Gas prices vs. Fuel Surcharge and Pay Rates

[LDB]

>If we don't buy their fuel for a day or a week or
>a month those speculators will go broke and the oil
>companies will take notice. Every owner operator needs to
>park their truck for one day. Don't bottle up the roads.
>The public already has a low opinion of us and we need their
>support.

One day of truck fuel purchasing would be .27%, a tiny blip on the chart. One week would be 1.9%, enough of a dip to show up on the line graph but wouldn't change things. One month would be 8.2%, a fairly significant amount but not earth shattering. Even at 8.2% of all fuel sales it wouldn't make or break a company and when it's only 8.2% of truck diesel sales it's not going to affect them enough to listen to us. It's going to take Washington moving out of character and doing what's right.

I agree totally that blocking roads is the WRONG thing to do and a STUPID idea. All that will do is turn the public further against us and we don't have enough support and goodwill from them as it is. We need to somehow get OOIDA to change their name to something like CDA, Commercial Drivers Association, so they can get company drivers signing up too. They are the only organization that seems to give a hoot about things. They are just far short of the number of members needed to make a difference.

Leo
truck 4958
73's K5LDB

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Mrand Mrs]

Just stopped in to check what was being said about the fuel prices and just had to put my two cents in....

The public is ALREADY suffering from the fuel prices...the consumer has to pay the price for the higher cost of moving freight!!! The companies raise their prices for food, textiles, anything shipped, to cover what they are being charged in fuel surcharges. How many consumers realize this? How many drivers really pay attention to the fact that they may be paying more for their own supplies also? Anyone compared their food bills lately?

Maybe a strike on a national level would wake up Americans!! Just my opinion....

 

[Tennesseahawk]

that .27% you're talking about, Leo... is that counting weekends? When you figure weekdays as taking up around 21 days out of the month, that comes to .39%. That maybe a drop in the bucket in your eyes, but could you imagine the GDP droping by that amount? If the stock market dropped by that much, it would lose 400 points! Multiply that by 5 days, if o/os decided on sitting for a week. That's 2%! I think we'd rattle some cages if we did it. Problem is, it won't happen.

 

[bryan]

HI
My understanding of fsc is that it has nothing to do with the goverment, ooida or the carriers it is set by the person paying the freight bills.This is why some times you get .20 cpm and sometimes you get .04 cpm.When GM was paying no fsc and Ford was paying .14 cpm we complained to our carrier constantly untill they finally ask us to give them cold hard proof that rising fuel prices was causing us hardship. They assembled these documents and presented them to GM and GM implemented a .04cpm fsc. At the time that was enough to cover the increase in fuel price but now they need to raise it again.
Any chance you get to talk to anyone at a GM plant make sure you mention the hardship that $2.50 fuel prices are causing you. Talk to anyone who will listen at your carriers.A traffic slow down will not work it was already tried in Florida and California, Jeb and Arnold told them the same thing, they have no control over fsc.
Now a shut down is a different story.UNless you can get the big companies to shut down with you it might be a waste of time and energy,that said JB and a couple big companies did shut down with the o/o in either 93 or 94 when the gov. started with low sulfer fuel and wanted to put tolls on western interstate highways.

 

[LDB]

The fsc isn't set by the person paying the freight bills or it would be zero at every company. It is set by negotiation with the shipper but it is controlled by our carriers. They either take the contract or they don't. The carrier is the one who can say they will not haul without a minimum of xx% fsc. The good contracts have a scale tied to the price of fuel. The not so good contracts have a set amount. The bad contracts have none. We're at a point where every shipper should be told effective October 1 there will be a fsc system implemented based on $1.50/gal fuel. Contracts are renegotiated all the time. It's time for our carriers to step up to the plate on our behalf.

Leo Bricker
OOIDA 677319
truck 4958
73's K5LDB
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.