strike" is not about "gouging" the American public. The entire industry is effcted by the current conditions, but few are willing to address it. It's a cut-throat business that is totally influenced by the price of oil.

The O/O segment of this industry is your friend and an industry necessity. They are direct competition with the Mega carriers that moves the majority of freight, and, we all know what happens when you eliminate "competition". That's when you begin to see "gouging".
What's at the root of this "stike" and the underlying problem, is these Mega carriers are taking advantage of the economic times and have decided they can profit more by "brokering" out their loads but, are keeping the "fuel surcharge" that is intended to go to the carrier of the freight. Also, "brokers" not associated with the carriers are squeezing down the "rates" and unfairly negoiating the fuel surcharge. Bottom line is, it's not getting to the person who delivers the load and consuming the fuel. In effect, eliminating a vital part of this industry

This is effecting company drivers (who don't seem to realize it) and it's putting an undue hardship on the small businessman, in effect squeezing them out of business. If you have a contract on dedicated freight, you can negoiate your surcharge to cover the fuel expenses. But, when you have to deal with "brokers" to get your loads, they are stealing (what is already being charged) from these O/O's.

Fuel prices are a National problem. But, have you seem any organized protest by the general public over the price of gas? Until the public is willing to fight and demand more from our government and these oil companies, there's nothing the trucking industry can do to help you. But, we have to be able to sustain to keep "your" job, and our economy going. That's the bottom line.

You may hear occassionally of some organized protest from truckers. We've protested opening the borders to Mexican Trucks and been raising hell about Government regulations for years now. Has the general public (in numbers) protested our mexican invasion? Have your unions been effective in creating any kind of political stir or kept your jobs here in the good ole USA?

Instead of questioning what truckers are doing, you should take the opportunity to join with them and say, "you know what? enough is enough. At least these guys are doing something".

 

A dozer can easily run through 150 to 200 gallons per day, then there's skidders, knuckle booms, and of course trucks. It's going to push lumber prices up because if not, they'll eventually quit cutting if they can't make money. With lumber up, house building goes up and the housing market is already unstable as is.

Right now, fuel prices in all aspects of it are causing the recession the country is going into.

Like they've said, there are increasingly people who really have no ideal what is involved in supplying their basic needs of food, water, fiber, and shelter. I once read a study where 90% of the people that responded said, "Milk comes from a store or factory." No, milk comes from cows, and must be extracted from cows using power equipment then hauled to the dairy to be processed, then trucked to market. The cows have to be fed and watered. That requires drilling wells with fuel powered machinery, growing crops with fuel powered machinery, harvesting the crops with fuel powered machinery, stored in silos with powered equipment, retrieved from silos with powered equipment and carted to the cattle with powered equipment. The crops that feed the cattle, corn, have to be fertilized and sprayed with chemicals, both fertilize and the chemicals are oil based and require trucking to get it to the farm. Of course now corn is in excess of $9 bushel, so feeding it to milk cows isn't as financially practical as it was, but neither are cattle that can't produce enough milk to pay for their upkeep.

People want to gripe over a $5.00/gallon jug of milk. Honestly, I don't see how we produce it for that, and we aren't going to if fuel keeps going up.

Skip

 

Don't you think this would have been the perfect opportunity for those people to join in what the truckers are "trying" to say?

It does no good for truckers to try and tackle the price of fuel alone. What's going on in Washington right now shows the grip the oil companies have on the country and their unwillingness to budge. We have to address the fuel surcharge problem.

 

I believe the farm organizations should be behind this. The problem is, the larger farm organizations are pretty much ran by row croppers, and they are eating this thing up because the bio fuel market is driving the price of corn and beans through the roof. The ones that are hurting are the smaller lots such as the cattlemen, dairymen, and tobacco farmers.

Skip

 

If we get another year like last in Kentucky and Tennessee with fuel as high as it is, you'll see a lot of breed stock going to the slaughterhouse. Not that it didn't happen last year, but it will get worse if the grass doesn't grow and we go into another winter without enough feed. The lone saving grace has been the gluten off the ethanol and sugar plants.

Skip

 

milk would probably be somewhere around $10 a gallon if it weren't for govt. subsidies.

 

If the government had never gotten into the milk regulating business to start with, it would probably be $3/gallon.

Seriously, if you want to read something that makes the instruction book for filling out a long form 1040 seem like a Dr Seuss book, try reading the Dairy Compact and figuring out what's involved with the document of stupidity. The government has milk passing milk on the highway for who knows what reason. There will be requirements in that thing for milk surplus producing states requiring them to import so much percentage of milk and where they have to import it from.

Skip