I've been off for the last three days I must say this is more fun then arguing with the CB rambos on the PA Pike. :lol: I can't wait to see what tommorrow brings being that it is April 1st. Maybe I'll turn the radio up on my way to MD :lol: and actually stay awake on the way back :lol: (we run teams)

 

That is exactly what it's about. Fuel is an input, if your inputs increase you must increase your price or you won't be in business very long. If you don't have pricing power you can't pass those increases along. Currently, carriers don't have much pricing power due to overcapacity, pure and simple. There's only two ways to alleviate overcapacity. Increase demand or decrease supply. Demanding some sort of relief at the pump serves to artificially support the imbalance which only results in having to deal with piss poor pricing power for longer than we should. Your fuel prices go up, charge more. Don't try and figure out how to haul for the same rate you were $1.00/gallon ago. But that's apparently what many are doing since rates are where they were a year ago.

I don't see anybody calling for protests over the increase in the price of a new tractor this year. How many know what a new one costs? Then again, why worry about the current cost of equipment when most just price based on the the truck they purchased 5 years ago :roll:

Times are tough, lots of folks are going to fail. No sense prolonging the inevitable. We aren't a discount carrier and may very well be a casualty before it's all said and done. No matter, when and if the red ink makes an appearance it's time to get the hell out.

 

BD you had better join in, running for those rates you will not be around long, the rates you are running for we were getting 10 YEARS ago :shock:

Also, just food for thought, I think if I were you I would not be broadcasting those rates for everyone to see, it is kind of embarrassing ops:

I guess that explains why you can't shout down.

 

BD, I know the truth hurts, but for real you had better hope fuel goes down, you cannot keep running for those rates and except to be profitable.

 

I'm not sure how anyone thinks refusing to service the transportation industry is going to bring fuel prices down. Crude oil prices have been at record highs for a number of reasons, none of which the U.S. or Canadian governments have any control over. They can't control supply, whether the reduction of oil produced is by hurricane, political instability or a cartel's desire for more profit. Governments can and do try to make adjustments in policy or taxation, or they may release some barrels from the reserve but it won't make a difference in the long run.
What many sane voices have tried to say here is that if you need more money to be profitable, you need to raise your rates, either through straight freight charges or through a fuel surcharge (which gives you the option of reducing or eliminating it if diesel prices drop).
The long and short of it all is that a trucker's strike is just a fallacy, a combination of pent-up frustration and CB bull crap. I drove during the infamous trucking strikes of the 1970s and they produced diddley squat. And nothing good is going to come out of the unorganized, annoying actions of what will surely be a handful of drivers.
If you're properly financed, know how to control yours costs, and have the experience and intelligence to turn down cheap freight, $4/gallon will not bankrupt you; it will erode your profit until you add a FSC.

 

Perhaps all it may take is a phone call...."Ahh, OK boys. You've had your fun but we all knew this day would come. Frankly I'm surprised it took this damn long.....stupid saps hardy har. Let's back it off a notch shall we? Can't have anarchy, no sir, no sir. By the way, where are we golfing Sunday?"

[quote]Crude oil prices have been at record highs for a number of reasons, none of which the U.S. or Canadian governments have any control over."
Umm, well. First, if the Wort President In United States History (queue Hail to the Cheifs) hadn't spent so much money, the greenback may be higher, which would bring the price of oil down (because it's measured in US dollars).

Also, a solid US economy would likely have stopped speculators from buying oil futures instead of selling US bucks.

Third, had the WPIUSH not invaded a major oil producing nation, one could speculate that they would have continued to try to ship oil and make money for themselves (instead of Haliburton).

So basically investors took a run at the greenback....as they should have and yeah it was caused by Bush.

I'm not sure I believe that. I do not for one second believe that the US government is not getting some form of payment from Iraq...and other countries in the middle east. That payment may be in currency or oil wells, but in spite of what some have said.....I am not so naive to think that this was about "Crimes Against Humanity". Nobody gives two hoots about the Iraqui people and if they did, why not care about all the other atrocities around the world? South Africa, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and many others. Because they don't have oil that's why.

True enough.

 

You are assuming that there is no collusion or any other hanky panky going on to screw up the laws of supply and demand.

$115,000 for a 2008 T660.