Some truckers who haul containers in and out of the Port of Oakland shut down this week to protest the fact that their pay has not gone up enough to counter punishing fuel costs. Diesel has been about $4.57 per gallon in California’s Bay area this week.

Protest organizer Ajit Singh Gill has been traveling back and forth from the Port of Oakland and the Lathrop and Stockton rail yards to meet with truckers who have shut down because they can’t afford to fill up their trucks. Some are left with only $54 a day – after paying for fuel – to cover operating expenses and their wages.

“We really don’t consider this a shutdown. It’s just that these drivers can’t afford to drive anymore,” Gill said. “People should understand that they are not making enough money to pay for their trucks, their insurance and everything else they need.”

Gill told Land Line on Thursday, May 8, that some drivers are hauling loads from Stockton to Gilroy for a flat rate of $210 per round-trip, plus a $24 fuel surcharge. With fuel costs running them around $180 per trip, Gill said they are left with just $54 per round trip. Because of traffic and wait times at weigh scales and at docks, he said these truckers are only able to make one round-trip a day.

Some drivers on the West Coast are paying as much as $1,500 each week for fuel, according to one source Land Line spoke to on Thursday, May 8.

“These guys have no other choice but to park their trucks right now,” said the source, who spoke to Land Line on the condition of anonymity. “As the cost of fuel continues to escalate, these guys with older trucks that are only getting about 4 mpg aren’t getting the fuel surcharge they need to keep them going.”

Gill said companies at the Port of Oakland have not held up their end of an agreement they made with port truckers four years ago. That agreement calls for them to pay the truckers 5 percent of their fuel costs above $2 per gallon, he said. He said that while motor carriers’ customers are paying fuel surcharges, that money isn’t being passed along to the drivers buying the fuel.

“This is not a strike that’s getting out of hand. We gave two weeks’ written notice to the companies and brokers that truckers are working for,” Gill said. “Some of the companies responded, but some didn’t respond to the notice at all.”

Port of Oakland Spokesperson Marilyn Sandifur confirmed that as many as 150 truckers were at the port protesting high fuel prices Monday through Wednesday, but said there were only “sporadic demonstrations by truckers” at the port when she spoke to Land Line on Thursday, May 8.

Gill said that decrease in protesters at the port is because truckers began meeting elsewhere after being ticketed for parking their cars at the port.

“The Oakland Police Department is on the scene because the port area is really not a good place for pedestrian access, as you can imagine,” Sandifur said. “The port is not a safe place for people to protest so the police are out there to ensure the safety of the protestors as well as ensure the safety of everyone that’s moving through the port. And then they’re there to make sure that commerce keeps flowing.”

She said she couldn’t estimate what kind of economic disruption the protests have caused at the Port of Oakland this week.

“There’s really no way for us to estimate at this point,” Sandifur said. “We know there’s been some impact, but we really don’t have an idea if it’s a minimal impact or a larger impact.”

Tensions on the rise
One protester described the scene at the Port of Oakland as being under “martial law.” Sandifur said that wasn’t the case at all.

“There isn’t an area set up for protests; this area is set up for train, truck and cargo movement,” she said. “But their right of free speech has been protected, and the Oakland Police are there to see to it. As long as they obey the rules, no one is going to ask them to leave.”

Sandifur said she did see one of the flyers that read, “Subject: Rate adjustment due to high diesel prices,” which was being handed out by truckers at the port.

“Things are definitely difficult for people whose livelihoods depend on the cost of fuel,” she said. “I think what we are looking at is a nationwide issue not a local issue. The elected officials really need to be examining this.”

Oakland Police Department spokesman Roland Holmgren said there have been a few incidents involving protestors at the Port of Oakland, but that overall things have been relatively quiet there.

“There was one arrest for someone who threw a rock and broke a windshield of a truck, and there have been two reports of vandalism,” he said.

Holmgren said he has heard varying statistics on the number of protestors, with as many as 200 protestors reported at one time at the Port of Oakland earlier in the week.

Gill said some companies have come out to negotiate with truckers. He said he was hopeful the protest would be over in the next day or two.

“We are only asking for companies to give us what they agreed to pay us four years ago,” he said. “If you calculate how much it costs to own and operate a truck, there’s no way we can make it on what they are paying us.”

Some federal budget and transportation officials say every dollar paid for transportation must be accounted for. They also say the public deserves a quality return on the taxes and user fees paid into the system for infrastructure.

Officials testifying before a joint committee hearing of U.S. House budget and transportation leaders said population growth, increasing traffic counts and congestion are outgrowing the nation’s infrastructure of highways, rail, transit and water systems.

Patricia Dalton, managing director of the physical infrastructure team for the Government Accountability Office, was one of two federal officials testifying at the hearing Thursday, May 8, before the House Budget Committee on Financing Infrastructure Investment and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Dalton said the nation’s 4 million miles of roads, 600,000 bridges and 117,000 miles of rail are under strain, and the government has to rethink the way it invests in infrastructure.

“Given these types of challenges and the federal government’s fiscal outlook, it is clear that the federal government cannot continue with business as usual,” Dalton stated. “Rather, a fundamental re-examination of government programs, policies, and activities is needed.”

“Prudent use of taxpayer dollars is always important,” she said.

The math regarding needs and current spending is basic, suggested Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, when he testified during the hearing.

Orszag said that just to maintain the current level of performance for highways – without upgrading the system or adding capacity – the federal government would need to commit at least $79 billion per year, which is $12 billion more than is currently spent.

“Estimates from the Federal Highway Administration and other sources indicate that additional spending of up to tens of billions of dollars each year on transportation infrastructure projects could be justified,” Orszag said.

Substantially more dollars would be needed for adding capacity to the infrastructure, he said.

Some experts, including members of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, believe investment in transportation should be in the neighborhood of $225 billion per year, including money for new and upgraded capacity.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-SC, chaired the hearing. He said public infrastructure, including highways, rail, transit and water systems, is the lifeline of the economy.

“Despite their vital importance, infrastructure investments have not kept pace with repair, maintenance and the need for expansion or replacement,” Spratt said.

Discussions about funding are taking on a whole new importance as members of the U.S. House and Senate have begun preparing to write legislation that will become the next generation of transportation funding policy.

That legislation is due from Congress in 2009, when the current funding legislation known as SAFETEA-LU is scheduled to expire. SAFETEA-LU is the Safe, Accountable, Fair, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users, was signed into law two years after its 2003 deadline.

Read more about the funding authorization process in upcoming issues of Land Line.

In British Columbia, Canada, the Transportation Ministry is considering setting up a so-called truck jail similar to the one Ontario has had since 1998.

Trucks found to be grossly unsafe could be impounded for up to 30 days. A truck with “several brakes broken, in combination with bad tires, in combination with bad steering,” would be a suitable candidate for jail, Paul Landry, president of the British Columbia Trucking Association, told the Times Colonist newspaper.

Truck News reported that the province is also considering allowing wider use of so-called “Rocky Mountain doubles,” which proponents say can cut fuel consumption by 30 percent.

In other Canadian trucking news, the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association in New Brunswick is calling for a provincial tax cut of at least 40 cents per gallon (10 cents Canadian per liter) on diesel fuel.

Diesel has been selling for around $5.60 per gallon ($1.40 Canadian per liter) in the province.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 –If there were any members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who didn’t think fuel prices were strangling small-business truckers – they probably don’t have the same opinion following a hearing on the topic today.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told committee members in his testimony during the hearing that small-business truckers are victimized not only by high fuel costs, but also by questionable business tactics in the industry.

“The rising cost of fuel is causing harm to the trucking industry as we know it. Across this nation, small-business truckers are experiencing unprecedented operating cost increases and are being forced to make tough decisions in the name of saving their businesses and providing for their families,” Spencer told members of the committee.

“Unfortunately, the climbing diesel prices have already painted many truckers into a corner and for them it is too late.”

Spencer cited a recent report released by Donald Broughton, a long-time trucking industry analyst now with Avondale Partners LLC. Broughton reported that in the first quarter of this year, 935 companies with five or more trucks failed. That’s a failure rate the industry hasn’t experienced since 2000 and 2001.

“While this data is shocking, it is not the complete picture. Broughton’s data is not representative of the industry as a whole because it only counts trucking companies with five or more trucks,” Spencer told the committee.

Spencer explained to committee members that the blame for these failures cannot rest solely on the shoulders of high fuel prices. Fuel surcharges are a long-standing mechanism the industry has used to recoup fuel costs.

The problem, Spencer told the committee members, is that more and more middlemen are charging a fuel surcharge and pocketing a chunk of it rather than passing it on to the trucker who actually bought the fuel.

“It is common practice for motor carriers and especially brokers to push shippers for higher fuel surcharges, but only pass along a portion of those surcharges to the truckers who are actually hauling the freight and paying the fuel bill,” Spencer told the committee.

When pressed by members of the committee, especially acting Chairman Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, on how this can happen, Spencer pointed to the lack of transparency in trucking transactions.

“(Keeping a fuel surcharge is) often done by charging the shipper in one way … then withholding information or misrepresenting transactional information and compensating truckers in another manner, for example providing one flat rate, which is usually much lower,” Spencer explained.

Even if a trucker finds out a broker is skimming fuel surcharges, Spencer said that with the lack of regulation and oversight of brokers it’s far too easy for bad brokers to fade into the night.

“Every day at our headquarters in Missouri we hear horror stories from small-business truckers about unscrupulous brokers with FMCSA authority who collect money from shippers, but never pay the truckers who actually transport the loads,” he told committee members. “Often, when the truckers try to collect the money due to them, they find the broker has closed up shop and moved on.”

In the end, Spencer called for quality regulations and oversight of the industry to give truckers some relief.

“If we do not find ways to help them soon, small-business truckers will continue to lose their businesses or refuse to drive unprofitably. I have no doubt that we will see greater disruptions in the movement of our nation’s commerce and our economy,” he said.

A 2-foot-by-3-foot hole on an Interstate-30 bridge in downtown Dallas caused delays during Monday’s early morning commute.

A motorist reported the hole at about 10 p.m. Sunday. KXAS-TV reported that chunks of concrete from the hole damaged several cars, bending the rims of wheels. The hole was repaired and lanes were opened shortly before 7 a.m. Monday.

TxDOT spokesman Randy Black told The Dallas Morning News that the bridge had been inspected within the past 30 days. “Results were normal,” he said.

Courtesy of LandLine Magazine

XM and Sirius have extended an agreement expressing their intention to merge while they continue to wait on the Federal Communications Commission to approve the proposal.

The boards of directors from XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio first voted in February 2007 to merge into one company worth $13 billion. The proposal required filing an application with the FCC, which has the final say.

When the XM-Sirius proposal did not appear on the FCC’s docket scheduled for May 14, the two companies decided to extend their intention to merge until an agreement is reached.

Approval from the FCC is all that stands in the way since the U.S. Department of Justice concluded in mid-March that a merger would not stand in the way of competition among broadcasting companies.

Courtesy of LandLine Magazine

Across the country, truckers have started grass-roots movements in several states to wake up their lawmakers to the harsh realities many drivers are facing – losing their livelihoods as high fuel prices and a rocky economy continue to beat up the industry.

In New York, owner-operators, company drivers and trucking company owners are all banding together and pounding the phones to get the message out to their lawmakers that they are running out of time.

On Wednesday, April 30, OOIDA member Paul Looman of Gloversville, NY, addressed the New York State Assembly about how high fuel prices and high tolls on the New York Thruway are depleting his and other truckers’ resources.

“I told them that high fuel prices and high toll prices that truckers are forced to pay on the Thruway are breaking the backs of truckers who are trying to make a living,” Looman told Land Line on Friday, May 2. “Farmers around here are hurting as well.”

Looman said speaking before the Assembly was a little “overwhelming,” but worth every minute if something good comes from it.

“They must have like what I had to say because they applauded when I was done,” he said.

He said another round of phone calls is planned for next week to keep the pressure on lawmakers in New York.

Looman said New York Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, and Assemblyman Peter Lopez, R-Schoharie, both have recognized truckers’ importance to the state’s economy, and are working with the truckers to get them some relief.

Amedore and Lopez also arranged a roundtable discussion with other lawmakers, truckers and businessmen on fuel issues on April 17 at a truck stop in Fultonville, NY.

One New York trucking company owner, Butch Mix, who owns Sunshine Bulk Commodities Inc., in Clifton Springs, NY, has 65 trucks. He has started making phone calls to lawmakers as well.

Mix has been in the trucking business since 1975. Skyrocketing fuel prices and the rising costs of doing business have caused him to take a hard look at how he’s running his company.

“It’s getting harder and harder to survive in this business and make a profit,” he told Land Line on Friday, May 2.

The costs for parts and tires have gone way up in price, too, which is hurting his trucking company’s profits. Mix said his customers all pay a different fuel surcharge, ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent, which he said is hard to figure his operating costs.

“I have started looking at some of my customers who can’t or won’t pass on a fuel surcharge and I have to decide if I want to continue to do business with them anymore,” Mix said.

For those who haven’t had time to shop around for the perfect Mother’s Day gift this year, here’s an idea. How about writing Mom a check for $117,000?

According to the research company Salary.com, that’s how much a stay-at-home mom would be paid each year if she was actually compensated for everything she does. Those responsibilities include taxi service for the kids, housekeeper, cook, psychologist and nurse for family members.

The researchers figure a working mom is worth an extra $68,000 beyond what she brings home from her outside job.

So for those of you who are buying your mothers some flowers for $20, just think how much you’re saving.

Courtesy of LandLine Magazine

The California Air Resources Board has scheduled several workshops to discuss and accept public input regarding its proposed requirement that an estimated 1.5 million in-use trucks meet 2007 emission standards by the year 2012.

The proposed plan would force at least 1.5 million trucks to be replaced or retrofitted in order to cut diesel particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen.

CARB announced a proposed in-use truck rule in August 2007 that would have forced truck operators to replace engines twice in a nine-year span. The current proposal requires truck fleets to meet 2007 emission standards by the year 2010. CARB was redrafting language of the proposed regulation Thursday and Friday, May 8 and 9, after outcry from trucking industry representatives about the regulation’s potential costs.

CARB plans to consider approval of its in-use diesel retrofit rule in October.

Upcoming workshops are scheduled for:

• From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, at the CARB Auditorium at 9530 Telstar Ave. in El Monte, CA.
• From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at the California DOT’s Garcia Room, at 4050 Taylor St. in San Diego.
• From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27, at the El Centro Community Center, at 375 S. First St. in El Centro, CA.
• From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, at the Riverside County Administrative Center, at 4080 Lemon St. in Riverside, CA.
• From noon to 4 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 30, at the County of Santa Clara Isaac Newton Senter Auditorium, at 70 West Hedding St. in San Jose, CA.
• From noon to 4 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, June 2, at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors Chambers, at 1450 Court St., Suite 263 in Redding, CA.
• From noon to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 4, at CARB’s Byron Sher Auditorium, at 1001 I St. in Sacramento.
• From noon to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, at the Fresno County Plaza Ballroom, at 2220 Tulare St. in Fresno, CA.

The proposed rule has been changed and is likely to continue changing before it is formally proposed in October, said Karen Caesar, a CARB spokeswoman.

Until then, truckers and others are encouraged to give input, she said.

“We’re working hard to listen to the truckers and the folks that would be directly affected by this rule,” Caesar told Land Line.

CARB estimates the proposed in-use truck regulation will cost private businesses between $3.6 and $5.5 billion, although the California Trucking Association reportedly have said that estimate is low.

For more information, visit www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onrdiesel/onrdiesel.htm.

A bill introduced May 6 by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-OR, and co-sponsored by Rep. Thomas Petri, R-WI, and Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-IN, seeks to mandate 100 percent pass-through of fuel surcharges to whoever actually buys the fuel.

The bill, HR5977, “Truth in Reliable Understanding of Consumer Costs Act,” or the “TRUCC Act,” is identical to a bill introduced in the Senate in late April by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-ME, and co-sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH.

“This bill will go a long way toward helping truckers and their shipping customers weather the brutal cost of fuel,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

Fuel surcharges have been a staple in the industry as a way that trucking companies can recoup the high cost of fuel. And now with skyrocketing fuel prices, more and more is being collected – but not passed on.

There currently is not a uniform fuel surcharge standard for the trucking industry. Fuel surcharges must be negotiated individually, leaving shippers and truckers vulnerable to opportunistic middlemen.

“It’s all too common for middlemen in the trucking industry to push shippers to pay fuel surcharges, but only pass along a portion of those surcharges to the truckers who are actually hauling the freight and paying the fuel bill,” Spencer said.

To make matters worse, small-business truckers are often denied access to the contracts and rate information negotiated between freight brokers and the shipper or customer they are hauling freight for.

The TRUCC Act also seeks to ensure that brokers and middlemen negotiating a contract to haul freight for a shipper are not using the high price of fuel to exploit that shipper or the small-business trucker who actually hauls the shipper’s freight.

OOIDA issued a national Call to Action on Wednesday, May 7, urging its members to contact their lawmakers in support of the legislation. To read the Call to Action, click here.

Truckers wanting to express their support of the TRUCC Act should call both of their senators and their representative. Those who don’t know who their lawmakers are can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and provide their ZIP code to the operator to be connected to the appropriate office.

The national average price for diesel dropped slightly this past week – 2.8 cents – to average $4.149 a gallon, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Monday, May 5. However, the average price for diesel is still up $1.357 compared with the same week of 2007.

Eight of the nine EIA regions reported slight decreases in the cost of diesel, except the Rocky Mountain region, which reported an increase of 1.6 cents a gallon to average $4.159.

The Lower Atlantic region experienced the greatest decrease of 3.6 cents to an average of $4.133 this past week. The East Coast region’s average dropped 3.2 cents to $4.218, while the Central Atlantic region reports a decrease of 3 cents a gallon to average $4.351.

Even with the decrease in the price of fuel in the Central Atlantic region, the cost for a gallon of diesel is still the second-highest of all of the regions.

The Midwest and Gulf Coast regional averages decreased 2.8 cents a gallon, putting the average at $4.116 in the Midwest and at $4.088 a gallon in the Gulf Coast region.

The New England region is reporting a nine-tenths of a cent decrease to an average of $4.337 a gallon, while diesel prices have dropped a penny on the West Coast to put the weekly average at $4.313 a gallon.

Truck drivers seeking quick border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico through the Free and Secure Trade program can put away pens and fire up the Internet. FAST applications are exclusively online.

FAST aims to speed efficiency of goods movement at the U.S.-Mexico and Canadian border. Beginning April 15, FAST applications were accepted at CBP.gov.

The agency removed paper applications for the FAST program in April, a practice already in place for other global enrollment systems.

“It’s a way to do things faster; it facilitates the process,” said Joanne Ferreria, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman.

Customs and Border Protection plans to launch online enrollment for drivers needing access at the U.S.-Canada border in August. That program, however, will continue to accept paper applications.

The U.S.-Mexico FAST program is administered by U.S. officials, Ferreria said. U.S.-Canada FAST is run jointly between the United States and Canada.

“It’s a different kind of program than the U.S.-Mexico program,” she said.

FAST applications in 2008 for U.S.-Canada tallied 6,835 as of May 1, Ferreria said, while U.S.-Mexico applications stood at 874.

For more information, visit www.cbp.gov.

Friday, May 2, 2008 – After having negotiated an $8 million settlement in the fall of 2007 with truckers in a lawsuit about problems with their owner-operator leases, Allied Van Lines and North American Van Lines filed for bankruptcy in February this year with $5 million still due to be paid.

However, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association had its legal team go to bat for the truckers, and the companies have proposed paying $1.25 million of the balance due. Under the original plan filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court the carriers wanted the entire $5 million balance wiped clean.

Lawyers from The Cullen Law Firm in Washington, DC, argued that it would be in the best interests of the reorganized companies to ensure that their owner-operators received as much compensation as possible.

The court must still approve the revised bankruptcy plan, and the timing of payments will be determined at a future date.

Originally filed in May of 2004, the truckers’ case alleged that the carriers’ leases failed to comply with federal truth-in-leasing regulations regarding compensation and chargeback disclosures. As part of the case settlement, Allied and North American were also required to implement a new uniform independent contractor operating agreement.

Federal agents are investigating after they uncovered nearly $2 million worth of cocaine Tuesday in Van Buren County.

"The troopers who stopped it and the motor carrier officer — they were excited, no doubt about it," said Sgt. Rich Dragomer of the Michigan State Police.

Acting on information from another agency, state police and federal agents pulled over a Canadian semi-truck and another car along I-94.

They say they found 140 pounds of cocaine hidden in three duffel bags in the cab of the semi.

It's worth $1.8 million, but on the street police say it could go for even more.

Police say it's one of their largest busts on I-94, which they consider a major pipeline for drugs.

"That Detroit - Chicago connection is huge," commented Capt. Paul Toliver of the Berrien County Sheriff's Department.

Last year on I-94 in Berrien County alone, police seized $230,000 worth of marijuana in one car. They found $100,000 worth of cocaine in another car.

On one traffic stop they found almost $146,000 in a hidden compartment.

On another stop police found more than $240,000 hidden.

"The drugs will come into Chicago or Detroit and the money will flow the opposite way," said Toliver. "So, we'll see what we call mules running drugs in one direction and they'll run the money back."

The concern is it may stop along the way.

"Oh, it's a problem, yeah," Ted Johnson of Hartford told WSBT News.

And the latest bust is no surprise to many people who live near the busy highway.

"I think it's probably just the tip of the iceberg," said Johnson.

Police arrested the driver of the semi. He's in federal custody and his name has not yet been released.

As for handling this drug problem — police say they have officers who are trained in detecting drugs that work I-94.

The different agencies also work together.

In Berrien County, the sheriff's department also has two new narcotic dogs that are being trained right now. In about five weeks, police say they'll be out helping in the fight to stop the drug traffickers.

But police also say they know they may only be scratching the surface of this problem.

Truckers who normally take Interstate 40 through downtown Knoxville, TN, will be detoured onto I-640 and I-275 for the next 14 months. Highway crews shut down a section of I-40 on Thursday, May 1.

The closure and reconstruction of a 0.9-mile section of I-40 will include widening the stretch to six lanes; adding four auxiliary lanes; and building nine overpasses, new ramps and noise barriers.

The $275 million project is due to be complete by July 1 next year.

Courtesy of LandLine Magazine