truckers look out
#11
11-20-2007, 03:27 PM
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,658
so how many road workers does it really take to fill a pothole.
One to supervise One to hold up the shovel One to get the coffee One to stand around and make sure the hole is being dug And One to do the digging(lowest man on the todem pole) 
#12
11-20-2007, 03:31 PM
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,658
Originally Posted by fuelman
on a different note I have always wondered what would happen if every truck driver in the USA. stopped thier trucks on any given monday at 6 AM , you know, shoulder to shoulder, all across the damn freeway, every exit blocked, pull out the orange triangles, and just park for 4 hours.
The trucking industry would make the news in a real hurry. I have thought of this not for problems in the trucking industry, but to make a point to all those damn 4 wheelers that are in such a big hurry. HEY A**HOLE!!! YOU ARE GOING TO BE AT LEAST 4 HOURS LATE PLUS THE TIME FOR THE TRAFFIC TO GET MOVING AGAIN. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: We could pull out the bbq and a deck of cards  Only bad thing is, emergency vehicles couldn't get through, oh well, people die every day. You can't get two truck drivers to agree that the sky is blue, how would you get drivers to join together. Never going to happen!
#13
11-20-2007, 03:39 PM
Have also thought of a great commercial for the trucking industry.
3.5 pounds of playdoh made into a nice little sedan car with jonny and susie and rover sticking thier heads out the back windows, mom and dad in the front seats, not aware of the world around them. Some lame song playing like the leave it to beaver theme song. THEN DROP AN 80 POUND STEEL PLATE ON THE CAR!!! MUSIC STOPS, END OF COMMERCIAL.
#14
11-20-2007, 06:00 PM
Originally Posted by terrylamar
OK, I'm starting a union. Your dues are $5.00 when I receive everyone's dues, I'll kick it off. Hurry up and send your money.
#15
11-20-2007, 06:56 PM
Re: truckers look out
Originally Posted by choperbob
oh my gosh, look out!! nafta? mexican drivers? high fuel/ bull shirt. the is more freight than we could ever possibly move. we do need a raise. but. we ain't gonna get it until john q citizen really feels it in his pocket. take a few minutes and talk to a mexican driver. he ain't happy. he is getting screwed asn bad as all the rest of this industry. he don't wanna run up here any more than we wanna run there. give the man a freakin' break. he was happier when he had more home time. yer poor milaes and poor pay ain't because some driver was sent where you are at. duh, be real, driver. the main reason we are getting paid so low is our own darn fault. our companies make a contract to haul their product for a certain price which includes fuel increases. they never guessed how high the prices would go tho. does the U.S.A. hurt everyone or just a small segment? forget truckin. think freight haulin'. without us the whole world stops!!! it is against the law for us to stop haulin freight. duh. ronald raygun made 9t so. the only way we can strike is to agree with our local unions, ooida, local companies, and our own concieuse??? whatever to not haul freight on a certaqin day. it will be different for each driver. imagine if the industry had to deal with late loads for a week?? as a driver all you need to do is be late for 3 p/u and 3 dels. all during only a month. if every driver was late only 3 time but was during a month, well shucks we get it there on time but be late for loading, think about it.
Ok, say every driver decides to band together and make 3 pick up's and 3 delivery's late, lets say by 3 hours. That would be 18 hours a month of no production (truck is parked). If you made .40 cpm and you averaged 45mph for the month you would lose $324 a month. If your company averaged $1.05 a mile that would be a $850 dollar loss per month. Lets say you drive for JB Hunt and they have about 10,000 trucks on the road losing $850 a month per truck that adds up to $8,500,000 per month. Now lets expand that to Swift, Werner, Schneider, US Xpress ect. all losing that kind of money a month? Yeah, the company's payroll and fuel expenses would all go down but big company's are running on such a small profit margin it would have serious adverse effects on them. Now lets look at the shipper's and receiver's. If they don't have freight they don't have sales. If they dont have sales they don't have profits. If they don't have profits they don't have investors. If they don't have investors they don't have a business. The only thing they will see is that JB Hunt, Swift, Werner, Schneider, and US Xpress is not doing the job they are were hired to do, breaching their contract. Do you think a company like Walmart would just give in and say "you guys win, we will pay you the money you deserve". No,They are going to hire other company's to do the job right for less money so they can make up for the profits they lost on the freight that didn't arrive on time. The US government is going to create policy's so this doesn't ever happen again, which might include allowing more Mexican and Canadian trucks haul US freight putting American truck drivers in the unemployment lines. We have created this problem. At some point things changed, we decided to outsource for lower expenses to create higher profits. When a company wants someone's business they sell themselves on cutting costs and doing business cheaper than the other guy instead of selling themselves on value and providing a dependable service. Once that value is gone there is no getting it back.
#16
11-20-2007, 09:37 PM
Senior Board Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: pod# 110 -Shared with a high risk in a red jumper.
Posts: 2,240
Re: truckers look out
I honestly think if everyone was late 9 times a month it would have a negative effect and make this situation worse than it currently is.
Ok, say every driver decides to band together and make 3 pick up's and 3 delivery's late, lets say by 3 hours. That would be 18 hours a month of no production (truck is parked). If you made .40 cpm and you averaged 45mph for the month you would lose $324 a month. If your company averaged $1.05 a mile that would be a $850 dollar loss per month. Lets say you drive for JB Hunt and they have about 10,000 trucks on the road losing $850 a month per truck that adds up to $8,500,000 per month. Now lets expand that to Swift, Werner, Schneider, US Xpress ect. all losing that kind of money a month? Yeah, the company's payroll and fuel expenses would all go down but big company's are running on such a small profit margin it would have serious adverse effects on them. Now lets look at the shipper's and receiver's. If they don't have freight they don't have sales. If they dont have sales they don't have profits. If they don't have profits they don't have investors. If they don't have investors they don't have a business. The only thing they will see is that JB Hunt, Swift, Werner, Schneider, and US Xpress is not doing the job they are were hired to do, breaching their contract. Do you think a company like Walmart would just give in and say "you guys win, we will pay you the money you deserve". No,They are going to hire other company's to do the job right for less money so they can make up for the profits they lost on the freight that didn't arrive on time. The US government is going to create policy's so this doesn't ever happen again, which might include allowing more Mexican and Canadian trucks haul US freight putting American truck drivers in the unemployment lines. We have created this problem. At some point things changed, we decided to outsource for lower expenses to create higher profits. When a company wants someone's business they sell themselves on cutting costs and doing business cheaper than the other guy instead of selling themselves on value and providing a dependable service. Once that value is gone there is no getting it back One thing to consider about being late for pick up and delivery as a driver ...You have no real idea as to what late would really be , as most P/U and deliveries have windows sometimes as huge as a week , so bu showing up a few hours late to the ETA you company gave you most likely are not late in the eyes of the customer just your company .
#17
11-20-2007, 10:22 PM
You dont need to "teach" lessons to 4wheeler, (cant be done),or shippers/receivers/companies etc etc.
We do not need unions. Truckers dont have to agree that the "sky is blue". All this is hogwash that I hear practically everyday on the road. Back in "the day" as some of you old timers may concur, that drivers were more "together" more agreeable to each other. Well in my thoughts Ill wage that it is not true and they are just "living in the past". I had heard an idea that would not require any of the Illegal actions suggested by drivers to show the USA how important trucks are to America. The suggestion was, that, no matter what the senerio is regarding dispatch/load/company etc. NO matter what the situation is, if every driver ran legal logbooks, did everything to the letter of the law, that would have the biggest impact on the importance of trucks and their drivers. Log it like you do it, log legal drive time, log legal on duty not driving, dont cover any of it up with line 1 or 2. When on break do not start your duty day 1min before that 10 hr break is complete. Just log it like you do it. This would put alot of companies and customers into tailspins.
#18
11-20-2007, 11:21 PM
Senior Board Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: pod# 110 -Shared with a high risk in a red jumper.
Posts: 2,240
Originally Posted by Drew10
You dont need to "teach" lessons to 4wheeler, (cant be done),or shippers/receivers/companies etc etc.
We do not need unions. Truckers dont have to agree that the "sky is blue". All this is hogwash that I hear practically everyday on the road. Back in "the day" as some of you old timers may concur, that drivers were more "together" more agreeable to each other. Well in my thoughts Ill wage that it is not true and they are just "living in the past". I had heard an idea that would not require any of the Illegal actions suggested by drivers to show the USA how important trucks are to America. The suggestion was, that, no matter what the senerio is regarding dispatch/load/company etc. NO matter what the situation is, if every driver ran legal logbooks, did everything to the letter of the law, that would have the biggest impact on the importance of trucks and their drivers. Log it like you do it, log legal drive time, log legal on duty not driving, dont cover any of it up with line 1 or 2. When on break do not start your duty day 1min before that 10 hr break is complete. Just log it like you do it. This would put alot of companies and customers into tailspins. well that would have a huge impact if a driver logged all of time by the book to the letter...sitting on line 4 waiting for dispatch's ...logging every minute of time as line 4 at the shipper/receivers...logging every minute you take inspecting your truck/trailer...just simply by logging the time you do spend and not burying it as line 1 or 2 would probably have a drastic impact on things such as pay , and all just by follwing the book to letter , and doing your job 100% legal as the rules set forth by DOT . ..pretty much hanging them with their own rope :wink:
#19
11-21-2007, 12:21 AM
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,658
Originally Posted by Drew10
You dont need to "teach" lessons to 4wheeler, (cant be done),or shippers/receivers/companies etc etc.
We do not need unions. Truckers dont have to agree that the "sky is blue". All this is hogwash that I hear practically everyday on the road. Back in "the day" as some of you old timers may concur, that drivers were more "together" more agreeable to each other. Well in my thoughts Ill wage that it is not true and they are just "living in the past". I had heard an idea that would not require any of the Illegal actions suggested by drivers to show the USA how important trucks are to America. The suggestion was, that, no matter what the senerio is regarding dispatch/load/company etc. NO matter what the situation is, if every driver ran legal logbooks, did everything to the letter of the law, that would have the biggest impact on the importance of trucks and their drivers. Log it like you do it, log legal drive time, log legal on duty not driving, dont cover any of it up with line 1 or 2. When on break do not start your duty day 1min before that 10 hr break is complete. Just log it like you do it. This would put alot of companies and customers into tailspins.
#20
11-21-2007, 01:32 PM
Logging 100% legal isn't going to raise rates or make things better for us. It will cause a demand to put more trucks on the road to cover the extra freight.
Look at whats happened over the last 20 years. The rates are the same now as they were in the 80's because big company's flooded the industry with more trucks. My Father was an O/O back in the 80's and he made great money working every other week. Fuel was .80 cents a gallon, trucks were cheaper, insurance was cheap and you didn't have to worry about the DOT like you do now. It's about impossible now for a O/O to cover his expenses if he only worked every other week in todays industry. The problem with our industry is that there are to many trucks on the road now. More trucks = higher demand for fuel. High demand for fuel = higher priced fuel. More trucks = more accidents. More accidents = higher insurance rates. More trucks = more drivers. More drivers = lower wages. More trucks = Cheaper rates Cheaper rates = Big company's adding more trucks for more profits. Big company's adding more trucks for profits = completely watering down the market and company's hauling cheaper to get more business to make a profit. The only way to change this indusrty for the better is for company's to reduce their fleet sizes, refuse to haul cheap freight and train their drivers to be 100% professional 100% of the time. |
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