Strike talk

first of all we as owner operators and all independents cant strike we are NOT UNION if and when such a thing happens it would be a shut down NOT A STRIKE. you can shut down and legaly there is no law that says a driver cant park his truck where ever when ever he wants.
will it work ? NO IT WILL NOT. why ? simple you try to shut down and a few will try but not near enough to be affective. takes a lot more then a few drivers with good intentions.
you try to shut down for the wrong reasons. for example the price of fuel, well the fuel is not ours for the most part we buy it from another country most of our oil wells are caped off and are not producing another wonderfull idea from our goverment.
you want to go to washington and shut down washington, well that sounds good but in reality our trucks are all over the country how are all of us going to get to washington at a certain time, not likely.
if you want to shut down thats great im all for it and if it happens with enough trucks envolved to make it work ill be right in the middel of it but that aint likley to happen because 80% of the drivers never hear about it , its not because they dont want to most would like to see it but they never hear about it till its to late.like the latest attemp in april past , i never heard a word about it till a coupel of weeks ago now maybe its because i run west and west only i dont no but it was all new to me .
before you can have any kind of shut down with any affect you have to have some body to lead and organise and then give enough time for the word to get around so that ALL drivers no about it .
AND you have to realise that some just can not shut down, if a company driver tells his boss that he is going to shut down chances are the next thing he hears is YOU FIRED now these guys can not afford to lose there jobs times are bad enogh without that falling on there head.
you got to decide what your striking for and not the fuel prices not much control over that you can however protest all the taxes we have to pay on it both from the goverment and each and every state. figur it out , that a lot of money we pay out on every gallon we buy.
the price of freight ?well that would be a good thing but in all honesty i dont no how you would do it the cheap rates your being offered are mostly because of the wonderfull truck brokers, they get 4 dollors you get 90 cents, dont believe it next time you load for a broker ask him to show yopu what he gets for the load, he wont tell you much less show you.
all the regulations we have ? you bet you can the goverment givith and the goverment can take it away the same applys to each and every state and if you notice every year it gets worse and worse and it has nothing to do with safty its all about money, ever notice the new style super coops pretty nice huh guess who paid for all that, yepmyou bet the truckers and they say they need more money right i believe all that they can waste more in a day then we make all year.
and there is much more envolved and you dont have to go to wshington to get the goverments attention , if and when the time ever comes just pick a spot wherever your at and shut it down but dont think 50 trucks parked on the shoulder with the drivers standin outside and shaking there fist and shouting profanity is going to work IT WILL NOT .that just makes everyone mad and you sure dont want that.
so the next time you hear about a shut down being organised start asking question, who is tryin to organise it what is the purpose how much time are they giving drivers how are they sprding the word, all things things and more come into play . if it is ever going to work it has to be done right and it takes a whole lot of truck and drivers to get it done right and dont let frustration pit your anger against a driver that cant that wont help either.
JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT.aall take care . SOUTHERNPRIDE