PARK EM IF YOU GOT EM

MILE MARKER # 17


With the slow economy and rising diesel prices, trucking is becoming a tricky business. As I was driving my truck today, I seen a tractor /trailer parked on the side of the roadway with a sign stuck in the ground in front of it. It read "I used all of my profit to make this sign - PARK EM!" I guess I didn't really think about the fuel prices that much, being that I am a company driver. When I read this sign and seen another parked truck, it got me thinking for the next two hours that something needs to be done! It is time to adjust the load rates for the love of God! Enough is enough! I just don't think that is going to happen anytime soon until the giant companies quit hauling freight at 1980 rates. Then I was thinking, what could the owner-operators do? Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything that would work now days. It needed to be done years ago. I believe if the owner-operators got together and shut down (some don't have a choice), those loads would be consumed by the big outfits that haul for a crap rate. The big guys are not going to shut down. It's a pretty sad situation, but the O/O's might eliminate themselves in today's world.?.? Some of the big outfits have set contractual diesel pricing. Some others add a fuel surcharge, which is small percentage of the shipping cost. The owner/operators do not have that kind of luxury to off set the surging diesel prices. They have to deal with the prices at every fuel stop, in return, making a less profit. The trucking world is changing in a big way. On the LTL side you have UPS buying Overnight and Yellow Transportation buying Roadway and Holland. On the trailer load side the same thing is happening. They are buying up all of the small guys to make a big company to be competitive with the other big outfits. When this is all said and done, shippers are going to end up with a few big companies to haul their freight. The diesel prices and cheap freight are just added problems that need to be addressed, along with the housing foreclosures, job pay, and credit card debt. We just can't keep up anymore! Listen to the news, everybody is ready to snap! But don't worry, your rebate check will be here in May. That will solve everything!