Trucking has became it own Joke.

You got the situation covered pretty well. The only thing I found was that the Highway Use Tax is 550.00 per truck not 500.00.

Public opinion seems to be on your side, when you look at the driver turnover rate. This industry has become so toxic, most want nothing to do with it, so now you have the ATA begging the government to let a bunch of teenagers behind the wheel, in hopes that they wont notice that they are in a sweat shop on wheels, being held prisoner in a metal cage, forced into bondage unable to move freely at will, thanks to electronic logs controlling their every move, ( JUST LIKE A ANKLE MONITOR) , being completely cut off from all friends and family, ( REMEMBER THAT NTSB WANTS TO BAN CELL PHONES IN THE CAB) . They also hope you wont mind being subjected to random cellblock searches by law enforcement as truck drivers are not worthy of being protected by the 4th amendment, like everyone else is. They also hope you won't mind being told when to sleep, eat, and poop. IT seems truck drivers have a lot in common with inmates at a super max prison.

KNOW MORE HOPPER LOADS HERE. GOING TO PARK ALL THEM . WAIT TILL THEY PAY RIGHT OR JUST SIT.
HATE IT FOR DRIVERS BUT IM NOT GOING TO KEEP RUNNING JUST FOR PAYING THEM. GOVERMENT WON'T HELP , THEY CAN PAY THEM.
COMPANIES WITH 40 OR 50 TRUCKS CAN KEEP HAULING FOR NOTHING.

Good stuff from all of you there, I set up a group for all of us but guess what nobody but a few seemed to want to take the time to show up to the conference calls. It seems to me that we are a group of guys that would rather complain than do something about it.

We would rather laugh and make fun of those that are failing until their failures start to impact us. The brotherhood that once existed in this industry is about gone, this is what we need to take back first, once we have done that we can move forward and take back the rest. Money will not solve our problems it will always be a constant struggle to obtain more, our society belives that the all mighty dollar is the answer to everything.

I have talked to many a trucker, broker, and shipper and here is how the story goes.

The trucker believes that they are being screwed by everybody else, and while this is true they fail to do anything about it. If you fail to stand up for yourself just who in the hell do you expect to stand up for you??? The puppet masters are in control of the government we as individuals do not have the money to combat the game that is being played against us individually. There were a group of guys years ago that put it all on the line and stood up for not just money but for freedom, this is indeed the most valuable thing that we the people can indeed stand up for. Freedom always comes with a price. Are you willing to pay the price for your freedom?

The broker now is starting to understand that without us little carriers they will cease to exist, I have had more brokers reaching out to me over the past few months asking what I believe the plight to be it things continue down their current path. I have informed them that if they continue to allow the shipper (puppet masters) to dictate lower and lower rates that there will become a breaking point of when the rabbit chasers will sign on as Power Only with the Mega's just to survive. When this happens more and more the Independent Carrier will just be a thing of the past, they will now be glorified Lease Operators still chasing the mystical rabbit or drug that no longer exists. When this happens who will the broker now do business with. NO TRUCERS = NO BROKERS!!! I have been on the phone with many a honorable broker when the shipper calls and offers them a starting rate that is so ridiculous that both of us struggle from keeping from vomiting into our phones. I have said for quite a while now that truckers and brokers better start working together willingly or they would end up working together by force. You brokers will now have to most likely work for a Mega as an agent or dispatch because in order for you to survive you will also give up your freedom.

The shipper is still spitting out the reason that freight is so cheap is because of the price of fuel. Now if you believe that you should be taking a $1 - $2 per mile hit because fuel is .20 per gallon cheaper, then you have indeed continued to drink their Kool-Aid and will continue to chase their magic rabbit. I have heard rates offered as low as .50 per mile, now who in their right mind would haul that kind of crap. The next argument the shipper will use is that it is supply and demand, while there is a certain level of truth to that, if we all went fishing for two or three days like Jeff stated then the supply and demand problem would fix itself. Suppy and demand do not dictate as to the price per mile to run a truck and the shippers know this the only ones that seem not to know this are the truckers and the brokers. We can get mad at the puppet masters all we want but put yourselves it their shoes. If the truckers and brokers kept playing the Trucker Limbo Dance and kept going lower and lower would you not take the cheapest rate possible and put the magic rabbit back into your pocket to use another day? Many of you have found out by now that there is no loyalty between the shipper and yourselves, you have lost accounts to others that are desperate and will do it cheaper thereby throwing yourselves into the same type of desperation that they were in.

I have seen many a trucker make fun of others in this forum and others because they were having a hard time. I have seen truckers call truckers stupid, idiots, along with other names as well. I have been guilty of this as well, but I have genuinely reached out to educate others as to how to improve their situations instead of just slamming on each other. I may be very strongly opinionated as to the how's, why's and what's but in the end I always believe that the only way we are going to take back what is rightfully ours is to fight for it.

• absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government.

  "he was a champion of Irish freedom"

  synonyms:

  independence, self-government, self-determination, self-rule, home rule, sovereignty, nonalignment, autonomy; democracy "revolution was the only path to freedom"

  antonyms:

  dependence

• the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
  
  
  "RISE UP GATHER ROUND ROCK THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND! WHAT DO YOU WANT????"
  
  I WANT FREEDOM!!!!!!
  
  
  "Give me Liberty or Give me Death"
  

Jan 4 that is.

I like your plan Scott. Truck will be parked.

Lucky you are not in ND. I Have to compete with oil field. Oil companies are renting hoppers and haul for next to nothing
used to get 35 cents bushel on a 60 mile haul. Oil field moved In and said they can do it for 20 cents a bushel. I pull tri axle tri hopper and they come in with a tandem so I find different places. I try to keep busy but now most of the brokers cater to the oil field. They make a killing with the cheap rates. I have couple of places that tell oil. To leave. Been doing this for 20 yrs. it is getting tougher

The government wants all of us little guys out of business anyway. The current state we are in will just help them. E-logs and speed limiters are the next step. I was really hoping for 2 more good years so that I would have time to find a real job but after the last 6 months I'm thinking its gonna come alot sooner. Can't make a living on working 1-2 days a week.

You are correct...they will let anyone drive up there. I was working on a belly dump job in SD this fall and the majority of the trucks on that job were guys from the ND oilield. Over half of those guys should not have ever been issued a CDL. Without exception. the ND guys overloaded their equipment at least 5-10 ton and drove like complete maniacs. Ive driven in oil booms before, but the ND oil boom has produced the worst drivers Ive ever seen in my life. All I can say is, if youre buying a truck that one of these jokers ran, be very very careful. If the truck has ran in North Dakota any amount of time at all, it will be nothing but scrap iron. By the looks of things there will be plenty of repos that will be for sale in the next few months that came from ND. Most of those guys never stepped foot in a truck prior to the boom, so they have no idea on how to take care of a truck.