The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs

Only proves the ATA is filled with idiots that have no idea about trucking.

ATA supports president’s fuel price initiatives
President Bush April 25 announced measures to try to stem increases in retail fuel prices, and Bill Graves, president and chief executive officer of the American Trucking Associations, applauded the initiatives.

Bush is delaying this northern summer’s deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stockpile of government-owned crude oil. “So by deferring deposits until the fall, we’ll leave a little more oil on the market,” Bush said during a speech in Washington at the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group for the ethanol industry. “Every little bit helps.”

"Every little bit helps?" Putting a few more barrels of crude on the market is a drop in the bucket and does nothing for refinery capacity and the process of changing blends (whatever that is). I’m full of solutions right now – How about lowering the federal and state taxes by half. That would be about 40 cents. That would make $3.00 a gallon, $2.60 a gallon TOMORROW.

The plan calls for making sure consumers and
taxpayers are treated fairly, promoting greater fuel efficiency,
boosting the U.S. gasoline supply and investing aggressively in
gasoline alternatives. Bush also has ordered a federal investigation
into possible cheating, price gouging or illegal manipulation in the
gasoline markets. And he gave the Environmental Protection Agency the
authority to suspend regional clean-fuel standards where it would help
to maintain adequate fuel supplies.

How about a plan to investigate the EPA, the IRS and DOT about where all my highway money is going, why my new truck motor is going to cost $10,000 more in 2007 than in 2006? How about boosting fuel efficiency in trucks?  What about all the cheating, price gouging and illegal manipulation of my highway tax dollars? Investing in alternatives? How about alternative drilling locations besides the Middle freakin’ East?

The EPA option does not mean the agency will
relax its engine emission requirements to allow for lower-quality
quality fuel to be sold, said John Millett, an EPA spokesman.

Did I mention new trucks are going to be $10,000 more because of stupid EPA unrealistic crap regulations?

How about drilling Alaska? Alaskans love that idea, let’s make Alaska look like a pin cushion. Screw the Caribou! The outer continental shelf offshore? Yeah, that too. Between the OCS and Alaska we could stop giving crazy dictators our hard earned money, buy American oil and tell those sand people to drown in their stupid oil. I’m ready to vote everyone out of office and start over. Eight year olds could run the country better then these idiots.

gas prices trucking

Originally posted 2006-04-27 07:14:00.

This starts out being the same old story of the trucking companies are doing well, except for the driver shortage and fuel costs.

NWAnews.com :: Northwest Arkansas’ News Source

Analysts expect positive results from trucking companies when they start filing quarterly reports this week, but a prolonged driver shortage, stubbornly high fuel costs, and uncertainty about federal regulations present challenges to the industry. Those barriers are constraining growth by keeping trucking firms from adding new trucks to their fleets, and discouraging financiers from investing in startup companies. Unless more drivers start to materialize, companies will probably not buy more trucks. The upside is that tight capacity is helping truckers raise their rates. “Overall, what we are anticipating is for truckers to report strong revenue gains and earnings per share growth, driven by both an improving economic environment, and a strain on capacity.” said Jack Waldo, trucking analyst with investment bank Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

But despite all the bad news analysts expect strong revenue gains and earnings. Now for the interesting part.
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Originally posted 2004-10-21 03:00:00.

The idea of the NAFTA Superhighway isn’t dead yet, but it has been getting a lot of attention. Check out Trans-Texas Corridor for the latest news about the ongoing fight and don’t forget Corridor Watch. The Teamsters have entered the battle with their own mud-slinging saying what the trucking industry has been saying about trucks from Mexico for many years. That they’re a bunch of hyped-up drug addicts and their trucks are safety hazards. According to the (US owned) Mexican truck company’s – Their trucks are just as safe as American / Canadian trucks. Of course no one believes them and the courts haven’t allowed them on US highways, yet.

It’s probably in one of these links about the corridor, but I was under the impression that I-35 would be converted to the NAFTA Superhighway. It’s not. There’s going to be construction parallel to I-35, which means this Spanish Corporation is going to be sucking up a ton of land (thanks to eminent domain) and making a toll road. With no exits unless a town wants to cough up the money for access and exits. What’s worse is that the Texas DOT has authority to do all this and more without the approval of the Texas Legislature or the Voters.

Not only will I-35 have a NAFTA Corridor close by, there are plans for another Superhighway in Texas. How about this effort to get another NAFTA Superhighway in Arizona on I-19 to I-15 to Canada? 

NAFTA highway faces uncertain future

By Mike Sunnucks
The Business Journal of Phoenix
Updated: 5:00 p.m. MT July 16, 2006

A proposed business-backed superhighway link between Arizona, Mexico
and Canada is running into skepticism about whether it actually will be
built and worries that it will result in more U.S. and Mexican job
losses to China.

The planned Canamex corridor is a one of a series of so-called North
American Free Trade Agreement superhighways ballyhooed as improving
trade and transportation links between Mexico, Canada and the U.S. The
corridor involves improving and linking highways from Mexico City and
the Mexican state of Sonora through Nogales, Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas
and Salt Lake City and north into Alberta, Canada.

Did you see that? A SERIES OF NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAYS. Not just one, A SERIES.

Cheap crap coming from Asia is going to travel 30% further to get to a Mexican super port. Plus the extra miles in Mexico and then add-in the expense of a toll road on one of the NAFTA Superhighways. After all that expense is it really going to be cheaper than ports on the west coast of the USA??? How much cheaper is it going to be??? Or is it a plan to undermine the sovereignty of our country, while exploiting cheap labor in Mexico and enriching the pockets of every corporation involved??

You’ve got to check out these links and follow the links on the other sites to learn what is really going on around us!!!

Originally posted 2006-08-29 08:23:00.

This may not directly relate to trucking, but if you are tired of downloading worthless spam, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! Mailblocks uses a challenge / response system. If someone that is not in your address book sends you an email, that email is placed in a “pending” folder. Mailblocks sends that person an email back to them that asks them to click on a link and fill in a blank. Something only a person can do and not a computer or a dead email that spammers use. Once that person answers the puzzle correctly, they will never have to go through that process again and their emails go directly to your Inbox.
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Originally posted 2008-06-02 08:36:12.

And fuel prices are rising. Another non-story and it’s nothing new. But the press is talking to these poor truckers and listening to shutdown rumors.

Truck Drivers May Impose Shutdown To Protest High Gasoline Prices.Tulsa – How would you like to pay more than seven hundred dollars to fill up your tank? That’s what truck drivers are faced with in the wake of soaring fuel costs. And, it’s hurting independent drivers the most. They have to pick up the bill.

Seven hundred dollars? I’ve heard that figure before, but if you do the math it’s not very probable. Not impossible, but most fill-ups are going to be between 150 to 200 gallons. This week the average price in Oklahoma is $2.429. The math never seems to work out. Sounds more like truckers exagerating and the press eating it up.

And you can’t have an article about fuel prices without this -

We’re also hearing rumblings of a trucker shutdown to protest the high fuel prices. Tim says if and when it happens, he’ll be a part of it.

“Not just me, but a lot of people,” he says. “Just don’t know, a lot of
drivers, we’re planning to shut it down. And, whenever we shut it down, this country’s going to come to a full stop.”

A couple of weeks ago, six hundred drivers in South Florida stopped their rigs on a busy intersection in protest.

My question is still out there -

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Originally posted 2005-08-23 04:35:00.

Remember the song “Convoy”? After hearing that song I had to put a CB in my little Datsun pickup. I hear the song now and I actually understand all the names and nicknames. It didn’t make me want to be a truck driver, but I thought the song and truckers were pretty cool. I hear a trucking song on the radio now and I can’t help but feel good. How many songs have been written about computer programmers or accounts? I digress…

Layover.com: News Archives

Granger, IA – Sept. 29, 2004 – Barr-Nunn Transportation, Inc., a premier provider of transportation and logistics services, has announced it has signed C.W. McCall as their marketing personality for 2004-2005. C.W. McCall wrote and performed the 1976 number one hit “Convoy.” The song was later used as the basis for a movie bearing the same name. McCall can be heard in Barr-Nunn radio commercials on XM satellite beginning in October 2004.

Nice gimmick, but how about spending that money on wages to the drivers?

Originally posted 2004-10-04 04:00:00.