Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

The 2008 presidential race is coming down to its last leg and the temperature in the room is rising.  McCain vs. Obama is becoming an ugly battle between the two presidential candidates.  It seems the two campaigns have really stepped up the advertisements on television in battle ground states.  I suppose it is at the point where they are trying to discredit the other party in attempt to try and win those last minute votes. The candidate bashing has really begun.

The things that both campaigns are saying about each other are really quite scary in my opinion.  The McCain campaign has been talking about Barrack Obama’s affiliation with domestic terrorists when he was younger.  The Obama campaign has been talking about John McCain’s role in the “Keating Five.”  I for one really don’t like negative campaigning.  I don’t think I am the only one that feels that way as I have read several articles that have called for a stop to it.  On the other hand it is important to know what kind of person is running for President.  I think the character of the person running is one of the biggest quality factors that should be looked at.  The bashing that is taking place doesn’t show much for either candidate’s character.  The issues from the past that are being brought up are also something to not take lightly, but we must make sure we have a correct understanding of the facts before we make judgment.

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I’ve been home now for about 2 1/2 days. I was “out” for 45 days. I stayed out that long to make what I typically would have in 1/2 that time. I’m sitting here in my living room watching “What not to Wear” on TLC. I need a makeover. I had left over Chinese for lunch. Both dogs are snoring next to me. It is quiet.

Sara Palin was speaking a few miles from my house this morning. She reminded “me” that Obama is not fit to be President because of his “former” relationships with preacher Rev. Wright and “ex” domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers. I’m almost too tired to care at this point. I do need to find out about my absentee ballot because I’ll be gone (again) on election day.

I need a haircut. I’m due to return to work Wednesday morning. I’m exhausted, don’t want to move and can’t keep my eyes open. Maybe it has something to do with the “feels like” temperature outside of 95 degrees. Perhaps, although I enjoyed the visit, after MT’ing out on Friday, before dead heading 275 miles home, I saw my 75 year old mother. She gave me two large apples to bring home and asked me if I dyed my hair. As we all know, seeing your mother is always emotionally draining, especially after being out 45 days. Read the rest of this entry »

I am a parent, and a protective one at that, I will admit.  I am also a parent with gray hair, having added a child to our family when I was 45.  So I have the advantage of remembering how life was way before most of today’s parents were even born.  This is a curse and a blessing at the same time.

The world has changed a lot since I grew up in the midwest suburbs in the late 50’s and 60’s.  There is far more violence in our everyday world if you let it in.  I am talking about the media, and then the repetition of this violence by those who watch the media.

There has been a loss of innocence at the expense of the well-being of our young people.  Let me supply some specific examples.  My children are eight and six years old, and here are the things they have been exposed to without my permission.

1. My son was messing around on his little acoustic guitar and I heard him singing, “Viva, Viagra!”  Whoa - hold the phone!  “Where did you hear that song?” I asked him in as calm a voice I could muster at that surprised moment. “Oh I heard Katie singing it.”  Turns out some children watch the evening news at home, learn the song from the commercial, and end up repeating the catchy little diddy all the next day.  I know my six year old son has no idea what he is singing about, but he should be singing about the itsy bitsy spider or the cow jumping over the moon instead.  Even though I don’t allow my children to watch the news on Tv at home, my son has learned this song through a playmate.  Commercials for erectile dysfunction were not even on the air when I was growing up, so it was never an issue. I cannot keep my son from being exposed to these messages when other parents allow my son’s playmates to watch these commercials. Read the rest of this entry »

If you don’t already know it, this is a photo of Nancy Palosi, the Speaker of the House. To follow-up on an earlier post I did for “Life on the Road”, I am STILL undecided as to who to vote for.

I think I’m having too much fun staying non-committed. I can hate McCain one day and love him the next. The same goes for Palin, Biden and Obama. As far as Palosi is concerned, I never voted for her. She’s from California. I’m from Florida. I guess my representatives voted for her to be Speaker. But they never asked me, and I know I wouldn’t have approved.

The same for Barney Rubble, I mean Frank. And the rest of the House Democrats, whose names I choose not to remember, even as our economy is falling apart. I should know them all by now, but I don’t. I’ve been OTR for almost 40 days and have trouble remembering just about everything.

To digress a second, Bill Hurt Chevrolet, I believe the largest Chevy dealership in the US, just went out of business. 2700 good folks are out of work Not the salesmen, the - just kidding! He had 7 locations in the Southeast. One is right near where I live. I don’t know if it is because of what is happening with the “bailout” thing or not. I do know that people just can’t get credit and the price of a new car for some time now is out of reach of a lot of people, like “we” truck drivers.

Anyway, back to Palosi. I don’t really know that much about her. After hearing her little “speech” before the House vote on Monday, she sounds annoying. Almost as much as Sara Palin has become. And I must be honest with you, I now also find Obama annoying. McCain not so much, yet. I just don’t listen to Biden, unless I need a laugh. Read the rest of this entry »

Bailout Plan click to enlarge

Well it looks like the $700 billion bailout deal has been finalized and did not have the votes to pass the House of Representatives in Congress.  The bill was finished late Sunday night with the speaker of the house stating that no more changes will be made.

Many Americans have been wondering exactly how the bailout plan will work and what exactly it will do.  I think things can sometimes be explained or simplified in some cases with some sort of visual guide.  I found a good representation of the bailout plan and what exactly the US Treasury will be doing on the website of The Wall Street Journal.  Click on the image to enlarge.

The Treasury will hire some people that are experts with debt instruments to help manage the buying of bad debt.  The people will be called the asset managers and will have a variety of duties.  They will be responsible for determining the best way to buy the debt, what type of prices they will be looking for, and how they plan to make the purchases.  As you can see by the image representation the first step in the plan will be for them to list assets that the Treasury will be willing to buy from banks and other financial institutions.  The banks will put a price on the debt they want to sell to the Treasury in the form of bids.  The asset managers will take this information and will start buying the bad debt instruments starting with the lowest bids first.  The goal with this is to take the bad debt instruments off the books of banks and other financial institutions and in turn they will receive cash to recapitalize their business.  This should bring back confidence among financial institutions and help them to resume lending and borrowing money again, hopefully unfreezing the financial system.  Read the rest of this entry »

Hot, hot - I said hot as in hot JIT load. Big, big, heavy aluminum coil. About 47,000 lbs. 10 chains and tightly tarped. Got to get there. Muy importante! Hustle, hustle, hustle. Destination - Pine Bluff, AK. Operations calls them. Ring, ring. Hi, is this receiving? Yeah. What are your receiving hours? Big, really big coil on the way. 7-11am, BUT since you’re bringing in a big, big, heavy aluminum coil we’ll take it until 3pm. And we need it ASAP! Great. Thank you.

On time, every time is my motto. Drive till the “wee” hours of the morning. And I hate driving in the dark. But it’s JIT! Have a little trouble finding the place. Dispatch provided me the directions. No wonder. Ever been to Pine Bluff? Lotsa little roads traveled on by big trucks going to factories back in the woods. Not many legible signs since the Civil War. This is no exception. I double back. Got to be that way. My GPS is on the fritz. Follow my instincts. There, over there, there it is. Big building. Got to slow down. No quick turns with a big heavy coil. Ah, ha - there’s the sign for the entrance.

I pull in. Wait. What? I move forward. Weeds everywhere. A rusty fence. There’s a old guy over there. He’s watching the property. Make sure nothing is taken. Why? BECAUSE THEY WENT OUT OF BUSINESS MONTHS AGO! That’s why. I’m there well before the 3pm close. Like it really matters now. This old man is the only human within miles. The phone number that was called to ask about receiving hours was a Pine Bluff exchange. That is a local Pine Bluff number that is transferred automatically to the Chicago plant where they receive coils - no later than 3pm. That’s 847 miles, about 13 hours away. Should we say NIT instead of JIT for not in time?

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Lake Point, UT. South of Salt Lake. The T/A. Beautiful view of the mountains. There is a “spike” in flatbed business, especially if you have a Hazmat endorsement. I’ve almost run 2500 miles this week with roofing material. I haven’t been this far West in almost a year and a half.

I’m under a load to Lubbock, TX. Before I start heading South, I need to check out an air leak on the tractor. Seems that when the governor engages, air is escaping somewhere. The compressor is also leaking. I committed to a 8am Monday morning delivery to a job site.

I go inside the T/A for service. The clerk behind the counter is coughing and looks ill. She is on the phone with a mechanic who was supposed to show up for work last night at midnight. There has been no mechanic on duty all night. He wants to know if he should come in or not. Trucks needing PM’s, tires, etc. have been waiting since yesterday. Normally, 3-4 mechanics are on duty 24/7. She is not the manager - who is MIA - and has no “power” to demand that this person come into work, despite being 7 hours late. She can’t wait till her shift ends. She’ll pass the “mess” to the next unmotivated employee.

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The next very important thing is fuel. Does the company provide you with a fuel card so your fuel cost will automatically be deducted from your pay settlement? Most of the companies that offer leases also offer a discounted fuel price as well as a fuel card. Most generally Com data is the card of choice because not only does it serve as your fuel card but also serves as a good way for you to receive your pay.

Then you have to ask about fuel surcharge. Some companies pay you a set amount each week based on the DOE average fuel cost (say like forty-nine cents per mile just as an example). While other companies have it worked out with their shippers that they get paid so much per mile and pay that amount directly to the driver. Some may pay percentage on both regular pay (percentage of what the load is worth) and fuel surcharge as well.

A few extras to think about: if hauling for a refrigerated company – is reefer fuel paid for? Are trailer washouts paid for? Do you have to “rent” the trailer you will be using or does the company provide it free of charge? Do you get paid layover? Do you get paid short haul miles? Do you get paid for unloading or driver-assist loads? Are there fees for early termination of the lease? Are there fees for driving over a certain number of miles? Is there any chance of receiving a pay raise (such as safety bonuses)? Will you get paid detention? Is there a health insurance program you can enroll in? Is there a required amount of time that you have to be out before being able to request home time?

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Think you’re not having a good day? At least you didn’t spend $1200 in fuel to drive to DC to protest fuel prices and on top of all that, you get your trucks towed and impounded!

Protesting truckers’ rigs towed
Several truckers who came to Capitol Hill this week to ask lawmakers for relief on gasoline prices got a real Washington-insider experience Wednesday: Their vehicles were impounded, and the towing company demanded a $2,000 fee for their return.

They didn’t see any Representatives because they were all working on the bailout fiasco. Not even any TV time because the media was also focused on the bailout news. I can’t help but think there’s a different sign these guys are missing.

“Some guys drove for 10 to 15 hours straight just to be a part of this, and now a few of them can’t even come to see what we’ve accomplished,” said TACU organizer Leon Martin.

I thought you were only allowed to drive 11? “…to see what they accomplished” ??? Which was what? Get their trucks towed?

One thing they mentioned in the article which I never hear about them anywhere else is they are for domestic drilling. Which is great, but why not coordinate with American Solutions Drill Here, Drill Now campaign? Or T.Boone Pickens who wants to convert all the trucks to natural gas?

They want to stop oil speculating, but if America was making a bigger contribution to the world market’s oil supply, it would take the volatility out of the market. There’s a futures market for everything. Everything from Orange Juice, sugar, pork bellies and heating oil. The airlines use the futures market to control the big swings in their fuel prices. I bet the big trucking companies might have a hand or two in there too. Speculation drives the prices down too. Did anyone notice that when America started talking about getting serious about drilling, the prices fell? I guess that didn’t last long.

With the crash of the financial sector last week the U.S. economy is facing extreme danger. Lehman Brothers melted to the ground with the lack of capital to continue operations. AIG was facing the same fate until the government bailed them out by giving them around $85 billion.Merrill Lynch was potentially looking at the same fate as Lehman Brothers until Bank of America swooped in and bought them for $50 billion in stock. Banks across the country are struggling, several banks have already failed, and many are on the brink of failure due to the mass amounts of home foreclosures that are causing billions of dollars of losses. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government recently in hopes of preventing their failure. They hold nearly 50% of all mortgages in the United States.

So what does all this mean? Are we headed for the next great depression, are people going to start losing jobs in mass numbers, and is the standard of living for most Americans going to go down? These are just a few of the questions many Americans are asking these days. People around the globe are asking these questions too. Our economy is facing an extreme melt down that will affect everyone if something is not done to stop it.

Have you heard of the government’s $700 billion bailout package? Most people have and most people have an opinion on the matter, which they should. There is one major problem though most of the people that vocally state their opinion don’t have the slightest clue what is at stake. They just know that they don’t want to be spending there hard earned money to bailout wall street and the financial sector because they weren’t part of the problem.

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