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Independent truckers may be run off the road »

Posted by: TechnologyExpert 1 year, 10 months ago

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Trucking's owner-operators, the self-employed drivers who haul everything from Hummers to hay, are suffering. Many say they're running on the edge of bankruptcy, about to disappear unless they get help. While a wave of trucking failures now might be invisible to consumers, when the economy rebounds, it would push up shipping rates, helping increase

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Comments: 25

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smfmarket
March 2, 2008, 7:35 p.m.
Nice Article ;)
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JohnQPublicComment has been removed: Retracted by user
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BoxMonkey
March 3, 2008, 12:43 a.m.
This is bad . Independents are what keeps our prices low . Let a few major players like Swift or J.B.Hunt , or Schnieder take over and we'll all be in trouble . They'll be an unseen regulation that the public will not gain from .
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Xaos
March 3, 2008, 6:39 a.m.
Hopefully everyone is beginning to see the detrimental effect that overly high energy cost has on everything. The last few "energy shocks" we have had, the one in the 1970's and in the 1980's have seen the same result, increases in mortgage foreclosures, slowing of the economy, rise in unemployment, high inflation. The media refuses to publicize these parallels but just look at history. My heart goes out to our nations independent truck drivers, most of them are really decent people just trying to make a living like the rest of us.
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nostalgia
March 3, 2008, 8:57 a.m.
The independents are going to be under even more pressure - Mexican truckers under NAFTA will be able to operate all across the US
Lawyers fight over legality of pilot program to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S.
2/14/2008
A courtroom in San Francisco became the latest battlefield in the ongoing debate on whether to allow Mexican truckers access to U.S. highways.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration approved a pilot program in September that would allow Mexican trucks to use U.S. highways and let U.S. truckers to access Mexican highways. But opponents fear Mexican trucks will not use U.S. highways safely. After receiving approval in September funding for the program was cut when Congress voted against the program.
This week, a three-judge panel of the Federal Appeals Court in San Francisco considered the case.
http://www.purchasing.com/index.asp?layout=arti...
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nikkibabe
March 3, 2008, 11:41 a.m.
Don't worry guys. Iraq John with his promised 100 years of war in Iraq will help, if there is money left in the Treasury.
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joeblowe
March 3, 2008, 1:56 p.m.
Having some direct experience in this field, I can authoritatively state:
Yes, EVERYONE who owns a truck is having problems. Diesel (as of last week) was $1.00 per gallon HIGHER than it was just one year ago. Even very large companies who buy in bulk are NOT immune from this. Bulk purchases can shave a LITTLE bit off the price per gallon, but that fuel gets USED UP and has to be replaced at --- a HIGHER price. Diesel trucks typically get AROUND 6 miles per gallon. Some of the newer, highest efficiency truck MIGHT get nearly 7. The math isn't too hard. Say 6.5 miles per gallon, at $ 3.55 per gallon (as of last Monday EIA) is ABOUT $ .55 per mile just to put fuel in the truck. Maybe $ .28/mile for insurance, truck mortgage, licenses, etc. Maybe $. 25/mile for other expenses like truck maintenance, lodging, etc. $ 1.08 per mile comes off the top before the owner-operator ever makes the first penny. No WONDER they get upset. A year ago that number was about 15% lower.
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hamy
March 3, 2008, 1:56 p.m.
But Bush said that things weren't bad! He said just last week that we are not in a recession!
Gays can't marry. We can say "Merry Christmas" to whomever we want. Schools have a moment of silence. Fences were built on some of the border to Mexico. The important stuff that he talked about is still OK.
Then how can the economy be bad?
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Harbeas
March 3, 2008, 2:47 p.m.
This could turn into a real tragedy. There is no more room for the little guy anymore and that is not good news any way you slice it. Our lack of developing an energy policy is coming back to kick us in the buttocks.
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slyboy2
March 3, 2008, 2:50 p.m.
What I want to know is what makes diesel so much higher in price than gas? After all several years ago before the increase in fuel prices, diesel was also about 10 cents cheaper or equal to a gallon of gas. Now it seems diesel always runs about 25-50 cents more a gallon than regular gasoline.
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Jaydee40
March 3, 2008, 6:12 p.m.
Here's the problem, many companies have their own fleets sitting there not turning a wheel, when independent truckers get to independent the company just pulls twenty truck out and starts to run them taking away any bargaining chip the independents have. Or at least that's how the Irving's do it here, ever hear of Midland, Day and Ross, Kent homes and others. But truckers have been saying the same thing forever, and if you look on most weigh bills there is a fuel surcharge that is ridiculously priced most of the time. The trucker that is really going to hurt is one locked into a long term contract. With no loopholes. .
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BoxMonkey
March 3, 2008, 4:54 p.m.
Probably not . Nobody is that fired up like the good old days in the seventies .