A trucker’s strike may be no joke

The ever-alert Bob McCarty (who I also link to under “fellow dittoheads”; he’s out of Missouri) found out about a movement sweeping the independent trucking industry:

One Iowa newspaper reporter describes it as “a small, online grassroots effort (that) now appears to have the potential for something bigger.” That “something bigger” is a threatened nationwide shutdown by independent truck drivers — possibly hundreds of thousands of them — April 1.

Though set to take place on April Fools Day, the effort — launched with Dan Little, owner-operator of Little & Little Trucking, L.L.C., a livestock hauling company based in Carrollton, Mo. — is no laughing matter. It began two weeks ago when Little posted an open letter to his fellow independent truckers on his web site he set up to give trucking companies like his exposure to prospective shippers anywhere in the U.S.

In the letter, which is still available on the site, he vowed to shutdown his trucking company at 8 a.m. April 1, 2008, and no longer accept loads at any price until such time as the federal government puts into action a plan that will give all owner-operators some help.

Key among the complaints are the price of diesel fuel and of truckers’ insurance premiums, which are based on the personal credit of truckers themselves. While it may not have quite as much impact in our area because a large percentage of the trucks are corporate rigs (like Perdue’s trucks) many of these costs affect truckers regardless of who signs their paychecks. Corporate-owned truck or not, diesel fuel is still shading $4 a gallon here.

I found it interesting that Dan Little’s first point echoes something I’ve said each time gas prices have gone up – those inside the Beltway who would like to lay a levy on the “obscene profits” oil companies make when gas prices are high never question the even-higher taxes they extract from each and every gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel. Of course, they’ll tell you that money goes to fix up highways so gas taxes can’t be cut, but in truth a great deal of that federal cash never sees a highway unless it’s a bus that’s stuck in traffic along with the trucker burning his $4-a-gallon fuel while idling on the interstate. Mass transit gets a lot of federal gas tax money in subsidies.

While I’m not entirely sure a work stoppage will be effective because someone will fill the vacuum created by an independent trucker parking his rig, the fact of the matter is that these independent businessmen are hurting because of items that could and should have been addressed long ago, in particular the price of diesel fuel. Had we gone ahead and allowed more domestic oil exploration, fuel may only be $2 or even $1.50 a gallon. Unfortunately we’ve put ourselves behind the 8-ball for the foreseeable future because even if these oil fields could be touched tomorrow, it would take many months to reach a point where crude begins to flow.

In the meantime, truckers may keep on truckin’ but it’ll ruin their balance sheet when they do.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

One thought on “A trucker’s strike may be no joke”

  1. If the truckers go on strike, they will be just as smart as the auto workers who have crippled their industry. According to estimates, another 50,000 jobs will be reported lost on Friday. This follows the 63,000 lost in the last report. The truckers should be glad they are not part of the statistics.

    I recall reports about oil exports from Iraq which were in the 2.5 million barrel per day range before the war. They are reportedly struggling to reach 1.7 million now due to sabotage of pipelines. Estimates put Iraq’s capacity at 6 million per day.

    EIA estimates put ANWR potential at 0.6 to 1.9 million per day at peak output. The issue is no longer about domestic and import. It is about supply and demand. The supply around the world, not just in the U.S., has remained flat while demand has grown.

    It wouldn’t take months for oil to flow from restricted areas, it would take years, 9 or 10 of them.

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