It begans.... Truckers To Shut Down America

[GreenStormCloud]

92. It will flop.

I used to drive 18-wheeler. I have experience with these trucker strikes. They are ALWAYS done by owner-operators, not by company drivers.

For those who are not aware of how trucking works, many trucks are owned by the driver, who leases his truck to a company. Since he owns the truck he has the expenses of running the truck, including maintenance and fuel. He is called an Owner/Operator. He gets paid a set rate that he negotiates with the company he leases to for each mile driven under load, and nothing for empty miles driven. Many O/Os don't know how to manage their expenses and from time to time pitch a fit, call for a general trucking strike, and nothing happens. That is because O/O, who were once the overwhelming majority of truckers are now in the minority. Most truckers are now company drivers who get paid a flat rate for each ordered mile driven. The company bears all the expense of fuel and repairs. I was a company driver as I didn't want the headaches of owning a truck.

Take a look at the truck in the link. That driver is an Owner/Operator, and is massively ignorant. Look at his truck. It is a macho "he-man" type. His biggest expense is fuel, and his biggest use of fuel is in pushing air out of the way as he goes down the road. That idiot has a square radiator, large fenders, front bumper looks like a bulldozer blade, air cleaners hanging from the hood, dual exhaust pipe hanging in the wind, flat rear-view mirrors, and the sleeper isn't streamlined either. He is throwing away tons of money on air resistance so he can look tough.

BTW - That bumper is steel, and that is extra weight he is hauling that he isn't getting paid for. The weight could go for more freight.

Here is a better picture of that type of truck:


Now look at the lines on this truck:


You won't see many company trucks looking like the top one. Mostly companies buy the efficient trucks, and don't waste money creating air turbulence, or dragging around extra weight. The bumper is fiberglass.

These strikes have been happening ever since freight rates were deregulated under Jimmy Carter with the Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform and Modernization Act of 1980. Before then, the Feds set the freight rates, and the rates were so high that a truck could deliver a load from one coast to the other and drive back empty and still make a profit. Everybody was required to charge the same amount. Then deregulation and the truckers had to compete with each other.

At about the same time, the Interstates killed the trucker unions. Before the Interstates most drivers drove the same route, over and over. The Interstates made it irregular routes driving economically possible. That means each load can go somewhere different. So you pick up a load for Chicago, then the next load goes to New Orleans, then to Seattle, then Miami, then Houston, then Dallas, then Los Angeles, then...you get the idea. The driver may not see his home terminal for months, although the company will try to route him by his personal home once a month for about four days home time. That means the drivers working for a company can live just about anywhere in the U.S. That makes trying to organize a union almost impossible. There are no union OTR (Over-the-Road, also called Long Haul) companies. The only union companies are Yellow and ABF who are both LTL (Less-than_Load) companies. Their drivers cover the same routes, over and back.

I have seen these so-called strikes before. There is no leadership to do the negotiating, nor is there anybody to negotiate with. This is purely an O/O effort and will be ignored by company drivers.