All truckers unite april1,2011 shut em down

I'm a company driver and even I understand this

 

Do you deadhead out of other areas besides florida?

 

I haven't had to yet - In AZ I kept calling on loads until I finally got $2.00 a mile. I have had to take $1.15 to get out of place but that beats $.75 a mile all day - Most times I get over $1.50 mile once I get out of Florida. Maybe truckers ought to boycott a state at a time. That way you could keep your trucks hauling and just boycott a state where the shippers and brokers want pay you anything to haul out of there. When you boycott the state that means no one hauls in or out of the state for one week. If owner operators would set a price that they need to make money to operate their truck and stuck to it, that would be better than striking. Just take one state and make an example out of them. I think the worse state that I have been dealing with that is just a step above Florida is Texas. I would like to hear from truckers who travel into Florida and Texas or other states, compare notes and see if you agree or disagree with me. Maybe I am all wrong. I also don't have any truck payments, so it is easier for me to say no and I understand that.

 

You are in business for yourself, you control what you make with your truck and hauling cheap freight is what is killing you and there is nothing the government can do about this.

Also, people complain about the lumper fees - ask before you take the load - If the broker tells me it is going to McClains in Kissimmee - I cancel the load right then and there - the want you to deliver in the AM and pay $150 to $200 to get the stuff off your truck, which should have been taken care of between the shipper and the receiver. Truckers should not have to pay anyone to take stuff off there truck. I got caught on one in Plant City, Florida. I sent $200 cash because I found out there was a lumper after I committed to the load - Driver is $65.00 short. The guy earlier said striking with a form of RICO - well what do you call the Lumper situation???????

People complain about the hours of service - everyone drives and operates differently. If you get stuck at a shipper and you don't et offlloaded for 6 hours - whose time does that eat into - yours - and this $25 an hour detention after two hours is nothing. There are bad receivers and bad shippers - just start boycotting them - don't go back and pick up there - send out a message to all trucks and try to get them to boycott the places.

Striking is not the answer - who have to work to make a living - however you can control what you will or will not do to make that living.

 

The problem with this (assuming you could get truckers to do it) Is that every one has a different minimun . You have no truck payment so you might haul .25cpm cheaper than the next guy, as soon as your load goes out others jump on the band wagon cause they don't want to be stuck at .50 cpm less. Remember the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, and there's a lot of weak links

 

I agree with the one state at a time approach, I have said this for years...start with California, one week of loads going out, but none coming in AT ALL! every month we pick a different state, nobody goes broke and starves, but the hurt would be huge. We need a spokesman to represent us, say... Aarron Tippin.... well known and he used to be a trucker. and on another note, anybody that says "Git R Done" I just can't take seriously.

 

we tried a strike years ago and it only went bad people that had nothing to do with trucking got envolved and ruined it all then you had jbhunt that ran during all this and made it worse so for a strike to work everyone including the big companies have to stand behind it and if they do as well then it would take about 3 days to get things better.when the government ran out of fuel and toilet paper things would change for the best and we need to oust the FMCSA as they really know nothing about trucking they just like to think they do.

 

Thats the bad thing about our business-no way to organize and stick together.Maybe one day when the big companies get fed up things will change.
I do like the one state or region approach.Shame trucking doesn`t do competitve pricing like the oil companies do now.

 

The way the big carriers are approaching this is through EOBR's. They want to force all carriers and owner operators to have EOBR's. If members of the ATA decided to boycott a particular state they could have an impact. That won't happen. I don't go to Florida for less than $3/mile and I don't take freight out for $1/mile. There are other areas where I will not go for less than $3/mile. It is rare for me to put anything on my truck for less than $2/mile. I would prefer to deadhead out. Much of the cheap freight coming out of these areas is hauled be the larger carriers. Some owner operators and small carriers are also hauling the cheap freight. Everyone denies it, but the freight is being hauled by someone.

 

I'm in...only can I stop in the evening sometime..like closer to home...and I promise I won't start back up till the 4th...or maybe late on the 3rd...