No fooling: Truckers warn of April 1 shutdown

March 27, 2008

27 March 2008

 

No fooling: Truckers warn of April 1 shutdown

 

This article is excerpted from the 27 March 2008 edition of “American Shipper”.

 

Diesel fuel prices have climbed well above $4 per gallon and the nation’s truck drivers are feeling the pressure. Some are now talking about a one-day shutdown across the nation to grab the attention of lawmakers that the drivers accuse of abandoning the industry.

 

The American Trucking Association estimates the national goods movement truck fleet comprises more than three million trucks, delivering five million tons of goods per day. The cost to fuel the nation’s fleet is estimated to be more than $900 million per day.

 

Despite the Citizens’ Band radio waves and the Internet buzzing with the threat of the shutdown, industry officials are questioning how widespread the effort might be. Officials also do not believe the effort would accomplish its loosely defined goals of forcing the government to take action on reducing the impact of diesel fuel prices on the nation’s truckers.

 

No one is completely certain where the buzz about the protest started. Media outlets throughout the Midwest have picked up on the call for a shutdown.

 

Dan Little, owner of Little and Little Trucking, based in Carrollton, Mo., recently posted the idea behind the protest on his Web site, and he said it has since spread in various forms through dozens of Internet trucker forums and blogs. He added even a radio station in Canada had taken notice as truckers in Canada were starting to talk about joining in….

 

An additional impetus for the shutdown, Little said, was a more aggressive action being talked about in trucker circles….

 

The irony for the cargo owners, …is they’re causing these types of problems by allowing the fuel surcharges to be absorbed by trucking brokers and not paid to drivers, where the money was intended to go.

 

“The cargo owner’s excess of inattention is c


Topic(s): 
World Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel / International News Channel
Document Type: 
Email Article