Mexico Trucker Online

Having lived through the ones in the 70’s and 80’s, the last one in 1984, I believe, still hanging around the back of my mind, the whole idea of any type of job action is the ultimate in stupidity.

Anyone remember the “kowboys” blocking the entrance to the truck stops, such as the old Union 76 in Ontario California, and threatening drivers unless they gave their assurances they were coming in to park and join the “strike”? I sure do! Remember hauling the freight with a sign on the back of your trailer saying “On Strike! Going Home”? I remember that too. Been there and done it! Anyone remember the shots fired at the big trucks, the 5th wheels pulled, the driver that was killed in Smith’s Grove NC by a brick thrown from an overpass by someone not remotely associated with the trucking industry? Fresh in my mind!

Are we ready for more of the same? We’ve had idiots calling the overnight talk shows making those threats all week, and while most are talking out their asses as usual, it puts ideas into the heads of outsiders who think it would be cute to involve themselves in that manner.

But this is 2008. In 1984, we didn’t have cell phones and other forms of instant communications. We seem to have some, such as Mr Kirsch and his group in Pennsylvania who are showing common sense and constraint in bringing their concerns before the American people. Kudos to them for doing it the correct way and not advocating a shutdown.

Dan Little of Little and Little Cattle Co is the brains behind the call for the shutdown on April 1st. Listening to him on the Steve Sommers show the other night, (ironically, one night after Sommers dismissed him as a crackpot) he made sense, he has a grasp of the issues although he is expecting too much to result from this. We’ll see. He has been garnering the media coverage and for the most part it is positive.

So will Mexico Trucker being supporting the shutdown or participating? Nope! I have commitments to our customers. If I happen to be home on Tuesday as I am now, perhaps we can say I participated.

Perhaps people need to expend the same energy they used when they failed to get the cross border program stopped and flood Washington with their calls and emails.

But one thing to remember, Mexico, the Cross Border Program, Mexican truckers, NAFTA is not the cause of our problems, nor do they contribute to our problems nor does the solution to these problems lay south of the border.

And contrary to what some of the looney toons who’ve called the overnight talk shows have claimed, our problems here are not an excuse to bring Mexican drivers to this country to take our jobs. Nowhere is that written nor planned except in the minds of the tin hat crowd and those who take advantage of that ignorance.

Trucker Robert Griffith is on the road three weeks out of four, pulling oversize loads like crane booms, railroad ties and air conditioning ducts. One of his biggest worries: How he’ll find the money to buy his daughter a prom dress.

As the cost of diesel doubled over the last four years, his take-home pay has plummeted, from $50,000 to $11,000 last year. He’s literally burning money; he spent $64,000 on diesel in the last eight months. Since he canceled his satellite radio, he’s on citizens band radio constantly (handle: Instigator) talking about what needs to change so truckers like him can survive.

“I had to learn to live totally different,” said Griffith, 41, of Lebanon, Tenn.

No more $150 family outings to Shogun sushi. No more weekly washes for his Western Star 4900 EX truck. No more health insurance for him and his family.

“It hurts,” he said. “I’m a man who’s trying to make a living for my family and I’m not succeeding.”

Trucking’s owner-operators, the self-employed drivers who haul everything from Hummers to hay, are suffering. Many say they’re running on the edge of bankruptcy, about to disappear unless they get help. While a wave of trucking failures now might be invisible to consumers, when the economy rebounds, it would push up shipping rates, helping increase prices.

And what’s OOIDA doing to help, besides worrying about the non issue of  Mexican trucks? Why NOTHING of course, except sending silly little letters to the White House which are destined for the round file.

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