The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | The Strike at Ports

Is this a strike or are they just saying “NO to Cheap Freight”? Which is what we all should be doing.

Yahoo! News – Independent Truckers Strike at U.S. Ports

NEW ORLEANS – Upset over wages, fuel costs and anti-union laws, hundreds of independent truckers went on strike at several U.S. ports Monday, slowing the movement of cargo containers that can hold everything from furniture to electronics to frozen food.

I’ve never pulled an intermodel container to any kind of port. I don’t know what kind of pay is involved or how they are paid. Either a flat per mile rate or depending on the load. I don’t know.

Fuel and insurance expenses affect all truckers and you have to have a certain income to cover the expenses. If the load doesn’t cover the cost, my office won’t take it. Other trucking companies shouldn’t either.

Owner-operators of trucks are considered independent business people and are forbidden by federal price-fixing laws from negotiating or talking with employers together.

“The carriers are taking advantage of the independent operators due to their lack of representation and due to their lack of recourse,” said Robert Fezekas, a Meraux trucker and lobbyist.

Fezekas said he would like to see Louisiana exempt independent truckers from the antitrust laws.

Abraham Venson, an organizer of the New Orleans strike, said the group does not want the federal government to re-regulate the industry but said a way has to be found to keep independent drivers in business.

I’m not sure what the answer is. There is always talk of strikes for all truckers, not just at ports. Strikes are not going to fix the fuel price problem. Truckers are business people (or should be anyway), income is supposed to be more than expenses otherwise they go out of business. If the guys at the port can’t make it hauling the containers out of the ports, then they need to not haul them, haul only the containers that pay enough or find some other kind of trucking to be involved with. Sounds like that’s what they’re doing. If shippers want their stuff shipped, they are going to have to raise rates. Same goes for all shippers and all truckers.

I don’t know the details of the strike or the relationship between the drivers and the ports, but I do support those that refuse cheap freight.

Originally posted 2004-07-01 04:00:00.