After leaving that load, I came back to Albuquerque to perform a route survey for a 23 foot wide load going into Colorado on US 285.  I thought it would be relatively easy, but I found that several different construction sites in the Santa Fe area that nixed that idea.  So, I’ve had to be creative.  I will finish up that survey tomorrow and then return to Gallup to resume that load.

I’ve been asked to come up with a chase escort for this load to Nevada.  Getting a decent escort for the price they want to pay is not easy.  We all are between a rock and a hard spot.  The big trucking companies set the rates which they will pay, acknowledging that fuel prices have gone up dramatically but they are holding their rates.  It is understandable.  With the economy wilting the way it is, shippers know they can demand cheap rates because the companies need the business.  The same is with us:  the trucking companies know we need the business, so they hold the prices artificially low.  This makes it difficult for small pilot car companies and newly established ones to survive.

The best we can do is to try to minimize our costs, maximize our profits, and do what we can to stay in business at reasonble, profitable rates.  There is a danger in overpricing ourselves out of the market.  One trucking company instructed their pilot car brokers to not hire escorts out of our area because our rates are more than they want to pay.  It is foolish economy.  I know of one load where the high pole escort could not get certified in NM and the chase almost didn’t get certified.  The end results was that the load was delayed for more than four hours until a replacement high pole escort could get to the load…and the load will be a day late, as a result.

One of the biggest space users is our safety cones.  Three eighteen inch cones occupy 1.54 cubic feet.  Three twenty-eight inch cones occupy over 7 cubic feet.  I have found an alternative that takes up much less space:  collapsible traffic cones.   I purchased a set of four 28 inch collapsible cones that take up a little over 1/2 of a cubic foot.  That is a HUGE space savings, and yet the price per cone is comparable with the non-collapsible types.  Those of you who carry enough cones to conduct night moves in Utah, for example, could reduce the cubic footage needed for all your cones dramatically.  That equates to a savings in fuel economy, because they are not as heavy as the stiff cones, or the ability to carry more “stuff”.

Prices vary.  When i bought mine more than a year ago, they cost me about $140 for a set of four with a carrying case and no lights.  Today, when I googled “collapsible traffic cones”, I found more than 10 pages with some listings as low as about $12 each, including the LED lights.  Here is a word of caution, though:  be careful NOT to buy the inflatable cones.  In an emergency situation where you need the cones quickly, you will not be able to inflate them fast enough.

Will a slowdown or other type of protest work?  Who knows?  What is your opinion?  Like noses, everyone has an opinion…except me!

 I don’t know how I feel about it.  I know full well the crisis that we are experiencing.  Like all of you, my expenses are going up, my business is down, and I don’t know what to do about it.

 As a general rule, I don’t think the public even thinks about the plight of truckers and trucking relating industry.  Most of them do not realize how critical trucks are to this nation’s economy, to their daily life, even to their own livelihood.  They don’t see us as individuals.  They rarely look into the cab to see the human being behind the wheel.  It just is not in their realm of conscientiousness.  For that reason, a protest of some type might raise their awareness.

That is a two edged sword.  There is good awareness, and bad awareness.  Theoretically, good awareness would lead them to more letter writing to the big oil companies, regulators and lawmakers.  If that is the case, we might get something done. 

On the other hand, violence could lead to bad awareness, bad press.  Already, I have read posts by truck drivers threatening violence against people who do continue to work or to buy fuel during the protests.  In my opinion, violence is likely.  I would rather believe that would not happen, but history tells us otherwise.  I remember the fuel protests of the mid-70′s.  I lived in Albuquerque back in those days, and I remember truckers driving around the truck stops like in a picket line.  There WAS violence when other truckers tried to break through the lines either to get fuel or to get out of the parking lots to get back on the road.

That violence resulted in a public opinion backlash.  It reinforced the stereotypes of the news media and general public.  The media and the public have this image of truckers as neanderthals who are uneducated, backwards and violent people.  You and I know they couldn’t be further from the truth.  In my experience, truckers are far more diverse and interesting than that.  While some drivers meet the public’s expectations, I know some highly educated, very smart truck drivers (and pilot car operators as well).  Some of them are highly successful business people.  The public doesn’t know that…so when they see reports of violence by and among truck drivers, they will believe that their opinion of truck drivers is accurate.

The protests are going to happen, regardless of what we say.  The violence likely will happen as well.  It is up to us to let the public and the news media know that is a very small minority in our industry.  We need to ensure that the public hears us as law abiding, hardworking people who need their help.    We need to promote nonviolence among our truck driving brothers and sisters.

If I am on a load I will follow the lead of the driver I am with.  I will top off all my fuel tanks on Monday so I am ready to go.  So long as there is no reported violence, I will support the protests.  Other than that, I can’t say.  It is a problem for me.  Maybe it is for you as well.