onegunguitar wrote:No,not all drivers are Teamsters or Union organized, so it would more of a shut down. As far small companies "sucking it up and paying the fuel cost",well here's the deal with that-if all their trucks,trailers etc.. are paid off,yea,then a small outfit could survive,but,when you have a $2000/month (or higher) truck payment,insurance,drivers wages,taxes,registration(which on a triaxle is around $1250/year)maintenance,down time,repairs and of course fuel,it's not hard to see why an owner/operator or small company will not survive.
SUPPORT THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY-IT IS THE BACKBONE OF THIS NATION AND WITHOUT IT THIS COUNTRY WILL HAVE NOTHING!
Scott, I dont blame the truckers for wanting to do this at all. I dont have to be a driver to understand the cost of business. Also I cant think of any one profession thats not linked to trucking in some way. It would truly effect everyone. I just dont think its going to make a difference. It would be like having your leg cut off, and trying to stop the bleeding with a band aid or a butterfly stitch. If a small outfit shuts down, it doesnt make those costs go away. Sure they'll be using less fuel. But how are they going to pay the bills? The government knows what trucks mean to our economy, problem is that most of them are just too self absorbed with their own agendas, to give a rat's ass. So in the end the only ones that are going to be effected by a shut down are the drivers, the owners and the rest of us who need you guys out there hauling the loads. To me its like if I were to say to Chelle and the kids. "Have you seen the cost of food lately? Thats it! We're not eating anymore!" I dont have the answers, if I did I sure as hell wouldn't be sitting here on Saturday morning pissing off truckers on rockpage.
I'd be everywhere I could, screaming them to those who would listen.
Lonewolf,
You are dead on about Ethanol! Its not the answer. But for some reason our Government is infatuated with its concept. So much so, that they are paying farmers to grow more corn. So farmers are growing more corn in their fields, and squeezing out other important crops, like wheat. Who can blame a farmer, barely scratching out a living, for taking the money to grow more corn? I would do the same thing. I think alot of people agree that these "Economic Stimulus" checks we're all going to be getting, aren't going to do squat for the economy. But who here is going to mail back the check? I saw somewhere that it would take a cornfield, from the tip of Maine to the Southern tip of Florida all the way across the Mississippi to produce enough ethanol, to get us off of foreign oil. ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. In 1960 Kennedy said before the decade is out, we will land a man on the moon. The govt pored all kinds of resources into that goal. And in just under ten years, we did it. Where is the next moon shot? I have yet to hear any politician, even mention this kind of unified movement to get us all off the junk. I doubt if we will either.
Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.
