Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

Okay, it’s Internet radio. I’ve been invited to participate in an Internet Talk show put on by Allen at Truth About Trucking .com. Check out the show page here the date is August 19th. I’ll put out another reminder when the time gets closer.

The topic? Do Truckers have the right to strike? Most everyone here knows my position. I’ll be joined by Allen and a 21 year trucking veteran. Should be interesting.

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I’m not big into petitions and all of that, but a lot of our discussions and comments lately have centered around oil and the fact that we need to drill in our own backyard. Newt Gingrich has started a website, a petition and a drive to get our own oil on our own land, before someone else does…

China and India are building oil drilling platforms 50 miles off the coast of Florida. These platforms are Slant Drilling platforms. They will be able to reach the oil that is under Cuba and the oil that is in our territory as well. I believe US oil companies would take better care of the environment and can be held responsible for any spills or accidents better than some foreign country that is thousands of miles away from their own homeland or maybe it’s just me. What if a China or an India platform has an accident? Who is going to clean up a spill 50 miles from Florida?  China and India? Guess again.

On a side note, the same Slant Drilling technology was going to be used in ANWR so they could reach more than just the footprint of the platform. They would have access to the oil under the entire ANWR without disturbing any more envirnonent then they had to. The small area where the oil companies in ANWR is a postage stamp compared to the rest of just the ANWR reserve. That same area is 700 miles from a tree. It’s barren artic landscape. Not the plush Alaskan forest the environmentalists lead everyone to believe.

Go to American Solutions.com - Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.

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Certain folks want to strike. Well they are about to get their wish.

There are two ways to interpret the word “STRIKE”. One, the way that our little buddies who could NOT understand supply and demand were advocating has to do with work stoppage. Our little buddies figured that if we stopped work then all our “demands” would miraculously be met.

What they failed to understand, what they apparently REFUSE to understand, is that we live in a global economy. Oil is traded on the global marketplace. (they shouldn’t feel TOO bad because apparently the US Congress doesn’t understand that either, sue OPEC indeed!!) Oil is a fungible commodity. If the US doesn’t buy the oil, why, Russia, China, India, Europe, or any of a whole lot of OTHER countries are in line to buy that same oil. If we don’t buy it then, on the Global Market, the demand falls. If the demand falls , and the supply is constant, THEN the price also falls.

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If it wasn’t so serious it would be funny.

I subscribe to a Blog written by a fellow by the name of Warren Meyers. His Coyote Blog is a hoot. It’s also very educational. I highly recommend it to all who would like an insight as to how the world works from a small business point of view.

On May 21 of this year he posted Congress, Sue Thyself.

It seems that our leaders in congress are upset about the high cost of fuel. Nevermind that THEY are the ones primarily responsible for that same high cost.

The fact that Congress has placed many of the places in the US that are known to contain oil OFFLIMITS to drilling and production,

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The oil companies….right?

Well, actually no.  The oil Companies, those eeevil oil companies that have invested untold billions of dollars in exploration, production, development, research ,transportation and retail of fuel, nope…not them.  They’re the LAST people that should be blamed.

They’re running as fast as they can while governments of all flavors heap extra taxes and fee’s upon them. Citizens groups and the Main Sewer Media heap scorn upon them and normal everyday folks complain.  What are they to do?

The government, aided and abetted by the greens won’t let the oil companies drill in several places where we KNOW there is oil.  ANWAR (what a misname.  A bleaker area you’d have to go to the moon to find and what wildlife?), the west coast,and  the east coast.  There’s oil and gas there but ;it’s off limits.

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From the desk of Captain Obvious:

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I have my locking fuel caps, they were about $80 each. I took them off during the winter because they would freeze up and even in the summer I have to keep shooting WD-40 in the lock to keep it working. When I was at the Louisville truck show I saw a great idea for locking fuel caps for trucks with a built in cover that looked like a great idea, but I now I can’t find my flyer I had from them.

Locking fuel caps are expensive and tough to keep dirt out of and to keep working in the winter, but right now, worth every penny.

No comments about the trucker the reporter found to comment, we’ve been through all that before.

Source: Fox Chicago

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As I wrote in a previous post. Fuel prices are high and they’re going to STAY high.

And this is a GOOD thing.

(boink!!!!!!!???, this is a good thing? How can that be? Stay tuned, more on that later)

Whatever can we do?

Well, buying a new truck is right out. I checked into that this last month. To replace my old KW it would cost me just about TWICE what I paid for it about nine years ago. Not quite but almost. I paid ninety something thousand in the year two thousand and the local KW dealer wants almost a hundred and seventy thousand for a very similar replacement.

And the new truck get’s worse fuel economy.

So no thank you. I’ll overhaul and rebuild for a while.

How long a while?

That’s kind of what THIS post is about.

Things are being done. It’s possible to get diesel from other places than an oil well,

from plants, algae and trash.

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I know this has nothing to do with trucking, but I just published my last post about trading with China when I look at CNN and see this about a beating in China.

Death pits technology against Chinese control
The construction company manager was driving his car when he witnessed an ugly scene: a team of about 50 city inspectors beating villagers who tried to block trucks from unloading trash near their homes.

Wei took out his cell phone and began taking pictures. The city inspectors saw Wei and then attacked him in a beating that lasted five minutes. By the time it was over, the 41-year-old Wei was slumped unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital but was dead on arrival.

Read the entire article here and then ask why are we dealing with these people? Why are they getting the Olympics? Why is American business bending over for this country? Oh yeah, I almost forgot - A billion new customers.

Wait… Won’t China make anything we’re selling them so expensive no one will be able to afford it? You think China will force people to buy Chinese because it’s the right thing to do for China?

Or maybe it’s just me.

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I wasn’t real sure what to think of this when I first read it. It’s a compliment and a slam at the same time. China is checking out Con-Way in Maryland to learn about hauling double trailers which isn’t allowed yet. Here are a couple of paragraphs -

Chinese get a front-seat look at U.S. trucking
Executives tour State Line company
By DON AINES
China’s government understands the importance of transportation to economic growth, Hoemann said, spending $100 billion a year on road construction. By contrast, the most recent U.S. federal highway bill appropriated $286 billion over five years for construction and maintenance, he said.

China has built about half as many roads in seven years as this country has in the past 60 years, Miller said. “We couldn’t even patch our roads in that amount of time,” Miller said.

If we had a communist government backed by capitalist money, I bet we could get a few potholes fixed. The problem with fixing existing roads is, you either have to keep the road open and work around traffic or build a completely new road away from existing roads. Most interstates weren’t built on top of existing two lane highways. Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m listening to the news today and Bush is in the Mideast asking the Saudi’s to increase production because high energy prices are harmful to our economy. The same day the report from the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission comes out recommending the federal gas tax be increased by 40 cents over five years.

Panel: Increase gas tax to fix roadways
The report also calls for rebuilding and expanding the national rail network to meet a growing demand for alternatives to congested highways.

Continuing to apply patches to the nation’s aging infrastructure is “no longer acceptable,” and without dramatic changes, “the nation’s system of transportation will further deteriorate,” according to the report, portions of which were read to the AP.

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