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TRUCKERS PROTEST * USA - Fustrated by high diesel prices
* Protest Ripple effect
* Truckers plan friendly protest with capital city parade
Rapid City,SD,USA -The Rapid City Journal, by Kevin Woster -April 18, 2008: -- Organizers of a demonstration Monday, April 28 in Pierre to protest the rising cost of diesel fuel are planning a parade that they hope will include more than 200 trucks and other vehicles... Corsica trucker Von Denning said Thursday the demonstration will begin at noon with a picnic of hamburgers and brats at Steamboat Park along the Missouri River in Pierre. After the picnic, protesters will cruise – truck by truck – past the state Capitol, he said... “We hope to have 200 or 300 vehicles,” Denning said. “If truckers come, we’re asking them to bring the tractor, not the trailer.”... Denning said the protest is intended to be a friendly reminder of the importance of the trucking industry, the impact of rising fuel costs and their effects on the price of other products and services. Fuel costs are passed on to consumers through those increases, he said...
* Truckers Converge On Statehouse In Protest - Drivers Say Fuel Costs Unbearable
Indianapolis,IN,USA -The Indy Channel TV -April 18, 2008: -- More than 30 truck drivers circled the Indiana Statehouse Friday morning, blaring horns to protest skyrocketing fuel costs... The drivers from southern Indiana are calling for a mandatory federal fuel surcharge to be directed to truck owners... According to truckers, the cost to fill up was about $450 five years ago, compared to $1,150 today... "Four thousand trucks were repossessed in the last month in this country," said driver Darrell Breeden. "Every day, trucks are abandoned at truck stops across the country because truck drivers can't make their payments and don't have the money for fuel."... The Indiana group plans to take part in a national truck convoy later this month in Washington, D.C., to call attention to what they consider a major crisis in trucking...* Record-breaking diesel prices could cause truckers to hit the breaks again
Knoxville,TEN,USA -WVLT, by Mike McCarthy -Apr 18, 2008: -- ... Some truckers already protested the higher prices earlier this month. Truckers say rumors of a second strike's traveled the road and airwaves... They say it could happen in just more than a week, but truckers admit the April first strike wasn't well organized and not widespread. So they may try again... Here's why: AAA says Tennessee diesel pumps hit a new four-dollar-plus record Friday. That's still more than 10 cents below the national average. A cash-guzzling $4.17... Myron Harris' "big wheels, bring a big cost", says he'll hit the brakes again... "I think congress is going to start paying attention and really start doing about the cost of fuel in this country," Harris said... But for now, "Just keep paying and hoping for the best,"... The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts diesel will average at least $3.62 a gallon for the rest of the year... The American Trucking Association says just a one-penny increase annualized for an entire year costs the trucking industry $391 million a year... (See Video)
* End of the line for truckers?
North Bend,WA,USA -The Snoqualmie Valley Record -April 17, 2008: -- Stopped for refueling at Truck Town in North Bend, trucker Paul Sporcic watched as the dial hit $598. With 116 gallons in his tank, Sporcic shut off the pump and replaced the nozzle after only filling his tank about halfway... Sporcic was among truckers who staged a "slowdown" during the first week of April, purposefully slowing down or stopping their driving to protest spiking fuel prices and their belief that customers and shippers aren't paying their share of the rising cost of doing business... The transportation industry is one of the largest industries in the world, and if truckers say that if they get organized, they could send a powerful message... "If the trucking industry were to shut down for one day, we're going to send a ripple through this whole country," Russell said... If truckers stayed home en masse for several days or more, "there'll be a lot of hungry people," Sporcic said...
* As fuel costs rise, truckers say they’re running on empty - Drivers, legislators rally for tax relief
Fultonville,NY,USA -The Schenectady Gazette (Schenectady,NY), by Edward Munger Jr. -April 18, 2008: -- A year ago, Gloversville truck driver Paul Looman spent about $850 a week on fuel. Today, he’s spending about $1,600 a week... Looman delivers refrigerated food, and he used to earn between $35,000 and $40,000 a year. Now, he’s making about $13,000... “That’s a hell of a drop in income,” Looman said Thursday... About two dozen truckers joined state legislators at the Superstop filling station and described how close many of them are to going out of business... Diesel fuel on the East Coast costs about $4.12 per gallon this week — $1.26 more than it cost this time last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration... Looman said he wished truckers had organized earlier to publicize their situation. He said he has already exhausted his savings...
* Rough Road for Truckers
USA -Layover -Apr. 17, 2008: -- ... Stephen Rush, president of Wharton-based Carbon Express Inc., an oil and chemicals delivery company, said he has laid off a half-dozen employees: drivers, maintenance people and administration... He said his business has suffered most from a decline in motor oil shipments, probably because high gasoline prices have consumers driving less... To some extent, trucking companies are protected from the diesel price increases by a government regulation that allows them to put a surcharge on delivery prices when fuel costs rise... But that relies on customers agreeing to pay the surcharge, and some don't, owners said. And if they do, Toth said, the extra cost just gets tacked onto the goods being shipped... Pat Bachman, director of quality services at Maywood-based Metropolitan Trucking Inc., said even if a client pays the surcharge, the trucking company has to pay the extra fuel costs on "dead head" miles -- those when an empty truck is returning from a delivery. That's significant because about 5 percent of the 8,500 miles driven by the average truck are dead head miles, he said. At that rate, the $1.19 increase over the last year has added more than $500 a month to the cost of running an average truck...
Labels: truckers' protest
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