Supporting the American Trucking Industry

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MANORVILLE

MANORVILLE

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Oct 2, 2006
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MANORVILLE, Long Island, N.Y.
www.manorvilleflorists.com
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NEW YORK
A few days ago I was contacted by a representative of the trucking industry who has dedicated what appears to be a large portion of his life, to educate the masses about the importance of boycotts, slow downs, shut downs and crawls at strategic places around the U.S., to generate attention to the growing fuel crisis.
I spent 3 1/2 hours speaking with him.
I know well over 100 truckers personally, many of which are considering parking their rigs, and I can definitely relate to the difficulties they are encountering as my gas bill approaches 3,000 monthly.
Heck, my gas bill had better go down ! Soon !

What do you all think, and would you be willing to support our truckers, ............,,,,,,,,,,,,,,in brief ?






 
MANORVILLE said:

What do you all think, and would you be willing to support our truckers, ............,,,,,,,,,,,,,,in brief ?
Click to expand...
In a heartbeat...I too was one in a former life...

And especially if it meant they would drill more on North American soil, like in Alaska!
 
Of course we'll support them. How do we do that?
 
I'd love to see them park side by side on all the major highways for a few hours one day, totally blocking traffic. That would get some attention. Total highway gridlock. It will never happen though.
 
While I have a deep appreciation of the problems the truckers are facing, their problem could lead to a solution for a bigger problem.

Too many corporations have moved much of their operations overseas. This has hurt the average American worker. The politicians know this, the retail sales numbers show this. The reasoning behind moving overseas was to save money. Now things are changing.

Our roads are ever and ever more crowded. Trucks make up and ever and ever larger portion of the traffic on our highways. Today it's almost impossible to travel any road with out encountering truck traffic.

Those corporations that moved their operations overseas counted on a few things. First they counted on the American taxpayer to pay for ever and ever more roads and maintainance. Second, they counted on trucks to use these roads to move their goods from the ports to the places of distribution. And by using independent truckers they counted on playing one off on the other to keep their costs low. They figured that by doing this their profits would skyrocket. It worked. Corporation profits went thru the roof, and along with it the CEO's pay, because they were the one's who put this into motion.

Well, now truckers are feeling the pinch. If the truckers can put the hurt on these corporations by recouping their rising costs and make sure they get to make a fair wage and average America demands that these corporations who use our roads pay more for their use, maybe those jobs that were sent overseas could be returned because the profit that was enjoyed by the move would be taken away.

Just a thought
 
You Bet

First, I support the industry now, but I don't think boycotts are going to work, because the majority of Americans don't care about issues until if affects them personally. We are a wonderful country, but let's face it, it takes alot for us to react to certain events, and unless gas gets up past $5, I don't think people will react, and honestly, the majority of folks think truckers are a menace on the road, the don't realize how products get moved around, it just magically appears for them to purchase, and no matter what happens to independent drivers, there are still enough companies around to take care of the industry. Here is the best way to explain it for people who dont know....

Schenider, JB Hunt, CR England = FTD, Teleflora, 1800Flowers

No one understands the fuel crisis better than my husband John and I, he has been a trucker for years, and finally was financed for his own truck about 8 months ago, we were doing well then fuel and slow winter hit. It has picked up and is typically busier in the summer, which is great since our business slows, but to give you a idea, he told me he had earned $3000 last week, that is before anything else is taken out, permits, fees, maintenance, insurance, taxes, etc.,
but he had to get fuel and it cost $1300.00, he averages 7 miles to the gallon, which is not bad for a trucker, but when you factor in the costs, it costs .75 a mile just to run the truck, so the fuel is hitting hard, even with the surcharges.

I had great respect for the english truckers who staged the boycott last week, but honestly, that won't work in america, because until prices go up some more and affects everyone, it won't be a issue. I think the news said the price in England for regular unleaded works out to $9.00 a gallon, lets hope America reacts WAy before that for all of our sakes...
 
Yes as a daughter of a wonderful truck driver, who is no longer able to drive his big rig, I surely would and have done so on many occaisions, if everyone stops on here and thinks as to where, how, when our products come from it is such a shame, that life has gotton us , as to where we came from and where we are going, WE all need to start supporting each and everyone, in any and every cause, Because if not is so sad .as to what can and will happen..

A proud daughter whose father who has given many years to the cause, with much repect and honor to all truck drivers..
 
Let me Add

Queen of Weddings said:
Yes as a daughter of a wonderful truck driver, who is no longer able to drive his big rig, I surely would and have done so on many occaisions, if everyone stops on here and thinks as to where, how, when our products come from it is such a shame, that life has gotton us , as to where we came from and where we are going, WE all need to start supporting each and everyone, in any and every cause, Because if not is so sad .as to what can and will happen..

A proud daughter whose father who has given many years to the cause, with much repect and honor to all truck drivers..
Click to expand...

I know how you feel, Queen, My father was a truck driver that died on the road, and then I married one, I hope everyone will think about what would happen without truckers.....
 
I'm not a fan of boycotts either--they just never seem to work. However, something has to be done to keep the trucks moving. It seems to me we only have two choices: Pay more for virtually everything we buy to compensate the truckers for the higher gas prices, or refine more diesel fuel. Not once have I heard any politician saying that we need to drill for more oil and increase our refining capacity. Until that happens I don't see anything changing.
 
Thanks to all that posted.

Just got back from a dinner with a few friends that are going to park their rigs. They just can't make it here any longer. I paid $ 5.19 for diesel here today for my duallie. These guys are dieing a slow death.

Not quite sure where anything is going anymore, only that tough times are ahead for all, as you know what flows downhill !

Gonna call my contact tomorrow when I get some clear time and discuss some ideas.
Not being opportunist, I think that this may be a good means to promote reality, and reality starts with the fuel, the truckers, the Mom and Pops etc.
When I'm on a roll I tend to reflect on unity quite a bit. Longwinded yes, but from the heart !
Now may just be the time to align with others that are being crippled by rising costs, corporate giants that are destroying the American, and International dream, and the deceptive advertisers that currently dominate many other industries besides ours.

Maybe this is the wake up call that everyone needs, and the time to take it all out of the box, because the war we're fighting involves so many more that are not related to our way of life. They are in fact our potential backers and customers !

I'm game to stir the pot. What say you....................?

GETTIN FIRED UP HERE IN LONG ISLAND !


P.S. sfox------Good Post !
 
I'm right there with everyone. My brother and uncle are truck drivers and the only way they are making it are they are doing runs up into Canada. They receive more monies for those runs. BUT they are gone for a month at a time. Pretty rough on the families left back at home. Both of them had to sell their rigs and are at the mercy of the company trucks. It's very scary and people in general don't think about the consequences of not having those truckers out there.
 
Ok, I may be way out of line here, but that has never stopped me from putting my foot in my mouth before!

I am all for a supporting the truckers! I wish them parking their rigs would wake people up around here. However, we can not do this half assed! If we, as a group, are going to help be the champions of the little guys, then we need to live it too. We can not hypocratically say we support independant truckers but continue to buy our goods (as consumers, and business owners) from the money grubbing, irresponsible corporations that are part of the problem.

As small business owners, it is our responsibility to put our money where our mouthes are. This goes for all industries! Will the truckers then in turn support the local florists? It is a chain reaction style revolt and we are each responsible for a link.

I am VERY concious of trying to always shop at independant retailers...groceries, hardware, home goods, gifts, shoes, restaurants etc. I can't do it all the time, but when I can't, I make @@@@ sure the companies I but from act responsibily and treat their employees & vendors fairly. If we say we support the truckers, or even each other, and then run out to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping then we are hypocrates...plain and simple!!! :soapbox:
 
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wildflowerschicago said:
Ok, I may be way out of line here, but that has never stopped me from putting my foot in my mouth before!

I am all for a supporting the truckers! I wish them parking their rigs would wake people up around here. However, we can not do this half assed! If we, as a group, are going to help be the champions of the little guys, then we need to live it too. We can not hypocratically say we support independant truckers but continue to buy our goods (as consumers, and business owners) from the money grubbing, irresponsible corporations that are part of the problem.

As small business owners, it is our responsibility to put our money where our mouthes are. This goes for all industries! Will the truckers then in turn support the local florists? It is a chain reaction style revolt and we are each responsible for a link.

I am VERY concious of trying to always shop at independant retailers...groceries, hardware, home goods, gifts, shoes, restaurants etc. I can't do it all the time, but when I can't, I make @@@@ sure the companies I but from act responsibily and treat their employees & vendors fairly. If we say we support the truckers, or even each other, and then run out to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping then we are hypocrates...plain and simple!!! :soapbox:
Click to expand...


Go girl !!!!!!!!!!

Great Post, great thoughts !
Kinda like me saying put up or shut up !

If we're gonna walk the walk, and the time is now, then we'd better go buy some new shoes !

Thanks AMY !
 
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My dad was a trucker & died on the road also & I will tell you when they get hit with fuel increases like now, many of them will not be able to feed their families. There were many times my dad ended up with little to show for driving 3 weeks straight clocking hours around the clock & driving thousands of miles, just because the companies took out everything from the drivers pay, permits, licenses, other misc fees, you name it. The have to also pay road taxes for every state they drive thru on every trip. It is ridiculous. The companies should make a little less profit & absorb some of the fees. Drivers have families that need to eat. There were many Christmas' we didn't have food or presents or even a tree. American's need to wake up & VOTE. Can't tell you right now who I'd vote for because I am not liking any of the candidates yet. We really need to get someone who will do something GREAT for this nation. But whoever said we won't care til it affects us personally, is absolutely correct. We have lost our way in this nation and do not really care for our brother....
 
Yesterday one of my customers told me that he has a small, very small, trucking company. In the past, he could fuel all of his trucks for $30,000.00 per week. Today it takes $180,000.00. He's seriously considering parking all of his trucks.

Amy you are right.
 
Just like a one day shut down of order transmission would garner attention, a one day nationwide parking lot of rigs would shutdown the country.

This country can not survive without truckers, it would shut down in a heartbeat...

Truckers...school teachers...florists(?)...under appreciated and under compensated...it needs to change!
 
How about some government subsidies where needed ?


naw, too "liberal" I suppose
 
I spent a lot of years in both the trucking and fuel industries. Trucking got to be less fun and less profitable for most everyone except the upstart Wall Street Mega Giants every year from the time of Reagan's great deregulation plan which did away with ICC rights and allowed everybody to get into trucking. Reagan's plan allowed Wall Streeters with a "vision" and a plan to establish some mega-giant trucking companies which now control the majority of real trucking and haul the profitable loads with their own company trucks while leaving the crumbs to others. In retrospect, I have to think that is exactly what was intended to happen with deregulation. More money for Wall Street while those who built the industry and were doing the work starved to death on crumbs and went out of business. Regardless of your opinion on that, does any of this remind you of what has happened to this industry over the last 15 or 20 years?

I don't see much hope for any change in the fuel crisis until Americans WAKE UP and FIRE the TREASONOUS American politicians who have been bought and paid for by OPEC interests and others. OPEC and, in particular, the Saudis, as well as some other very wealthy Arabs spent a lot of money to buy and bring about the current near monopoly they now have on the world's oil. Their investment blatantly and obviously includes substantial and controlling ownership interests in every branch of our "American" government. That would include our American Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of government. And their investment is paying off handsomely for them. They and their American "friends" are laughing all the way to FOREIGN banks while dummied down Americans are still being told by our news media (which has been bought by and is now controlled by many of those same special interests) that our politicians actually work for "us".

These politicians willfully took part and participated in the deliberate conspiracy to take the ONLY remaining WILD CARD that OPEC had left completely out of the picture and give OPEC complete and totally unchallenged power over most of the world's oil, it's PRODUCTION RATE, and it's PRICING. Took 'em a bunch of embargos that didn't work, UN pressure, and two drummed up wars which consumed thousands of American lives and billions of American dollars and has brought our economy to its knees. But they finally actually did it. And these same politicians have been and continue to be well, well, well, well, well paid for their efforts and their successes. To add salt to the wounds, more than a few of them have even figured out how to establish offshore headquarters for their dummy corporations and avoid paying US taxes on any monies that they don't need to use and show to retain their position and power (i.e. Halliburton, for one).

It's these same politicians operating under the guise of "protecting the environment" that are preventing any smaller would be domestic competitors from softening the OPEC/Saudi stranglehold by drilling in American waters or on American soil. It's these same politicians who have made it virtually impossible to expand domestic refining capacity and difficult to operate existing capacity. That would be why so much of our own Alaskan crude oil has never been in the Lower 48 (a fact which all too many are totally unaware of).

I don't know what the answer is. I'm not even sure there is a good one any more. But I can guarantee you that it's going to take more than just a bunch of fed up independent truckers to put enough FEAR into our "bought and paid for" politicians with their "smoke and mirrors acts" to bring about any real change to any of the huge problems that we're facing in this country today. I say FEAR because it's obvious that we can't outbid those who currently own our politicians. Those interests are making sure of that by seeing to it that most of our remaining money is fed to them through our gas pumps or through our mega marts which are pumping out all of the foreign-manufactured products which have caused most of our manufacturing jobs to go offshore.

Excuse the rant. But in light of the REAL problem, which most Americans don't get or even believe when you paint them a picture, anything the independent truckers could do would probably hurt them more than it would hurt anyone else. Our system is broken and in trouble. Its weakness is that it has been manipulated and purchased by non-Americans and others for their own self-interests. If we don't find a way to fix it and return it to American ownership and control, I fear it can't survive. And the "fall" AIN'T going to be pretty if the similarities available to us throughout history are any indication.
 
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What comes to mind after reading HCFlorist's post are history lessons from Jr. High and high school. Remember learning about the uprisings for the Stamp Act and The Boston Tea party and all those other types of revolts. How angry they were and what they did to stand up and MAKE their voices heard. Imagine....telling those same people that their stamps would be $0.49....imagine what they would do today. Why don't we do that today?? Why don't the American people stand up like that anymore....I'm not talking about after the fact...I'm talking about BEFORE things get out of control. Why are we waiting to see if gas goes to $5 to become angry? We should have banded together when gas rose to $2!!!! I'm perplexed about this and what those before us think about us now. hmmmm.....
 
Right on Ed!

Nice to see someone here speak out about it, and right on the button. We have been sold down the river by the very people we elected to serve us. (How does it happen anyway that the people we elect as servants somehow confuse their role and become our leaders, incompetent asshole leaders at that).

The White House would be a good place to start - bring several sets of handcuffs.

Then we can move on down from there.
 
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