Truckers Protest High Fuel Prices, Clog NJ Turnpike

[Wags]

High diesel prices squeeze truckers

Christian Science Monitor article - High diesel prices squeeze truckers - Independent drivers have been hit especially hard, and some will be forced out of business.

High diesel prices squeeze truckers | csmonitor.com

Excerpts from the article

While all Americans are facing sticker shock at the pump these days, truckers have been hit particularly hard, watching the cost of diesel skyrocket past gasoline. The national average for diesel is hovering just above $4 a gallon, due to high crude-oil prices and rising demand for diesel, especially in China and Europe. Truckers often pay close to $1,000 to fill up a tank that might have cost $600 to fill a few years ago.

Independent truckers – those, like Campbell, who own their own rigs – are the ones being hit the hardest. They make up roughly a third of truckers. With little pricing power or ability to collect fuel surcharges, many of them are accepting hauls that barely allow them to break even or that even lose money. Conditions are bad enough that a week ago, some truckers tried scattered protest attempts – strikes, slow drives to tie up traffic, or drives to state capitols – which largely fizzled due to the unorganized nature of the industry.

End of excerpts.

Things are getting worse for the truckers and some are going broke and losing their rigs.

GOD BLESS US ALL

 

[haha]

The life of an indpendent trucker has always been very hard. Sounds like it is getting harder to the breaking point. Most of these guys have to keep running even on very slim cash margins, just to pay the note on their rig.

I guess once your cash profit on a run drops below zero you are about ready for bankruptcy. Most of them will find jobs with trucking firms, but lose their rigs and maybe other property as well.

Ha

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Could be a new era in commerce. Things change. Things get swept under and new things rise. Could just be a stage in the way things work. Feel for the independent truckers sure. However maybe its time we find new fuels...fuel efficiency do things differently. Just because things change doesn't mean things are BAD. Adapt and move on.

 

[ERD50]

While this is a personal tragedy for some of those small truckers, they seem to be part of the problem. If small truckers make up 1/3rd of the traffic, they have more power than they think. Commerce probably can't get by w/o them. But look at that article:

"My way of fighting back is just not hauling the cheap freight," he says. "I won't put a load on my truck anymore that I'm going to lose money on."
But negotiating the prices, when there always seem to be drivers willing to do it for less, can be tough.

The article states that sometimes they take a haul at a loss or small profit, in hopes of making it up on another leg. Well, if they keep doing that, they really can't expect the shippers to make a higher offer, can they? Supply/demand.

So they want the government to come in and regulate fuel surcharges? Geez, why not just let the free market take care of this?

-ERD50

edit for WAGS: YouTube - The Eagles - Already Gone

So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key

 

[haha]

So they want the government to come in and regulate fuel surcharges? Geez, why not just let the free market take care of this?

I can't remember what you did for a career, but it is unlikely that you were a small businessperson.

This is the free market! it's basic functioning of market power- the shippers are price- makers, the truckers price- takers. When a relative few agents are on one side, and many on the other, power resides in the few.

Ha

 

[ERD50]

I can't remember what you did for a career, but it is unlikely that you were a small businessperson.

This is the free market! it's basic functioning of market power- the shippers are price- makers, the truckers price- takers. When a relative few agents are on one side, and many on the other, power resides in the few.

Ha

True, I worked mostly for mega-corps. But in a way, we are all small businessmen/women - essentially representing and selling ourselves as the product to our employer. I was not a union member, so I didn't have any agents on my side.

The article said that about 1/3 of the traffic was handled by independents. I would think that would give them a fair amount of power, no?

I'll admit, I don't know much about the trucking industry, but aren't there enough different shippers to provide a free market? I had enough potential employers to provide a free market for my services, but of course, supply/demand would impact what I could expect in compensation. Is the trucking industry so different?

-ERD50