' rel='shortcut icon'/>

Amber Alert

Friday, March 21, 2008

April 1 2008 Truck driver Shutdown is it going to happen?

This same subject comes up every year, about the same time of year. When freight is slow and drivers are worried about payments and such.
A group of Truck Drivers have tentatively set a date of April 1, 2008. Will this be enough time to get any action done?
Is this the right thing to do? A lot of talk has surfaced about a Truck Driver Shutdown for April 1,2008 and I believe there will be a lot of truckers shut down by this time vac, and days off will be taken.
If you are thinking of joining this, then you need to at least deliver the freight you have on your truck. You can be held liable for the load if it is not delivered. This will affect everyone us in one way or another.
If you are not going to join or you cannot join in, then you can still do your part. You can slow your truck down, to about the speed limit or maybe 5 mph under. This will get everyone's attention, and will save on fuel. You run your log book just like if you were being stopped every 5 minutes by the DOT.
Run it legal and log it legal, while sitting waiting to unload or load log it on line 3 (on duty not driving) this will burn your hours, in turn you will have to stop and pull over and take a break.

Show your support Drivers!

Some independents are still making it, but I'm guessing they are making it, from pay check to pay check. These guys are living on a dream, they probably got really small truck payments or no truck payments at all.
Are they going to be able to fix a major repair to their tractor if it happens? What about if it is time for them to replace the equipment? Can they afford to do so? I doubt it, I mean yea while they were out there driving that "older" truck that was paid for. Now they are having to make payments on a newer truck. Well that eats what profits they were getting up.

You might sit and read this and say, will shutting down really cause the price to go down? Will the pump owners really care?
It doesn't matter if they care or not.

This is a really good piece I saw on a forum earlier to answer the above, I will quote it.

The point of shutting down is to force the government and the public to take notice and respond to what is going on. The oil companies won't be the first to scream. Those who want to get their freight moved will be.

The rich folks who are investing in oil and driving the price up will be quickly moving their money to something else, as a result oil prices will drop.

Remember, just in the past week, gas consumption dropped only 1/10th of 1%, and oil prices dropped from 112.00 to 104.00 per barrel in a matter of a couple days. If investors think there will be a serious shutdown, they will be yanking their money out between now and April 1st. Just watch the price of oil between now and then.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

THERE HAS TO BE A WAY FOR THE AMERICAN TRUCKER TO GET HIS POINT ACROSS. WE NEED BIG COMPANIES TO JOIN IN. ITS NOT JUST A ONWER-OPERATOR PROBLEM.A DATE NEEDS TO BE DECIDED ON. FLYERS NEED TO BE PUT OUT. CALLS NEED TO BE MADE TO BIG COMPANIES, TV STATIONS AND RADIO STATIONS. SO EVERYONE CAN BE INFORMED. IT DOESN'T TAKE A BRAIN SURGEON TO FIGURE OUT THAT WERE HURTING AND HURTING BAD. I'D RATHER SIT AT HOME AND GO BROKE THAN TO BE IN OUR TRUCK AND GO BROKE. CAN ANYONE NOT AFFORD TO SHUTDOWN. SAME STORY I HAVE BILLS TO PAY, MY HOUSE,UTILITIES,MY TRUCK AND TRAILER PAYMENT,CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS. WE ALL DO! BUT FACE IT. IF YOUR NOT MAKING ANY MONEY OR A PROFIT YOUR NOT GOING TO PAY FOR ALL THOSE ITEMS ANYHOW.

Anonymous said...

A week is not long enough. Think about it from Christmas to New Years is 7 days and they prepare for it every year so it will take longer than a week. It is going to take at least 14-21 days. Visit www.helplowerfuelcost.com for a better explanation.

Anonymous said...

Hundreds of thousands of independent truckers parking their trucks April 1? It's no joke? Dan Little, a trucking company owner to whom many give credit for the idea of an April 1 shutdown, is featured in a recommended-reading post, No Joke: Truckers to 'Shut Down' April 1.

Anonymous said...

For an interesting article with an interview of Dan Little, the man who started the shutdown, click here.

Anonymous said...

I am in this industry and know for a fact that yes flyers have been passed out, word has spread like wild fire on the cb radio's, Billy Dalton Nashville recording star is behind us 100% and has written a song about the shut down, WWI who controls the ports is pulling 16,000 trucks and is backing this shut down, Warner, JB hunt, Challenger,are also shutting down, the teamsters are in this as well in spme parts of the states so is the DOT and State Police who are not giving tickets to drivers for every petty thing like used to be, thousands of independats are pulling over and yes we even have had media coverage on this shut down, I won a dispatch service and have sent my owner operators home until this is over and I and some of my broker friends have also shut down until this fuel gets lowered and something is done, also letters have been written to legisltors to gain attention to this matter.
This time DRIVERS ARE STICKING TOGETHER FOR THEY ARE ALL FED UP in the rising costs of fuel and having to haul this frieght at thier costs. There are many blogs and websites such as this one also letting drivers know about the shutdown as well.
my suggestion to you is go get your family stocked up on the vital nessesities and groceries cause the store shelves have already started going empty in some parts of the usa.

Anonymous said...

This is asinine. Slowdowns hurt the company. Company hurt trickles down to who? THE DRIVERS. So you're sticking it to yourselves.

Anonymous said...

we need the help of someone to stand up and make this job what it was at one time.The there is no one to protect the interest of the o/o from the fuel companys high prices.WE NEED ANOTHER HOFFA!Big companys don't care because they get discounts from oil com. and the goverment no one helps the O/O in hard times!

Unknown said...

I'm so glad that the truckers are finally putting their foot down about these gas prices. Its absolutely ridiculous! My father owns a Trucking company. We only sale the trailers but its hurting us to because no one is buying any equipment because the cost of gas is sky high! I hope everything works out and the damn government finally does something! Lets just keep our fingers crossed that something gets done about this!

Anonymous said...

I want to extend my sympaty to all my truckin' brothers. i gave up long-haul several years ago, but still drive local. i can only hope and pray that all goes well with this issue, and that God and Merle Haggard will keep you up and runnin'. Best regards!

Anonymous said...

I have set here and read every comment and I have yet to see anyone suggest an action that would do the most good. most of what is stated is that everyone for the most part seems to support the shutdown in some form or another. That is great! however, that does't seem to be doing all that much good by itself. I suggest that everyone,truckers and nontruckers alike contact their senators and congressmen inmass and express their conserns about what the outrageous prices for gas and diesel is doing to their business. but more importantly what they are doing to the economic stability of this country as a whole.I have spoken to a good number of drivers{company and O/O} that said they could not afford to shutdown!What are they going to do when the economy colapses and there is no freight to haul! thanks for listening to my rants