The Source for Trucking News, Opinions and Trucking Jobs | Truckers protesting gas prices

Truckers protesting gas prices

Indianapolis, Nov. 1 - A lone truck horn in the pitch of night strikes a chord of hope, fear and mutual discontent all in the same moment.

“Hopefully we can get a lot more people out here and get our point across,” says truck driver Joe Edwards.

The point is found amidst the paralyzed wheels of parked trucks along I-465 that will remain driverless for 72 hours. “Right now the way fuel is, it costs me 43 cents a mile just for fuel alone, and when you’re handling freight $1 a mile, it cuts way into it.”

If they can get a few drivers to “strike” high fuel prices, why not do something constructive and strike cheap freight rates? Truckers shouldn’t get this press time for a strike. They should not take cheap freight at $1 a mile. That’s not a strike. I don’t have my own authority or my own trailer and I get more than $1 a mile (incl fsg). It may be me and I probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but when expenses rise shouldn’t you either cut other expenses or increase your income?

“It’s a headache, I’m not going to lie and say it’s not. It is,” stresses Gilbert. “I’ve had this truck six months and in six months I’ve seen fuel rocket.”

He’s had his truck for six months? Even six months ago fuel wasn’t cheap. Other companies are reporting record profits even with rising fuel prices because they raised their rates.

Gilbert says, “This is the highest I’ve seen it in my lifetime and I just turned 40.”

Even if fuel was free, it would be something else.

With no end to the price hikes in sight, taking a few feet off the gas for a few days may be all they can do to save up for the road ahead.

The protesting drivers are hopeful others will join the strike to not purchase diesel fuel until Wednesday night.

Would someone please tell me what good is going to come out of this? There’s always some rumor of a strike on the CB and then the old timers start talking bad about today’s truckers because we’re not organized and we’re this and we’re that. Rates are cheap because there are drivers willing to take cheap freight. I’m probably just naive, but I think a lot of truckers will take what ever the broker offers them because they are afraid someone else will take it and they will have nothing.

In this tight shipping market (according to all the industry rags and OOIDA, USA Today and I’ve lost count of the articles about not enough capacity in rail and trucking) truckers are in control at the moment and these boneheads keep taking cheap freight?

I recently received and email from a driver asking me about fuel surcharges. His company kept the fuel surcharge and didn’t pass any of it to him. Why drive for a company like that when there are hundreds of other companies out there? I don’t understand it.

I try and back up my talk about cheap freight. (I’m a leased o/o). When my dispatch calls me and says they can’t find a load that pays what they are contracted to pay me. I don’t press them to take it. (I’ve taken less in an emergency.) I wait till they find something that pays. In all truthfulness, I can take really cheap freight and probably do okay. I don’t have a house or a family to support. My truck gets better fuel mileage than most, my truck payment is less than average and I have a frig and a microwave to cut down on food expenses. One good load and my expenses are paid (except for fuel) for the month. But I sit and wait for the better paying load and it happens.

I’ve been told more than once that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Maybe it is the fuel prices that’s making everyone broke. Maybe we can control the fuel prices by going on strike. Maybe I should be able to haul a load for less than I make and expect make a living. It’s probably me. I’m the one that doesn’t understand how this trucking business works.