Life on the Road - Trucking News Blog

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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As promised I’ve actually read the bill. Todd Spencer (Exec VP OOIDA) was good enough to send me a copy after we talked on the phone. Something about that last post he wanted to talk about.

It probably sounded like I was against it, but I said that unless there’s complete visibility it’s not going to work. Guess what’s in this bill? After this bill everything is supposed to be right there in the open.

Here’s the intro to the bill s.2910 IS (pdf) -

To require brokers to disclose and pay independent truckers for any fuel surcharges received from shippers that relate to fuel costs paid for by the truckers.

I would change “independent truckers” to say all carriers, but later on it does broaden the scope -

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As Everitt mentioned in his comment here, I also received OOIDA’s “Call to Action”. This is where OOIDA sends out Legislative alerts so you can write your Congressperson and support OOIDA’s cause. Here’s the excerpt from the email

Last night U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced legislation which will require that 100 percent of fuel surcharges paid by shippers be passed through to whoever actually pays for the fuel to haul the shipper’s goods, obviously in most cases that’s truckers.
S. 2910, the “Trust in Reliable Understanding of Consumer Costs Act” or “TRUCC Act” will ensure that middlemen will no longer be able to skim or pocket fuel surcharges that should be going to truckers. Senators Snowe and Brown worked closely with OOIDA on this legislation.
Please call the offices of your 2 Senators to ask them to support S.2910. Ask your Senators to commit their support for S. 2910 by signing on as cosponsors of the bill.

The legislation was just introduced so the Senators and their staff may not yet be familiar with the bill; this may be a great opportunity for you to educate them on fuel surcharges and the trucking industry.

Like most things that have come out of Congress, this will only cause more paperwork for shippers and brokers and it’s not going to help truckers unless complete visibility is inserted into the bill. And what broker or logistics company is going to allow that?

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After months of hype smear campaigns by the plaintiffs, the lawsuit against FMCSA over the cross border program was heard by a three Judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday, February 12.

Some of the issues raised, included the parties “standing” in the action, the legality of continuing the program in view of the flawed amendment inserted into the Omnibus spending bill signed by President Bush in December and the statistical validity of the results with so few participants.

Out of the gate, the attorney representing Teamsters, Public Citizen and Sierra Club was asked by one of the Jurists, why and for what reason was Sierra Club a party to this action for which he become slightly combative with the Judge and had no good explanation for their presence. It was suggested they were merely a party to share in attorney fees should the plaintiff’s prevail.

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Today is make-it or break-it day for many of the Presidential hopefuls, its Super Tuesday. Citizens in 24 States will go to the polls today to express their right to decide who will represent their views and wishes in the next Presidential election. If you live in one of these States, take a few minutes and go vote. Even if your Candidate has little or no chance of winning, let your opinion be heard. Your vote tells your party how you feel on issues, your views are important in building the parties platform for November. Don’t think that just because the media has decided who they think should win, that they are right, just ask Harry Truman.(well you could if he was still around)

Get out and vote, if you are not registered then get registered, make a difference. As long as we let the media lead us around by the nose, then nothing changes.

One other thing before I head off to the polls, if a pollster ask you how and why you voted, let them know. Tell them you are a trucker and you voted for such and such reason. We need to show that we have numbers and influence.

Be Safe and Vote.
Don

How much is your vote worth? Apparently to the folks in Washington, its worth about $500 of your own money. In an apparent effort to boost public opinion and make themselves feel good, Congress and the President have offered up a $150 Billion “Economic Stimulus Package“. The key feature of this Bill basically takes the money that we pay in taxes and give us back a little bit of it, and also passes some of that money to people that don’t pay taxes. Think of the sixteen year olds with part-time jobs, that are going to get that new iPod from your taxes! The politicians will then crow about the great deal they gave us taxpayers and spout rhetoric on the great job they are doing up on Capitol Hill. Hmmm, must be an election year! Read the rest of this entry »

Who will be the next President of The United States?

The primary races are still going with South Carolina being the latest for the Democrats. It looks like Barack Obama has wrapped up The State of South Carolina for the democrats. Hillary Clinton is behind Barack Obama by 15 delegates while John Edwards, a South Carolina Native, could not win his own state’s democratic primary. John Edwards is behind Obama by 41 delegates and is not looking like he will win the Democratic Nomination for President of The United States. Edwards’s former running mate in the last Presidential Election, John Kerry, Backed Barack Obama last month. So now it looks more likely than before that this will be a race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the democrats.

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If you don’t live in Illinois why would you be concerned who Mike is? We’ve written about Mike before and have had a link to his website since he started his campaign. Mike isn’t a politician, he’s a truck driver. He’s done other things, but his time as a truck driver guided him on his latest venture into national politics.

Mike called me the other day and we talked about a few things. He’s actually doing very well and is almost a favorite in the Republican primary. But why should you care? The US Senate is extremely bipartisan and every Senator’s vote is extremely important. If we can get one more conservative voice, which Mike is, that will not only protect the country, but will stand up for the American middle class because that’s where he came from, we need every vote like that we can get.

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President Bush signed the $555 Omnibus Spending bill despite misgivings about the record 9000 special earmarks included. Included in the bill was a small paragraph that opponents of the program celebrated as the end to the cross border program.

Moments later, FMCSA issued a press release making known their intent to carry forward with program.

FMCSA made it clear they were following the wording of the amendment which stated:

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