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2008 Soap Box Archives Trucking I
just recently made a 1500-mile drive across one of our major interstates, something
that I do quite often, but usually in a bus. The amount of trucks on America's highways is absolutely astounding. Mile after mile, hour after hour, big trucks going in both directions, carrying the goods that keep America running. Every gallon of fuel, every box of diapers, every pound of bacon, every can of soup, practically everything we use in our daily lives at some time since its manufacture has been loaded in or on the trailer of an 18 wheeler. On the several fuel stops we made the price of gasoline is atrocious but the price of diesel fuel is even higher. Several cents higher for a fuel that costs the petroleum companies less per gallon to refine. Now market analysts and the financial talking heads on television will tell you that it's just market forces driven by demand. I have another name for it, it's gouging, driven by greed. There is no other reason to charge the exorbitant prices for diesel fuel except that the oil companies know that the truckers have no other choice but to pay their greedy prices. The oil companies take no pity on anybody, all they care about is the bottom line. They may think they're in charge but I've got some news for them. If or maybe I should say when the truckers of America have taken as much of this gouging as they can stand, when it gets to the point that they can't make a living paying these prices, they may decide to shut this country down for a week or so. The good side of that is that a week with the trucks out of service would practically take away the demand for diesel fuel and the market would be glutted with the stuff, with literally no place to keep it. The storage tanks at the refinery would be full, the ships in the harbor would have no place to offload and the oil companies profits would start falling like a rock dropped off a skyscraper. Of course the down side of this scenario is that just about everybody else in this country would suffer too. The grocery shelves would be empty within a matter of days. You may wonder how the truckers would achieve this. Well let me tell you something, don't question their ability to do it. Imagine, if you will, a line of 18-wheelers driving in both lanes of all the major interstates at 45 miles an hour, slowing down traffic from coast to coast. What could the law do about it, bust two thousand truckers simultaneously? Or if they decide to really get drastic all they have to do is block the diesel tanks at every truck stop in America, which is easily done by pulling those big rigs up to the fuel islands, locking up the air brakes and just letting them set there. It's been done before. The truckers are one of the most powerful commercial forces in America and when big oil companies have pushed them far enough they have the power to put a hurting on us all. As the owner and operator of three diesel vehicles I have first hand knowledge about what the price of diesel fuel does to a bottom line and what really burns me up is that money that could be going into the pockets of my employees is going into the pockets of greedy oil companies. There could well be a day of reckoning, and if it happens don't blame it on the truckers, they're just trying to feed their families. It ain't gonna be pretty. Pray for our troops What do you think? God Bless America Charlie Daniels February 25, 2008
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