Weekend May Tell Truckers' Strike Impact

[Marion]

First step is for the individual to get out of their cars. That hits the oil company and the automaker.

[Marion]

Does you city have a bus system? do you use it?

[Prisoner Of The Highway]

I know things look pretty sad for all of us who drive the big rigs, and the cost of fuel still has gone up AGAIN!
Ok now so what do we do to resolve this problem???
Well shutting down the rigs would only create a problem other than resolving it, what we need is a handful of politicians that would be their for " US " as we did put them in office, so we all need to get their attention!
The rally in Washington was a very good idea and it opened a few eyes, but I still have not heard or seen any one politician come out and speak to any one?, have you????
I think we need to knock a little louder on their doors and let them know that the situation at hand can and will become a MAJOR problem, but one that will have a very dramatic dominoe affect on our nation, but the world too!
How do we get their attention???
I've heard alot of hows and do's, but thats not working, so what next?

[Prisoner Of The Highway]

eternal cynic wrote:

<quoted text>
The collateral damage to the trucking industry would be far more disastrous from what the trucking industry is already feeling. The real losers would be the independents who currently are having a difficult time making ends meet.
I’m not anti-trucker. I’m simply looking at this from a realistic view point.
How long would it take for a shutdown to be effective? Could the independents survive their lost income? Would the large trucking companies participate? These are important questions.
In the end the only solution is to charge more to haul a load. That should be the focus. The shutdown simply wouldn’t work.

I tottally agree with you on this matter, as their are other solutions to make things happen for the trucking industry, let's face it, we all need to get together some how and some way to resolve this cost of higher fuel prices, but if you look at it from this point, raise the cost of frieght shipments, we get paid for what we all haul, so thats the ticket, nothing else!!!!!

[Prisoner Of The Highway]

Hammer Down wrote:

Go on strike? Bush will send in National Guard to deliver the goods.
You are going to jail, Bubbah! Federal Pen. This is against security, peace and welfare of the nation.

You have the right ideas, their is allways another route the " So-Called Goverment " can take if we went on STRIKE! We all just need to say no to CHEAP frieght and stick to our guns!!! some one will get the big picture at the end! Good Luck Partner!

[Prisoner Of The Highway]

Midnightrider wrote:

<quoted text>Regulation of FREIGHT rates to cover the costs.(If fuel goes up, rates go up).

You took the words right out of my mouth!!!. It's only common sense to say everything goes up, SO DOES THE FRIEGHT,,,, VERY SIMPLE HUH!!!!!!!!!

[deirdre]

slow down the trucks and short the jobs and slow
the production being made by the owner or contractor and maybe they will get the piture.

[Midnightrider]

Prisoner Of The Highway wrote:

<quoted text> You took the words right out of my mouth!!!. It's only common sense to say everything goes up, SO DOES THE FRIEGHT,,,, VERY SIMPLE HUH!!!!!!!!!

Regulation was passed into law in the great depression due to many of the same problems we are having today. Rate bureau's set rates that covered costs, and it was illegal to haul for less. It was far from perfect, but we were a lot better off then what is happening now.

[Classicdrvr]

With all of the talk from the politicians about removing taxes from fuel, then Hillary says she is going to tax the oil Companies profits, who will pay for that?? US. If anyone thinks that the oil company will eat that cost, they have to be in a fog. When are people going to band together and MAKE someone realize we need to drill for the oil we have in OUR OWN COUNTRY. We need to put some more refineries on line, and one of the biggest points, how about getting rid of all of the blends that the Government requires. Removing the costs has to reduce the price. If it does not, then we know we are getting the short end of the stick, but I'll bet if the oil companies are given the opportunity to sell more product and make more money, then prices will come back in line.

[Prisoner Of The Highway]

I just got done watching the news,( OH BOY ), and the President wants to bring out a 770 million dollars for the food problems around the World! What about " US "?, we are starving hear in our BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, and we all are striving to make ends meet with our trucking industry, am I missing some thing????

[Don Joe]

Classicdrvr wrote:

With all of the talk from the politicians about removing taxes from fuel, then Hillary says she is going to tax the oil Companies profits, who will pay for that?? US. If anyone thinks that the oil company will eat that cost, they have to be in a fog. When are people going to band together and MAKE someone realize we need to drill for the oil we have in OUR OWN COUNTRY. We need to put some more refineries on line, and one of the biggest points, how about getting rid of all of the blends that the Government requires. Removing the costs has to reduce the price. If it does not, then we know we are getting the short end of the stick, but I'll bet if the oil companies are given the opportunity to sell more product and make more money, then prices will come back in line.

Companies will charge what the market will bear. When you sell something on ebay, you don't say, it cost me $x so I will sell it for $x +$y. You sell it for what someone is willing to pay. It doesn't matter how much it cost you. If you sell it for more than you paid, you get a profit. If you sell it for less, you lose money and if you lose enough, you go out of business.

With competition, the price can be lowered. You could sell gas for $15 per gallon but if the customer can drive down the street and buy it for $1 per gallon, you won't sell much. This can reduce the price because the company that can sell for less, sells more and if they are making a profit on each sale, can end up with more profit.

However, when there are only a few companies, they can get together and all charge the same high price for gas. This is called collusion. This is illegal and if the government were willing to enforce the law, gas prices would drop immediately.

With this collusion, the oil companies are making much more money selling less product. Eight cents profit on one hundred gallons means $8 profit. One dollar profit on 50 gallons means $50 profit. It's an easy choice.

[eternal cynic]

Don Joe wrote:

<quoted text>
Companies will charge what the market will bear. When you sell something on ebay, you don't say, it cost me $x so I will sell it for $x +$y. You sell it for what someone is willing to pay. It doesn't matter how much it cost you. If you sell it for more than you paid, you get a profit. If you sell it for less, you lose money and if you lose enough, you go out of business.
With competition, the price can be lowered. You could sell gas for $15 per gallon but if the customer can drive down the street and buy it for $1 per gallon, you won't sell much. This can reduce the price because the company that can sell for less, sells more and if they are making a profit on each sale, can end up with more profit.
However, when there are only a few companies, they can get together and all charge the same high price for gas. This is called collusion. This is illegal and if the government were willing to enforce the law, gas prices would drop immediately.
With this collusion, the oil companies are making much more money selling less product. Eight cents profit on one hundred gallons means $8 profit. One dollar profit on 50 gallons means $50 profit. It's an easy choice.

Be careful not to be so quick to draw a conclusion. The numbers below are not meant to be factual, they’ve been simplified only to show another possibility.

Many companies operate on a profit margin. In the case of the oil companies most of their financial statements indicate their profit margins average 10-15% which isn’t outrageous when compared to other industries.

For simplicity let’s using 10% profit.

Let’s assume gas sells for $2 per gallon and you sell 100 gallons. At 10% profit you make $20.

Let’s assume gas prices rise to $4 per gallon and you sell 100 gallons. At 10% profit you make $40.

The profit margin hasn’t changed but the profit doubled. With record prices there will be record profit if profit margins remain constant. This is not an attempt to defend the oil industry. Simply a acknowledgement we must be careful what assumptions we draw from scant information.

[Don Joe]

eternal cynic wrote:

<quoted text>
Be careful not to be so quick to draw a conclusion. The numbers below are not meant to be factual, they’ve been simplified only to show another possibility.
Many companies operate on a profit margin. In the case of the oil companies most of their financial statements indicate their profit margins average 10-15% which isn’t outrageous when compared to other industries.
For simplicity let’s using 10% profit.
Let’s assume gas sells for $2 per gallon and you sell 100 gallons. At 10% profit you make $20.
Let’s assume gas prices rise to $4 per gallon and you sell 100 gallons. At 10% profit you make $40.
The profit margin hasn’t changed but the profit doubled. With record prices there will be record profit if profit margins remain constant. This is not an attempt to defend the oil industry. Simply a acknowledgement we must be careful what assumptions we draw from scant information.

Yes, I understand your post and it is well taken. You are correct in that I am speculating based on the evidence available and there are other possible explanations for this evidence.

However, there is evidence for collusion and I would like our government to at least investigate to see if this is collusion. I do remember back when Clinton was pres and gas prices skyrocketed. There was discussion of investigating collusion and the prices dropped right back down. They should investigate again.

[Paco]

Don Joe wrote:

<quoted text>
Yes, I understand your post and it is well taken. You are correct in that I am speculating based on the evidence available and there are other possible explanations for this evidence.
However, there is evidence for collusion and I would like our government to at least investigate to see if this is collusion. I do remember back when Clinton was pres and gas prices skyrocketed. There was discussion of investigating collusion and the prices dropped right back down. They should investigate again.

Just the fact that what you said happened is very interesting. It says that many factors affect gas prices. Those should be looked into.

[J Dog]

I'm moving to Mexico before its too late...

[quality control]

the Weekend may never Predict the Insanity of Insightful Living responses.

[dobber]

The reason we have high price fuel is cause of Walmart what do they carry 90% of ''wheres it come from '' yah CHINA! who built CHINAS PORTS yah WALMART ! How does mfg. goods get to port yah truck yah howes truck run yah DIESEL, and all these years china been acting broke, well there the one breaking us NOW!!!!!!.There competing for crude with us there the ones running it up to BREAK US!!!! so they can have control period thats what I think!!!!!

[brianOTDJ]

Hey this is Brian from http://onlinetruckdrivingjobs.com and I just want to say I don't think the protest is the way to go. Most trucking companies will work with you on on fuel surcharges but sometimes it takes some convincing. Times are hard for everyone right now not just us truckers. Granite none of us are making the profits we are used to but the industry will change to accommodate. After all the trucks have to roll if we want to continue our normal everyday lives.

As far as Bush sending in the National Guard to deliver goods, I don't see it happening. The last I checked our military was over in Iraq fighting for their oil, I don't think we have the budget to fight 2 wars, or 1 for that matter. I am from Arkansas so I personally would like to see a Clinton back in office.

One thing is for sure our current President is doing a terrible job and milking the Americans for everything we own. I just hope the next President is not in the oil business too.

[Prisoner Of The Highway]

Can we ever get the OLD GAS WAR going again, and let the prices do the work????
Those were the days!
Oh well it was just a thought!

[Don Joe]

Prisoner Of The Highway wrote:

Can we ever get the OLD GAS WAR going again, and let the prices do the work????
Those were the days!
Oh well it was just a thought!

Not as long as the government allows collusion.