"General Public" and a strike. HELP!!!

I"m sure glad you LADYS are fixing everything for us men.Also I don"T think the general public will be all the help you think!It takes more effort than setting at a computer and offering your opinions.The Men & Women that drive the roads of this great country every day are fighting for change and will make a bigger impact than emails and forums. If you don"t or have never set in the drivers seat you truly will never understand the day to day battles to pay the bills and try to keep the home fires burning.

 

My post was not aimed at GuysLady specificly! While there are some in the general public that do help in positive ways,most do not.Seems all they want is for the trucking industry to solve their problems for them.I and most truckers are thankful for any and all "real" help we can get.

 

My personal solution looks like this



and this



The top link goes to a photo of my truck delivering to the Bank Of America in St Louis, The inserted photo is of both Marys' and My truck loading at the same time at one of our customers. Both trailers belong to us. Both are paid for Marys Mack Vision is paid for and I owe less that 15,000 to have mine paid for. You do that by running at a profit.

The solution for people who want to make a living driving a dump truck locally will not be the same, Each business has to identify the problems they face ( low rates are caused by some CAUSE and can be overcome with some solution). The answers for differing parts of the industry are in fact different. Maine truckers want to be able to raise gross weights to 100,000 pounds that solution would help them but my average gross weight now is 50,000 pounds while my tare weight is 42,000. Most loads I haul are under 6,000 pounds. The MAINE answer would not affect me at all while offering them some avenue of relief.

Maybe that one example will allow you to see what I am saying.. ( oh by the way that MAINE solution is a state government solution,) My home state allows 90,000 pounds now. I was proud to see my Senator came out and met with the guys in Washington although few of us could get there many of us called his office and asked him to be there representing us ( that is his job).

 

that's a good start, having your equipment paid for is VERY important, it lowers your overhead. my old man had a saying " you can pay it out in payments or, you can pay it out in maintenance". i always preferred to pay mine out in maintenance because i did all of it myself. and, if my truck goes down and i don't have the money to fix it, it won't cost me anything to let it sit in the yard. however, your solution doesn't address rising inflation due to increased rates, FSC, etc... if middle and lower income families can't afford to purchase these items that we haul daily due to rising costs we'll all start losing our jobs.

 

The inflation is WORLD WIDE, truckers can control their incomes. Middle income people can demand raises, and cost of living raises etc. This is the model the democrats put in place in the 60s with the "great society" come home to roost.

Are we striking to establish world wide price controls then?

As to parking awaiting repair not costing you, is your time not a cost of business factor? Lost revenue/investment amortization schedule and cost ... does that sound familiar? I saw a post somewhere here from one of the "Depreciation is profit" people, I didn't get into that discussion then because it was out of topic.

Edited addition) You are right in not costing you for paid for truck to be parked only if your tag has expired etc BTW.

I would be glad to discuss such items in the proper thread...

I thought this was about truckers not making it, are we now striking to overthrow all the governments of the earth and establish a workers Paradise?

 

Oil prices relative to currency:

Oil prices have risen 129% in Euros.
Oil prices have risen 321% in dollars.

Maybe we should be protesting the Fed instead of the Capitol or Big Oil.

 

Your welcome. I started driving in 69, right out of the service in S.Cal.Been at it ever since.I may have used that phone or sat at that table,to long ago for this old man to remember.Education only works if the G.P. is willing.Most of the time they are not.They just want their problem solved.When the time comes to return the favor and help us solve our problems the G.P. usually don"t have the time or don"t care.There are execptions but they are few.