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Truckers going on strike?

Started by LOGDOG, March 31, 2008, 08:17:01 PM

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LOGDOG

Hey Everyone,

   My wife and I were eating dinner out tonight when a report came on the TV. The reporter said that tonight at midnight the Truckers are going to start pulling their rigs over to the side of the road to protest the cost of diesel. Apparently the words been going out over the CB's. They said things are going to start to change as of midnight. Anyone else heard anything in your local areas? I think they should. What do you think?


LOGDOG

Polly

 8) 8)   i heard it was supposed to be first of may in cincy ohio area i wnow one thing it is a sorry mess cost of new diesels more taxes high priced fuel and lying politicians :D

Furby

I think you'll find that only the O/O and smaller companies will be in on it.
The drivers for the midsize on up companies don't care much what they pay as they think it really don't affect them.

Warbird

I hope they all pull over for a couple of weeks.  That will drastically lower the consumption, meaning there will be more supply, meaning the cost will go down.  Right?  ;)

LOGDOG

I think you're right Furby. The guys driving for Schneider, UPS, Fed-Ex and the like don't have much say. BUT ... If enough of the Owner Operators stick together it would really hit home. I remember when they did it in the 80's. It was quite a sight. Miles and Miles of big rigs on the side of the road.  :) It was a unique experience to witness.

Yep Warbird, that's how it should work if the supply and demand theory holds up. I got to thinking, how many civilian cars/suvs do you think there are to every semi? Or vice versa. I bet there's more dmand here in the USA for unleaded gasoline. Just my thought.


LOGDOG

isawlogs


  I think that those lying politicians could do more to help with the price of fuel then the drivers could by holding the people hostage over said price .
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Mooseherder

Quote from: Warbird on March 31, 2008, 08:46:12 PM
I hope they all pull over for a couple of weeks.  That will drastically lower the consumption, meaning there will be more supply, meaning the cost will go down.  Right?  ;)

Or cause panic buying and make things much worse. ::)

Brian_Rhoad

It's not a supply/demand thing now with prices. I've heard we have a 15 year high surplus in fuel right now. The problem is the politicians and speculators keeping the prices up to satisfy the oil companies profits.

LOGDOG

Heard an interesting tidbit the other day. Apparently approximately 45-50% of the oil companies are owned by mutual funds. As in the investment pools that we use in our 401k's, retirement plans etc. The "Oil Companies Profits" are "our profits" in whatever fractional share we as investors may be investing in these instruments. All the same, I'd like to see prices on fuel come down. PDQ.


LOGDOG

LeeB

25% of the funds in my 401K are shares of the drilling contractor I work for. As of the first of this year we were told we could not buy any more as regards to 401K and have to move the funds we have in it to something else by 1st of next year. They say it is not making enough returns for the dollar invested. Go figure.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

Ron Wenrich

The weak dollar also plays into the price of fuel.  Let's borrow a couple of trillion more.

Yesterday the truckers had a protest where they went onto the Interstate and drove 45 mph up to the capitol.  They want the state to stop collecting the 32¢/gal of road tax. 

So, what is it that the truckers think the government can really do?  I guess they could force the companies to fix prices like they did in the '70s when inflation got to 3%.  All the companies would do is take their products to more profitable markets.

They could do away with road taxes.  Instead of road taxes, the states probably would be forced into tolling the interstates.  Either that, or borrow more money to fix the roads, which would be more deficit spending, a weaker dollar, and higher fuel costs.

They could set a profit ceiling on oil companies.  Again, the companies could move to more profitable markets.

I don't see a trucker's strike as being a solution to anything.  The only thing to come out of it will be more regulations on an industry, which can quickly bleed to other industries.  I also haven't heard what the trucker's solution is to the problem.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

snowman

Far as I'm concerned truckers should strike anyway, fuel prices or not. They are the most overworked underpaid group in USA! I went OTR for a few months to get experience then drove log truck a season and you can have it. Long hours, low pay especially OTR drivers. Log truck drivers make OK money but the hours are rediculous. STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE! ;D

farmerdoug

Controlling the fuel prices is not a government job.  In China they do it and are having a heck of a time getting fuel at the stations.  So striking for lower fuel prices is out but for better pay I do agree with.  The only problem is truckers are like farmers, they complain about the prices they get but they still work away with the prices they are given. ::)
Doug
Truck Farmer/Greenhouse grower
2001 LT40HDD42 Super with Command Control and AccuSet, 42 hp Kubota diesel
Fargo, MI

Carries-Mom

I remember a time when diesel used to be cheaper than regular gas...now you have to take out a loan every time you fill up!! ::) :D  Boy, how things have changed..

Fla._Deadheader


   ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

  tsk, tsk, tsk.   No es problema en Costa Rica  ::) ;D ;D ;D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

limbrat

I dont see a short term fix like a strike might bring about. If a strike ran prices up that might help or if the goverment added a dollar or more in taxes that might help too. When a company comes up with a way to move a truck on a route with the speed and dexterity of a diesel without using as much fuel it will have a real money maker. Without high fuel prices there is no need to change the technology.
The stone age didnt end because they ran out of stones. A more elastic less brittle technology ended it.
ben

Frickman

Let me start out by saying that along with owning a truck or two myself I have contracted out the trucking of thousands of loads of freight over the years of all kinds, on all kinds of trucks, for all distances from local to across the country. I've shipped logs, lumber, sawdust, hay, corn, cattle, equipment, steel, you name it. In every case, on every load, my trucking contractor had the opportunity to make money. There is thing called a fuel surcharge that reimburses the trucker for high fuel prices. I pay it and pass it along to my customer receiving the freight. If the customer doesn't want to pay it, the load isn't sent. Anybody who is hauling someone else's freight who does not incorporate a fuel surcharge into his pricing structure is not running their business efficiently. If the shipper says here is what we'll pay, and you take it, that's your decision. Don't come crying to me if you don't make money.

Where the high fuel prices hurt is the company who handles some trucking themselves as part of their business operations and there is no easy way to asses a fuel surcharge. Say I haul logs from my logging job to my sawmill. That is where it hurts.

A couple weeks ago one of the TV talk show hosts interviewed a trucker who has about eight or ten trucks hauling eggs out of Ohio. The slant of the interview was that high fuel prices are killing family owned trucking companies. When the host asked the trucker if the shipper helped defray some of the cost of fuel he said that they were real good to work with and they were currently paying an $.84 / mile surcharge. That is on top of the regular freight charge. That more than pays for all the fuel, not just some. Right there I saw that this particular host was very disingenuos and I swore I would never watch him on TV or listen to his radio show again.
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

farmerdoug

The guys that are really getting hurt on the ones on contract.  I know one trucker that hauled new cars from Detriot to Grand Rapids for GM.  He did it for years but a couple of years ago when the diesel price was rising GM told their haulers that was their problem and that they were under contract.  He hauled at a loss through the end of his contract and then GM was shocked he would not resign with them. ::)
Doug
Truck Farmer/Greenhouse grower
2001 LT40HDD42 Super with Command Control and AccuSet, 42 hp Kubota diesel
Fargo, MI

fuzzybear

As a former company owner and 15 year driver all I can say is....it will never happen.  They talk of strikes 2-3 times a year and nothing ever comes of it.   The main reason.....drivers have no official voice to speak for them.   Plus the fact that if you asked 10 drivers what they want out of the strike you will have 10 different answers.  In the 80's they had union voice...now the union won't back it.  The days of owner operators are coming to an end....VERY unfortunate for all of North America.
   The rules are stacked against drivers. DOT officers are allowed to work 100+ hours a week and then drive any where. A truck driver works 71 hours he/she is fined big money and made to sit where ever he/she happens to be pulled over.  Even if the house is 30 min away.
   I hung my driving saddle up 3 years ago and will never go back. logged 3,000,000+ miles in that time without an accident, but my insurance was raised 200% in 3 years...couldn't afford it any more.
I never met a tree I didn't like!!

CLL

I realize that we have had cheap fuel prices next to a lot of countries. The problem I have is the oil companies raping us on diesel fuel. Everyone knows that it takes half the refining for fuel as it does for gas. So why is fuel 75 cents a gallon more than gas, because the oil companies know that everything is moved by trucks, so they can get by with it. I would throw a fit if my pepsi didn't show up at the grocery store.
Too much work-not enough pay.

johncinquo

I read elsewhere that the problem is the fuel surcharge is not being passed on, either in whole, or at all, to the ones hauling the loads.  The freight brokers are collecting the surcharge, and either pulling their normal broker % out of it, or simply keeping it for themselves.  Many of the truckers are asking for better transparency in how the business operates.

As a "broker" myself, if I tried something like that I'd be out of business in a hurry. 
To be one, Ask one
Masons and Shriners

cuttingman423

Quote from: CLL on April 01, 2008, 01:19:14 PM
I realize that we have had cheap fuel prices next to a lot of countries. The problem I have is the oil companies raping us on diesel fuel. Everyone knows that it takes half the refining for fuel as it does for gas. So why is fuel 75 cents a gallon more than gas, because the oil companies know that everything is moved by trucks, so they can get by with it. I would throw a fit if my pepsi didn't show up at the grocery store.

i have the same question when it comes to fuel oil  less refining to make it but i now pay 3.499 at Hutters Gas Station and regular unleaded is 3.299  it makes me sick  i bought my house 2 yrs ago and i was paying 1.599 for heating oil  more then doubled in 2 yrs.   I f they keep raping the American people  like this whats going to happen when we cant afford it   they lose $ and then they'll kick themselves in the butt   everything is going up except my pay at work now i understand why people turn to crime to make money.

farmerdoug

A barrel of oil can only be split so many ways.  A certain percentage will always be diesel and the same for gasoline.  You can shift the percentage one way or the other but there is a baseline you cannot pass below.  Diesel use to be produced at a greater amount than demand could use so the price was artifically low.  But now there is alot more of diesel pickups and semi's on the road now so the demand is pushing pass the supply.  They can produce more diesel but at the expense of gasoline production.  Plus if you look at the gas stations what is the ratio of gas to diesel pumps?  Gas has a larger buffer in storage and pipelines too.

I do not like the higher price either but remember that a gallon of diesel has more energy than a gallon of gasoline.  If you were selling firewood, what would you charge more for, pine/popular or oak/hickory?
Doug
Truck Farmer/Greenhouse grower
2001 LT40HDD42 Super with Command Control and AccuSet, 42 hp Kubota diesel
Fargo, MI

Ron Wenrich

I wrote this on another thread.  The breakdown for the recovery of a barrel of oil is as follows:

Finished Motor Gasoline    51.4%
Distillate Fuel Oil    15.3%
Jet Fuel    12.3%
Still Gas    5.4%
Marketable Coke    5.0%
Residual Fuel Oil    3.3%
Liquefied Refinery Gas    2.8%
Asphalt and Road Oil    1.7%
Other Refined Products    1.5%
Lubricants    0.9%

Another site said that you get 7 gallons of diesel per barrel.

Other diesel uses include home heating, electrical production, shipping and rail fuel.  That's a lot of competition.  Seems like the marketplace is at work.

I work for truckers, and they laughed about the strike.  They said all that will happen is that you'll lose a day's work.  They do get concerned about guys throwing stuff off of bridges.

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

crtreedude

Quote from: Fla._Deadheader on April 01, 2008, 09:35:07 AM

   ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

  tsk, tsk, tsk.   No es problema en Costa Rica  ::) ;D ;D ;D

Hey Harold! When we visited this zone of Costa Rica the first time, there was a tour bus strike because of the bad roads - and about 3 years ago there was a trucker strike here due to RETEVE (i.e. inspections)

Don't get too smug there Gringo... ;)
So, how did I end up here anyway?

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