Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

“And we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care. But that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people.” BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. FYI – Mr. Svanberg’s compensation last year was $2.8M.

Orange Beach, Ala., Mayor Tony Kennon: “They can call me small, miniature, they can call me anything they want. Just write the check and send it to us.” On the $20 billion in an escrow fund, he joked, “They better be lucky I called off the invasion of 10,000 rednecks with their rifles headed toward England anyway.”

When I heard Mr. Svanberg’s comments, I was not surprised at all. I do not pass it off either as a problem of translation. His statement was quite typical of corporate executives in the US and overseas. Here in the US, you will hard pressed to find a CEO or other member of senior management that does not possess this arrogant “small people” attitude. You find as well at the middle management level. The perfect example of that mindset can be found in dealing with the “typical” operations or safety manager at any trucking company.

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Before I talk trucking, I just want to briefly mention what I’m referring to as the mess after the mess. That is the BP oil rig explosion and ongoing pipe leak at 5000 ft. below the Gulf. As this prime example of corporate big business stupidity and irresponsibility continues, the “onsite” Federal crisis overseer, 4-Star Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, had this to say yesterday regarding the response and cleanup: “I think they’re adequate to the assumptions in the plans. I think you need to go back and question the assumptions.” This my LOTR readers is just unacceptable. When the President was sitting on a waterside porch down in Louisiana yesterday in front of the media doing one of his folksy “down home” no tie – no jacket cum by ya’s, he said “Thad” something bla bla bla. It was Bush/Brownie all over again. We’ve heard all this before. Same place, different face. Tonight the President will address the nation at 8pm. This better be good. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Rather did another piece on trucking. It was on HDNet. You can see it by downloading it onto iTunes. OOIDA did a fluff review on the program and seemed delighted the profiled driver wore his OOIDA jacket. Simpletons. The mouthpiece of OOIDA, Todd Spencer, who spends more time “testifying” and writing letters than actually forcing change, is quoted in the piece. And guess what all this latest tick in time accomplishes for drivers pay in this slave trade we call trucking – nothing, zero, zilch.

First of all, Dan Rather is done, finished and has ceased to have a voice in journalism. Nobody has ever heard of NDNet, nobody cares about it and I personally don’t have the to time to figure out how to download his “I need to try and be relevant in my retirement years” hour piece onto my Droid Eris. For an icon like Dan Rather, who had at one point in his career had millions of viewers on the CBS Nightly News, to hope to get 25 comments from truckers who actually did access HDNet, is sad. His impact on our business will be nothing, zero, zilch. The late great Walter Cronkite at least made the choice to sail his yacht in retirement realizing that a new generation of sensationalistic news clowns like Glen Beck and Sean Hannity now command the attention of the American public. We all know journalism is dead. Oprah and American Idol are the new beacons of American thought.

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It didn’t take me but a few minutes to once again realize that finding a job is one royal pain in the tush. Yes, I’m still employed, albeit on SDT – short term disability. But while I’m essentially forced to sit, not behind the wheel, but in my living room recuperating and getting healthy, I figured I’d go online and "test" the waters. It’s been six years since I bought a copy of the two local newspapers and looked over the want ads. Today, everything it seems is online and the newspapers have merged with Monster Board for job listings, although many folks prefer Craig’s List. For those juicy high paying positions with uber-benefits, like with the FMCSA – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – you need to register with USAJOBS, the official job site of "our" Federal government. I have tried twice for a job with the FMCSA in either public relations utilizing my writing skills or as a field inspector with the objective of traveling around the country trying to train drivers on all the changing regs. Both times I gave up as the application process was so involved and detailed I became too frustrated to continue. Also, I’ve been working since 1977 and to provide exact dates, names and places of every employer I’ve received a paycheck from over 33 years is almost impossible.

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Uh HUH…

Prove it.

This is a sort of short response to Wayne’s  CSA2010 post.

Like Wayne, I have struggled to catch up with everything that this is about. There are thousands and thousands of pages involved, twists and turns on already existing regulation that made little sense to begin with.

Being currently saddled with one of the atrocities that this will drop in our laps, the Electronic Log Book, I learn more every day. I stopped making any real money the first week this hideous device was installed in my tractor.

Most of the clear information I have on the whole package I have gotten through the safety department at my carrier. Not to say this is “real” clear.

Here is what I understand to this point: (objections, derision, “you’re a idiot” etc, all welcome in comments”)

This purpose of CSA2010 is stated as “safety”, yet at the same time it is directed at the safest group of drivers in the country. Pushed for, bought and paid for by special interest groups like P.A.T.T. , these have more to do with political agenda than safety. When we start to see these massive RVs and ever more dangerous, home moving “rental” trucks in scale houses and random road side inspections, I’ll consider buying into this one.

The new regs assign a “point” system to various violations, including the condition of the equipment. OK, I can get behind this one a little. Look around you at some of the trucks parked by you. No, really. GET OUT and make a walk through of your row at the truck stop. Just a quick visual glance. A quick glance today, at the truck next to me, showed me a red tag looking for a diesel cop. Who’s fault is this? The Owner’s, but ultimately the law says it’s the driver’s responsibility. I agree. It would be a chore to get me to move this tractor across the parking lot to drive it up  on an RGN and take it to the dump. Its BAD and has no business on the road. But it’s under a load and has already left the lot. (just a couple hours after sundown)

BUT: Even with the new regs, the odds of running this wreck for a long time to come are fair to middling.

The point system, last I checked, covers 86 pages. These are points that will be taken from you as a driver because of equipment violations and driver violations during what will be a flurry of road side and scale house inspections. Here are some quick examples:

(You get 100 points to be depleted before you’re out of a job)

A marker light, tractor or trailer: 6 points. So all you guys that just aren’t a man without 150 lights, take note.

A tire, tractor or trailer: 8 points. In theory this could be one of those crappy recaps the boss uses so he can buy a new boat and it just blew.  Just now, and Johnny Law doesn’t have anything better to do.

A windshield: 1 point… yeah, a windshield is ONE point, even if it is totally missing.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Well thought out…

The people that are allowed to enact this kind of crap should be VOTED for, by members of the trucking community, and voted against.

According to the a fore mentioned safety director, (a man that sits on the board at the Truckload Carriers Association) these new regs will seriously harm the one and two truck Owner Operators over the first couple of years. Harm to the possible rate of 90 to 95 percent of all single truck companies just going under, unable to cope with the changes.

Until shippers and receivers are held to the same standards under the CSA2010 that you and I and our bosses are, or there is a sudden review and rewriting of of the VERY inflexible  hours of service, specifically the idiotic  14 hour rule,  these regulations will do an incredible amount of damage to the irregular route carriers in the country.

Oddly enough, most of these regs seem like they would work REALLY well for the LTL and  union companies and their drivers. Wonder how that happened…

There has been enough protest from various state agencies and major carriers that “D DAY” for these regs has been set off a few more months (Sure, now you speak up). The 9 states involved in the “pilot” programs will continue to  follow them.

Remember that this is just the opinion of one more driver that has just about had enough. I have places and other skills I can turn to, I don’t want to, but I can.  Some drivers don’t have as many options.

Its a gun being held to our heads and when WE stop, this country stops.

t

As many know, my truck is on the road without me and I’m playing Safety Manager at my current company. I am taking this opportunity and going back to school and one of the rules of higher education is, you must take required classes to fulfill any degree requirements. I suppose they think it will make students well rounded instead of focused only on their chosen fields. Or it could be to get more tuition and textbook money out of the already broke students or it guarantees an opportunity to push an agenda, but that’s probably just my opinion.  Either way, I now know how the population has been brainwashed into believing what people tell them.

Today’s lecture covers weather, the atmosphere and greenhouse gases. The earth has always had natural cycles of climate change, except during the Industrial Revolution when the cycle was clearly man-made,  there have been so many studies the science is now settled that man causes climate change.  We don’t have enough time today to discuss it, just believe me, I know, it’s true. There exists in the world Climate Change Skeptics, but they are like the Flat Earth Society (chuckle, chuckle). Really! Look it up! There are people that truly believe the earth is flat. If you want more details about Climate Change take my other class and anyone that doesn’t believe is a crazy person and shouldn’t be believed.

I was going to mention emails that exposed the phony research, but I just want a grade and to move on with my life. Besides, arguing with these sorts of people is like convincing someone to change religions, facts mean nothing because they are so entrenched in what they already believe. Plus, I’m sure he had more reports and studies off the top of his head than I did, because I have a life and have to work for a living at something besides preaching my beliefs onto others. I also wanted to find out what kind of car he drives, because hybrids have a  bigger carbon footprint than a gas guzzling SUV. Is he vegetarian? and if he enjoys electricity? But today, I’m satisfied making it out of class without my head exploding.

California Air Resources Board

Meanwhile, in California, the Air Resources Board (CARB) is in the process of decimating California’s economy by forcing unrealistic standards for on-road and off-road diesel particulate emissions. This is having horrific consequences on not only California’s trucking industry, but all of the heavy construction equipment, buses, dump trucks, anything with a diesel engine must meet these new unrealistic standards.

The problem is the head of the research falsified his credentials when he was hired he said he had a PhD from UC Davis. I’m sure it was a typo or a misunderstanding because his PhD is really from Thornhill University, which only exists on the Internet and a PO Box and is owned by an accused  serial child molester. Mail in $1000 and you too can have a PhD. Seriously, how can someone lie on their resume and still be employed and anything he has ever done is now suspect. He is still employed and his “research” is unchanged.

How can CARB trust research done by a phony and dishonest researcher they employ? Easy, the research went through a peer review process and was confirmed as valid. The fact that six out of the twelve peer reviewers were involved in the original research and also employed by CARB is not a problem for the Chairwoman, who also hid the fact of the fake credentials from the rest of the board and is the same chairwoman who says since she isn’t an elected official and she doesn’t have to worry about the consequences of any regulations that come out of her office.

The science is settled.

CARB Chairwoman says she is saving lives and these regulations are good for the future of California and she doesn’t care about those businesses anyway. Since her husband was the attorney for Exxon and the Valdez oil spill, seems she is making money from both sides of the environment issue.

The arrogance and hubris of these people is incredible. If you’ve been in California recently, it’s illegal to idle more than a few minutes and even if you have an APU it’s still a fine, unless it’s a CARB approved APU. CARB officials descend on businesses, warehouses and construction companies like SWAT teams looking for running reefer trailers, idling trucks and inspecting engines for violations, while carrying guns pretending like they have a purpose in life besides generating revenue for the state.

Links:
Thornhill University: Where the air board’s diesel expert got his Ph.D.
Still shameful / Air board’s response to scandal is appalling
Research fraud spurs CARB member to call for truck rule suspension
http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/marine2005/portstudy0406.pdf

the picket line that is. This was the second time I had to deal with this “dispute” at a small steel mill in Canada. The first time, there were more people “on strike” – about 50 men and women – and they were far more boisterous. There is nothing like waking up in the morning and driving to pick up a load with everyone there giving you the “bird”, demanding you go away, and trying to stop you – albeit temporarily – from doing your job.

According to their court injunction, strikers have the right to block or hold up a truck coming into or leaving the mill. The steel company has hired security officers to “protect” the truckers and their equipment.The picket line is monitored by video surveillance.  The rules state that you are to pull up to a pre-designated line and shut down. The driver is to have NO contact whatsoever with the strikers. You are to remain in your truck. There will be two security folks standing in front of your truck on either side and one or two at the rear of your trailer. Their mission is to make sure the strikers – strike – and don’t “cross the line” and don’t touch your truck, the freight or you. The agreement with the union gives the strikers 10 minutes to hold you up and security, the minute you shut down, starts the clock.

After the 10 minute period has expired, you get the signal to fire up your engine and move, very slowly, forward as the strikers move aside and you and your truck proceed to the “regular” guard shack. Since you’re not allowed out of the truck the gates are opened and you are to proceed 100 yards away from the strike “point.” Quite conveniently that’s also where the mill’s scale is and adjacent to it is the shipping office staffed by non-union salaried employees.

In total, there are 198 striking employees at this mini-mill. The strike began this past May. According to the United Steel Workers Union, one of their main objections is the company’s insistence on a two tier pay structure. New hires would receive less money and a reduced benefit and vacation package compared to existing employees. According to Valerie Hill of the Hamilton Mountain News: “Such two-tiered structures lead to dissension as new workers resent both the union and the higher-paid workers.”

The company responded that it “believes this proposal is fair to the company and to its employees and would contribute to ensuring stability and global competitiveness during this challenging economic period.” The mill experienced a net loss of $32.7 million for the three months ending March 31, compared to net income of $163 million in the same period in 2008 and production was down 35 to 40 of capacity.

Once inside the mill, the loading is taken care of by management personnel. They’re slow operating the huge gantry cranes but the job gets done – safely. Actually, its a nice change not to have to deal with the “typical” lazy union attitude that drivers find at many steel plants. Once loaded, you’ll pull outside to secure and tarp the load then proceed back to scale to get your paperwork. Then, it’s back to another predetermined “line” outside the main gate to wait another 10 minutes while the strikers and security officers do their thing.

I pick up for this steel company at their plants in the US. The Canadian strikers do not have the support of their fellow employees. In this dog-eat-dog economy, the prevailing feeling of these workers is if one plant gets shut down or goes on strike, that’ll be more business for them and a further guarantee of work. On a personal note, I don’t agree with a two-tier pay system under any circumstances, but the strike seems to be having little effect on the mill’s operations and has caused lot of bad will among truckers who for years have picked up and delivered there.

Yeah, right. “Very likely over” and how about, “…but it’s going to feel like a very weak economy.” I’ve been hearing not only Bernanke but variety of people in and out of the administration talk about how the economy is getting better. There’s a theory that if you say something often enough and loud enough that people will believe it. Didn’t the last unemployment numbers go up? But don’t worry about the facts, listen to people that know better than us.

Everyone knew things were slow and the markets were down for several months before the experts actually came out and told us we were in a recession. Wouldn’t we see the recovery several months ahead of the experts too? Being on the front line of this economy, truckers are going to see the recovery faster than most. How are rates lately? When brokers offer something under 80 cents and think they’re doing you a favor, this economy has a long uphill battle.

You can get a decent rate, but it’s usually going into an area where it’s tough to get out of. A good rate is offset by the deadhead you need to run to get it or find something else. As usual we’re spinning our wheels going nowhere fast.  At least fuel is holding steady and not spiking up and down like it was.

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I didn’t know where the holiday originated, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It says that the first Labor Day here in the US was celebrated back on September 5th 1882 in NYC. After workers were killed by US Army soldiers and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike – the President at the time – Grover Cleveland – put reconciliation with labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation declaring Labor Day a national holiday was spearheaded through Congress – it passed unanimously – and was signed into law six days after the end of the strike. FYI – the Pullman strike involved violent disputes between the unions and the railroads.

So now you know where Labor Day began. Fast forward to 2009. I just drove the 600 miles from wherever I was to just West of Jacksonville. I’m tired. Including myself, there was a lot of trucks on the road. Obviously “we” didn’t have the day off like the stock market, Federal government employees and of course, the sales, safety and operations people who work for the carriers. They’re home, “we’re” not.

For the record, as of today, there are 15 million people unemployed in the US. The percentage is almost at 10%, the highest level in years. Last month, the economy bled 250,000 jobs. Foreclosures – not from the ranks of adjustable mortgages or where people got homes for no money down – but from conventional mortgage holders. Somehow, we – I should say – greedy businessmen are going to have to start hiring 125,000 folks a month in order to stop that percentage from rising higher. Listening to the Labor Secretary on the radio today, telling people to go back to school – take advantage of the “many” government programs available and get “other” jobs only caused my stomach to turn. After she added that Pell Grants are easily obtainable as I try – and I’m employed – to come up with $900 to pay my son’s college tuition because we can’t get a loan – well, I thought here’s another rich Obama “official” living in liberal fantasy land.

Also, one year ago today – Labor Day – the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Combined they hold over 5 1/2 trillion dollars in mortgages. They were given a $100 billion dollar bailout. One year later, credit is extremely tight whether you run a trucking company, an airline or small manufacturing concern. While the Obama Administration continues to oversee these two entities, they have offered no strategy as to how to successfully manage them. We’ll have to wait until February, when they say they will have some sort of plan. Meanwhile companies continue to go bankrupt and eliminate jobs because they cannot obtain credit.

Today, by the way, is the biggest home improvement day of the year. Yes, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, Target and the rest were open. Their employees celebrate the holiday by working. Today more people “dig-out” their Christmas lights than at any other time of the year. No I’m not kidding. And please permit me a senior moment – when I was a kid – nothing was open. Back then there was also talk of a 4 day work week someday. Computers were going to make our lives so much easier. The way things are going, I don’t think our kids will be celebrating this holiday – not so much a holiday – in future years. There is no talk of working less – just more – and for less money than you probably earned five years ago. If you lucky enough to have the day off, enjoy it.

Photo credit: http://www.oldcitypics.com/images/empire-state-workers-1930.jpg

I’ve seen your billboards. I’ve heard your commercials. You know the ones. How one freight train will take 250 trucks off the road and improve highway congestion. How your trains are so fuel efficient. How service via rail is so superior. How you protect the environment. How by using trains I can reduce my carbon footprint.

Railroads, I’d like to tell you just where I’d like to put my footprint. And it has nothing to do with carbon or the environment. You people have lost your minds. And I’m going to take a few minutes just to tell you how wrong you are and how your message to the American public is a bunch of hooey. Oh your slick, I’ve got to give you that. But I, for one, can see right through all your nonsense.

Let’s start with the most important point. America doesn’t care what you have to say. Trains are no longer sexy. Kids want to be truck drivers and jet pilots, not train engineers. What fun is it to just to go forward and occasionally in reverse? When America thinks of trains, they think smoke, loud ear piercing horns and having to wait at annoying rail road crossings while your cars jingle jangle across the tracks. And while folks are sitting in their cars waiting for your train to someday pass, they’re praying its doesn’t go off the tracks and spew ammonia or some other lethal chemical all through their neighborhoods.

America hates trains. In fact, the day you chose to get rid of the friendly red caboose at the back of your lineup of toxic clickety clackety noisy rusty railcars, America’s love affair with the train died. Trains are dangerous. They’re too big and too heavy. They scare people. When is the last time someone asked for a train set for Christmas? When is the last time you took a train somewhere? Have you ever shipped anything by rail?

Jim, my jibber-jammer is down. I need that part. Ok, I hear ya Bill, I’ll get my guys to get it on the next train out. You should have it in two or three weeks. Listen, nobody even knows how to ship anything by rail. Don’t you need to be right on the tracks? What if the material is oversized? How do you get it to the railroad? Where are the railroads? How would I get something from Charlotte to LA? Do I use the Burlington Northern or the Carolina Illinois Railroad which will transfer it to the Midwestern Union Pacific or Santa Fe or California Wyoming Express to yet some other train so it gets to LA somehow someday?

Can I tell you a little secret? Make sure nobody is looking. Ready? OK. There is NO railroad in the world that can do anything without trucks. All the switches, locomotives, rail yards, freight cars, engineers, lights and horns don’t make any difference without trucks and truck drivers. Because even if JB Hunt, Schneider, UPS and Swift intermodal their trailers anywhere, they still have to be picked up and delivered by truck. Ain’t no darn railcar going to drive into Wal-Mart and back up to a dock with the freight.

When America thinks freight transportation they think truck, not rail. When America thinks rail they think hazardous chemicals, hot molten tanks cars with white clouds of smelly smoke and yellow mucus liquid oozing from the top and freight cars with graffiti sprayed all over them with hobos, beggars, criminals and illegal immigrants riding inside or on top top of them.

Railroads, nice try, but trucks are the foundation of America’s movement of goods. If you eat it, drink it, sleep on it, sit on it or ride on it, mostly likely it was delivered by truck. In fact, the backbone of any rail system is the truck, not the train. And you know it. So good luck with your “campaign” but you’re not fooling anybody.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cemeteryrodeo/2049011904/