Strike shutdown october 26, 2009

[RostyC]

It is funny that the only ones screaming for a strike/shutdown are the weak, and the ones with no business skills.

Well now wait a second, let's not be so dismissive.
Oct. 26 is a Monday.
Nice cool weather by then.
Make a great three day weekend.
So, party at my house, everyone's invited.
BigD, you know what to bring.
I'll handle the chicken and ribs, 1/2 keg.........hmm 2 half kegs.
everyone else, bring a dish or meat of your liking.
We'll show them.......

[Bigmon]

A shut down will give the Mexicans more ammo to say Americans don't want to work.

[Fredog]

Well, I'll have to bow out on this next strike. I went on strike for the week of Labor Day. Seemed appropriate to do it then. No one joined me. So.... I did my part. Now everyone can do theirs without me. Did I say I went on strike? My bad. I meant to say my truck went on strike. Until I met the demands that it went on strike for, it refused to haul freight. Had no choice but to give in and ante up. Now if we could just get all the trucks to go on strike in a uniform way. Man, if these trucks ever get unionized, we are in deep shinola.

you were NOT alone..I joined you that week

[Fredog]

well now wait a second, let's not be so dismissive.
Oct. 26 is a monday.
Nice cool weather by then.
Make a great three day weekend.
So, party at my house, everyone's invited.
Bigd, you know what to bring.
I'll handle the chicken and ribs, 1/2 keg.........hmm 2 half kegs.
Everyone else, bring a dish or meat of your liking.
We'll show them.......

i'm there dude!!

[no_worries]

Number of THINGS to "strike against" - just NO ONE IN PARTICULAR that would CARE. Not that I'm advocating a union or anything.

1 - Lack of rest areas with states shutting down more and more weekly. They REQUIRE US to stop for 10 hours EVERY DAY, but don't give us enough places that are SAFE or have ADEQUATE FACILITIES. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES want us to shut down, they should make sure we have safe/decent places to DO SO.

2 - Anti-Idling laws. Don't get me wrong, I'm ALL FOR a cleaner environment - but if you forced a DOG to be locked in a truck with no heat/AC for 10 hours, you'd go to JAIL. Try idling to maintain SAFE and comfortable temperatures in order to get the MANDATED REST - and some states have JAIL TIME as a penalty for doing so. Why don't we STRIKE and get Osama/Obama/Barry (whatever his name is today) to BAIL OUT each INDEPENDENT TRUCKER with a coupon for a FREE APU of their choice? He'd save enough OIL in the first year to actually PAY FOR THEM (unlike all his other plans that have no means of getting PAID FOR). While he's at it, he can provide a G.I. Sleep Apnea Machine, as most of us are going to NEED ONE if the BMI recommendation gets ushered in.

Both of those issues (like most) are solved by refusing to work for insufficient revenue. Changes such as these increase your cost, whether they necessitate buying an apu, more hotel stays, increase route planning, more sitting, whatever. If you don't raise your rates to account for the increased cost of doing business, these changes become a hardship. If you don't have the pricing power to increase rates, it's either do to poor business skills or a poor business climate (overcapacity).

[Orangetxguy]

you better wake up before that, if you wait until it works, you will starve to death

No worries on me straving!!! On the way to Buffet as we speak!!!

[allan5oh]

I'll go on strike...against the oversupply of trucks out there chasing freight. I demand that the government step in shut down 20% of the freight-chasers out there.

I read a well written report somewhere, I'll try and find it. Basically it says right now there are actually many businesses that should be going under, but the banks are propping them up hoping that the business will turn around. This is the problem, as it keeps too much supply in the market place.

[GMAN]

I read a well written report somewhere, I'll try and find it. Basically it says right now there are actually many businesses that should be going under, but the banks are propping them up hoping that the business will turn around. This is the problem, as it keeps too much supply in the market place.

A friend of mine read something similar in one of the trucking papers. The writer was interviewing one or more of the larger carriers and that is what they stated in the article.

[no_worries]

I read a well written report somewhere, I'll try and find it. Basically it says right now there are actually many businesses that should be going under, but the banks are propping them up hoping that the business will turn around. This is the problem, as it keeps too much supply in the market place.

It's due to the depreciation in the value of the underlying assets. Given the severely depressed used truck market, if you were a bank, how would you like to be in possession of a few thousand repo trucks? It costs money to repo, store, and sell those things and right now, it's probably a money losing proposition. They've taken the position that it's better to let the carrier keep them for now and deal with the headache. Maybe he'll actually turn things around and you can collect all those penalties for delinquent payments and if not, you'll wait until the used market is better before you turn the repo man loose.

The same thing happened and is still happening to an extent in the housing market. Banks are not foreclosing on some homes that are eligible because it's not in their best interest.

It really does hit the trucking industry though. Imagine you're a carrier that can no longer make the payments. Until the bank takes them from you, you can run those trucks without paying for them. Not to mention cutting way back on maintenance since you couldn't care less about how long they will last. Take those things out of the cost equation and you can run some awfully cheap freight and still make a few bucks.

[GMAN]

I think that I would want to check any truck purchase especially close right now. If they can't make their payments they also may not be able to do oil changes and basic maintenance.

[allan5oh]

Thanks for taking it to the next step no_worries. Makes sense to me.