Mark Spearman

Truckers Pull Rigs Off Road in Protest of Fuel Prices – Independent truckers around the country pulled their rigs off the road and others slowed to a crawl on major highways in a loosely organized protest of high fuel prices. [Fox News Headlines]

I don’t understand why yet, but the media is hyping this “truckers strike”. My guess would be they’re fanning the flames to make as many things go wrong as they can before a presidential election.

There is no central coordination and there are plenty of trucks still on the road. I find the actions of the media to be very irresponsible. You have a few disgruntled people right now, but the media is trying to make it look bigger than it is. The media is hyping this enough that some fool is going to attack a driver that is moving freight.

The entire idea of millions of drivers sitting idle at once is ridiculous. The independents are screaming about how unfair the business practices of the brokers and customers are and they are very correct. Brokers and companies are stealing the added fuel surcharges that customers are paying and the law allows them to do it. The companies and government just rip these drivers left and right for fees for everything they can dream up. Quit working for brokers and companies that are swindling you, how hard is that? Yes, you’ll lose your truck, but your going to anyhow, so why let them work you down to nothing while it happens.

The answer is so simple, don’t haul cheap freight. How hard is it to not haul underpriced freight? Those who cannot figure it out will go out of business.

Many of these drivers are paying $25/year for a trade association called OIIDA and expecting that association to do it all for them. Of course, the government laughs off this group because they have no real power. With no good group to lobby for them, no laws of signifigance to protect them, and an industry that has finely honed skills to optimize the usage of a driver and equipment until they’ve pinched all they can out of them, these truckers are very irate.

So the media latches onto to all of this and tries to promote problems for the entire country over a few drivers that have absolutely no business sense.

I’m keeping my eyes on a close watch and hoping for the best until I can get this week over with.