Owner-operator organizes fuel protest Monday near Pittsburgh

Owner-operator Don Waltenbaugh of Pennsylvania has organized a daylong event to demonstrate just how bad it’s getting out there for truckers struggling with high fuel prices.

Waltenbaugh, an OOIDA member from Vandergrift, PA, has organized a 24-hour protest – a “shutdown” in his words – scheduled for Monday, March 24, on his property on Alternate 66 between Vandergrift and Ford City, PA, northeast of Pittsburgh.

“This is a one-day shutdown for solidarity,” he told Land Line.

Waltenbaugh said he has parking for 60 trucks and would like to see people from multiple sectors of trucking and hauling.

“I want people from all facets – towing, dealerships, the excavation business. I want them there,” he said.

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Well I guess a Date has been set for a Truckers Strike or Shut Down March 24,2008

Well, I guess we all knew this day was coming. I didn't really think it would catch on too much. But I have been hearing a LOT of talk about this particular date.

The DATE IS March 24th, 2008 a lot of Truckers are calling for a shut down for the week. They are asking mostly Owner/Operators to participate, BUT all are welcome! Most company drivers will not be able to participate in this, as they do not own their trucks, and have to do as the company says.

I wish all who participates good luck with it. I will try to participate if I can, but I am also a company driver, and if I am told to go then i must go down the road.

You can go to a couple different sites to get information on this. Go here and here .

Diesel: Fuel for Inflation?

Truckers Face Record Pump Prices to Get Goods to Stores

Lee Klass was hauling 41,000 pounds of hairspray from Florida to Quebec yesterday when he pulled into a truck stop in North Carolina to fill his tank with diesel. The price: $3.999 a gallon.

"Diesel prices are terrible, and they're not getting any better," the 60-year-old Klass, an independent trucker, said in a cellphone interview as he filled the 240-gallon tank. The final tab: $960.

The auto club AAA reported yesterday that both diesel and gasoline prices smashed previous highs. Gasoline rose to a nationwide average of $3.246 a gallon for regular unleaded. Diesel, which has been setting records almost daily for the past three weeks, hit a nationwide average of $3.876 yesterday.

The average price of diesel fuel has been shooting up even faster than that of gasoline, rising more than 50 cents in barely two months. That is not only squeezing profit out of the trucking business but is also driving up the cost of delivering all kinds of goods to American consumers.

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Drivers may park trucks due to cost of diesel

The high cost of fuel has hit everyone hard, and it doesn’t look like the prices are going to come down any time soon.Fed up with the high price of diesel fuel, truckers are talking about parking their trucks for one day, Monday, March 24.“It’s spreading like wildfire across the CB,” said owner-operator Tom Bark of Apple Valley.

“Coast to coast, they’re talking about it.

“I guess the American people have to wake up and realize that without trucks, everything is going to come to a stop. If we stop rolling, we’ll be in trouble.”

Bark, who spoke with the News on Thursday from Baltimore, was in the midst of a 4 1/2-day run from California to Maryland. After spending the last 32 years driving, Bark said he’ll park his truck on March 24.

“I’m like all these other guys; I’m fed up and I’m going to park the truck,” he said. “My wheels are turning, but I’m just spinning.”

Bark said the run from California to Maryland used to pay $8,000; now, it pays $2,200, about $1 a mile. To break even, Bark said he needs to make about $3.20 a mile; to make a profit, at least $4.

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Will a Truckers Strike work?

I was siting at home this AM, and I was thinking about my last 10+ years of driving a tractor trailer. When I first started driving back in 1996, fuel cost $.89 per gallon locally.Now that same station does not even sell diesel anymore because of the outrageous price. Today the avg price of a gallon of diesel fuel is over $3.50!
What is wrong with this country? Why is diesel so expensive?

Diesel is so expensive because all the big oil companies are controlling it.

This is ridiculous! We need to quit taking the kick in the ass and start doing something about it!
You drivers out there, hauling this cheap freight are not helping. Actually I can't say much to company drivers as it is their companies fault for pulling this cheap freight!
But you owner operators out there that are still not getting the picture, STOP pulling that freight for nothing, just to get home or get into another area.
You are not helping yourself, when you pull a cheap load in order to get a better load.
The fuel you have wasted on that cheap freight is eating the profit away from the good load you got now. Let Swift or JB Hunt, or some of them other cut throat companies grab that cheap freight.
You, use to be able to grab a cheap load just to get out in a better area. Fuel was not $3.50+ a gallon. It did not hurt as much in the end.
Now it is killing everybody. I have seen a bunch of trucks parked lately with for sale signs in the windows.
I would rather sit and not make any money, as spend $700.00 dollars in fuel, and make -$200.00 on a load.

I swear I hear all these drivers talking about how a strike would not work. They say it will take every truck and company to get it done. I don't see how it would take every company and driver.

I guarantee that if half the companies would stop for a week you would see a difference. Probably, a lot more companies would join in after seeing a few stop.

It would have to work, because most of these companies we deliver to never keep enough stock product to operate for more than a couple days at a time. I have seen companies who don't order product but every day, they operate from day to day. To keep operating cost down, or they don't have the storage space.

I talked to a terminal manager yesterday that said they have quit hiring drivers further than 50 miles from their terminal because they quit paying the drivers to drive their trucks home.
TA is even filling the effects as they announced a layoff of 190 workers with more to come.

What's going to come out of this?

Truckers park rigs to protest gas prices

Gas prices have some truckers feeling helpless. In Screven, Georgia, a group of truckers are taking some drastic measures. It’s not a rest area or a campground, but along Highway 84 in Screven, you’ll find some truckers and their families. Ron White says, “I’m telling you, everything is getting so expensive.”

“I don’t know where I’m going from here,” says Eddie Hudson. For most of his life Hudson has been a contract log hauler. He says he remembers the good old days when fuel prices were reasonable. “You can spend from $400 to $600 of fuel to haul 18 to 20 loads.” SOURCE