Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Now that fuel prices are below $3 everyone is driving, freight is moving, truckers are happy and we can live happily ever after. So everything’s good now, right? Diesel and gas are at their lowest levels in a long time. Good thing all of those fuel strikes happened! This is why any talk of striking for fuel prices drives me up a freakin’ wall, because even if truck strike for fuel prices actually did work, now what? There’s more than fuel prices involved here, always has been. The latest freight numbers from the ATA are from September and they’re still on a downward trend.

Now what? The election is over, things seem to be picking up a bit but not much. The government has big plans to fix the economy, the credit crunch and even the big auto makers. The government was one of the causes of this problem so you would think they would know how to fix it. But has the government fixed anything? Ever?

America loves low gas prices for all of our big cars and SUVs. Now that gas prices have dropped, no one believes they are going to stay low and no one is buying anything new because no one is sure how stable their jobs are. Even low gas prices aren’t going to fix Detroit this time.

Even though low gas prices are good for us, they are really bad for the people we get the oil from. Russia, Venezula and the Mid-East have economies that depend on one thing, oil. Major projects have been put on hold in Dubai and other places because their oil revenue has dropped so much. Those countries hate us and now we’re ruining their economy by not buying as much as their oil.

The answer is? I don’t know. My only guess is to keep going like we’re going. Trucks on the road right now have survived $4.50 a gallon fuel and the slow economy so far. Try and save money and watch the freight you take, because now that fuel is cheaper, shippers want their rates to drop. Save money, save fuel, get out of debt as much as possible, take plenty of books and dvds for the wait between trips. I’m open to other ideas anyone else has in the comments.