Under The Needle: Fuel costs driving truckers into red

t's not as if Tilden Curl doesn't sympathize with everyday motorists. He knows, as they do, the extra $30 to $50 to $100 a week for gas stings.

He knows it means something else has to give. But, still, he feels as if the situation in his chosen industry deserves particular attention, maybe intervention.

Soaring fuel costs for Curl and other independent truckers -- up more than 25 percent in the past year alone -- have meant this simple math: an equal percentage pay cut.

"Many people are locked in (hauling) contracts that account for lower fuel prices," Curl said by phone while passing through Seattle on his way to Bellingham. "So when your costs go up, you make less money. Simple."

Not so simple to fix.

The problem has become so severe, Curl said, that many truckers are losing more money by picking up loads and delivering them than by leaving their trucks parked.

<snip>

But it isn't as bad for Curl as it is for some. Many truckers operate only as quasi-independents, meaning they are on two-year contracts at specific freight rates with a specific freight company, essentially treating them like many of the contract hires at Microsoft Corp.

Except this. Business costs can vary.

If that contract was negotiated a year ago at, say, 1.2 cents per mile driven and now the minimum cost of doing business is 1.5 cents, there is no relief. The contract is binding.

More: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/364225_needle23.html

if they won't do that they deserve no sympathy.

-----------------------------------------------

One Big Union, One Big Strike!
--I.W.W.

... how does becoming a part of a union affect the price of oil?
:shrug:

what being a part of a union is good for is contract negotiations. A fuel clause in the contract stipulating that this price is based on this price for fuel etc.
Let me see if I get this right. you want us here in the us to increase our use of nuclear energy with all of its ramifications and to continue the dismantling of what unions we have left. How is that not the same as our re:puke:lican parties stance on those same two issues. :eyes: Exactly whose side are you on there

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

As I obviously broke this DU rule:
> We consider it a personal attack to call a liar a liar,
> to call a moron a moron, or to call a jerk a jerk.

may I simply suggest that *you* read both this DU rule:
> Do not publicly accuse another member of this message board of being a
> disruptor, conservative, Republican, FReeper, or troll, or do not
> otherwise imply they are not welcome on Democratic Underground.

and this one:
> Do not "stalk" another member from one discussion thread to another.
> Do not follow someone into another thread to try to continue a
> disagreement you had elsewhere.

:hi:

If fuel was REALLY inflated then yes it could work. However this is NOT 1980 fuel oil we don't use China will be MORE THAN HAPPY to purchase. Meaning the best a big truck Union can do is freeze fuel prices for a few months...

Lets face it. Truckers are going to be the first to go out in this collapse of the oil economy. They have no room here. No Palace or cooperate superstructure they can sell off. No secret Ticket to Cheep Diesel. etc...

And once trucking companies start going out of Business...

do well to ponder the wisdom of Samuel Johnson,
"Nothing has more retarded the advancement of learning than the disposition of vulgar minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot comprehend."

No claim was made that a union would affect the price of oil.
No claim was made that "unions" plueral would "fix everthing."

While the two of you are holding your breath till you turn blue, those who CAN comprehend
will be advancing the cause of ONE union WORLDWIDE!

-----------------------------------------------

One Big Union, One Big Strike!
--I.W.W.

while the oil companies, shippers of products, and receivers of products make their profits by simply raising their prices. It makes me wonder why the stores raised their prices when the driver is eating the extra costs of the fuel. When it does get reflected into the mix by the drivers being fairly compensated, it will go even higher at the retail outlets. Do you think we have a recession now as the shit didn't even hit the fan yet and the price of oil is still rising? THANK YOU MR. (COUGH) BUSH AND ALL OF YOU REPUKE SCUMBAGS FOR YOUR GREED AND OVERSITES, AS IN NOT SERVING THE PEOPLE, WHILE SENDING OUR YOUNG TO KILL AND BE KILLED FOR YOUR SAME SELF SERVING REASONS. This proves they aren't as religious and family oriented as they claim and as such they'd know they're going to hell for their deeds.

It's the LABOR Union Kool-Aid you find distasteful. There are only two flavors, Union Kool-Aid and flip side of the coin, Cooperate Master Union Kool-Aid.
If you harbor the misconception that I sup either flavor you are wrong as I view Labor Unions as an indispensable evil necessary to counter the perpetual state of imbalance desired by the Cooperate Master Union.
In a perfect world Labor Unions would serve no purpose.

If you are not a part of the solution you are a part of the problem so
eat, drink (CMU Kool-Aid) and be merry, Zachstar, your kind won't reign forever.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Big Union, One Big Strike!
--I.W.W.

and?

One Big Union, One Big Strike!
--Industrial Workers of the World.

A Global Economy (dominated by corporatists) must be countered
a Global Labor Union.
What part of that don't you understand?

freight levels are down as people lose jobs and homes. Trucking cannot survive another ten years or less under present conditions no matter what.

contracts that we tax payers are forced to pay for. You know, those cost plus contracts we pay for in Iraq that Halliburton and Blackwater use to steal from our treasury.

Better start buying local.

Any trucker that signs a contract were they have to absorb all increases in fuel costs is a moron. It's not like gas and diesel prices have been going up and down for the last few years. They've just been going up. If you aren't smart enough to run your business and make a livable profit, you need to go work for someone else.

Now it will sadly get better when many truckers have to go out of business and sell their rigs. However, Businesses are already almost in the red themselves and it is only going to get worse from here.

.... then that means there was overcapacity for trucking in the current market. That's how markets adjust and find equilibrium. It's tough on the ones that fail, but that's how markets adjust. Opportunities and failures. It's not compassionate, but efficient.

I work in the food distribution business, so I deal with truckers every day. I know truckers that worked their asses off for 25 years and are retiring in their 50's. They are professional. They arrive on time, or early. They have their paperwork in order.

I know truckers who don't understand directions (like north, south, east and west), that cuss us out when we can't accept a delivery that's 12 hours late (we have incoming shipments in the morning, outgoing in the evening), who don't even know what they're delivering (order number, vendor). It's a tough business to make a living in, but it's not impossible.

no truckers are doing all that well when its 500 dollars to fill up the tanks.

Something doesn't smell right here..Most contracts come with a fuel surcharge based on the price of gas.. If not its a bad contract to start with..

and phase out long haul trucking.

means nothing to the Government brain trusts we are currently forced to suffer for they are obsessed with dismantling the RR infrastructure and converting the rights of way to recreational use that in many cases caters to All Terrain Vehicles and Snowmobiles powered by petroleum products!
--------------------------------------------
National Trail Celebration June 7, 10:00 at the Railway Station 98 on
the dike in Machias. Parade to Whitney's Tool Shed and free barbecue.
Bring your bike for the ride after lunch. Bring your horse, bring
your ATV. Get the latest trail news.

Hello Everyone,

Here is the DEST up-date for this week.

The bids for rail removal and trail construction were opened on May 8.
The Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine Department of
Conservation are examining the bids now to make sure we have all the
appropriate arrangements, payments, specifications, and quality control.
We think there may be a decision late next week. However, a few more
bumps in the trail may have to be addressed which could delay the
decision slightly. But we really are moving into the final phase, at last.

PLEASE COME AND ENJOY OUR TRAIL DAY CELEBRATION! NOT ONLY WILL WE
HAVE THE VERY LATEST NEWS OF THE TRAIL, BUT WE ALSO WILL HAVE FUN AND
GREAT FOOD! SEE DETAILS ON THE POSTER ATTACHED TO THIS MESSAGE.
PLEASE BRING YOUR BIKE, YOUR HORSE, CHARLIE WILL HAVE A SNOWMOBILE
Charlie.Corliss@maine.gov AND JOHN ASHMORE WILL BE ARRANGING FOR ATV'S
john.ashmore2@verizon.net These will be part of the parade and we will
have a bike ride to Whitneyville after lunch.

IF YOU HAVE A LIST OF PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THIS

CELEBRATION, PLEASE FORWARD THE POSTER.

I hope to see you all there!

Sally
---------------------

Maine, the way Life Should Be?

In others, rights of way have given way to huge strips of condos.

In my community, we have freight lines that are still active. There is serious talk about opening these lines to commuter service between Philly and New York.

That would be a good thing of course.

Regrettably the line is not yet electrified though.

There is still an active rail near me used for freight. I would love to see it used for commuter service in addition to freight. It is within walking distance. This would be helpful to a few hundred people. It has the possibility of linking all the way into Boston.

the rights of way...wink...wink.

In my very rural are the tracks are in place, they are needed here and now for moving freight and people as they did in the past, as I write they are about to be ripped up for a trail that will be dominated by All Terrain Vehicles and Snowmobiles. No one seriously thinks railroad service will ever be restored!

As long as the junk scientists and their followers are not inspired to heighten their hue and cry for more nuke power plants, a technology thus-far proven not cost effective, electrification of trains seems the way to go.

Basically if you read the world's energy and environmental scientific literature, particularly about life cycle analysis, there is very little "junk" science about nuclear power.

In France, the world's fastest land transport is nuclear powered, freight and commuter.

As for the snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles, they are merely inertia of a dying mindset.

Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller.
--Scientists Who Invented the Atomic Bomb under the Manhattan Project.

and ask whether you consider them "Real scientists" or junk scientists?

Keep in mind that "Teller—whom history would later dub the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb—actively theorized that the Trinity device might engender a chain reaction that would ignite the whole of the Earth's atmosphere, killing every living thing on the planet."

Upon witnessing the explosion, its creators had mixed reactions. Isidor Rabi felt that the equilibrium in nature had been upset as if humankind had become a threat to the world it inhabited. Robert Oppenheimer, though ecstatic about the success of the project, quoted a remembered fragment from the Bhagavad Gita. "I am become Death," he said, "the destroyer of worlds." Ken Bainbridge, the test director, told Oppenheimer, "Now we're all sons of bitches."
http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/atomic_bomb.htm

During the last 7-8 years the rails have been expanded to handle a huge increase of coal trains coming out of Wyoming. There have been many fights,law suits, heart attacks trying to stop land from being taken. The railroads won every time.

God bless:sarcasm: clean :sarcasm: Wyoming coal!