All hail the Not-So-Free Market!

This sucks the only way to solv this in a proficiant way is to lower taxes, but that means the govenment is going to find there taxes elsewhere. I hope they dont mess with my food. Cigerats are already being taxed in nutty ways and so whos to know where it will take effect? I guess only people in the government that has been put in change of solving this little problem has any idea of whats going to happen.

Hecateus, I'm not sure what you mean. Trucks are being punished at the pump because long-haul trucking is inherently wasteful. What we're seeing is a free market push away from trucks and towards trains and other more efficient methods of transport.

The conservation movement is not helped by subsidizing or bailing out wasteful industry.

Best quick fixes for oil addiction:

1. Privatize roads and railways, and cease public road building. Pay-per-use roads will relocalize consumption goods and promote urbanization. (Of course voucher privatization direct into taxpayer hands is the only acceptable kind.)

2. Eliminate the 'ad valorem' property tax. Zero-impact / subsistence living is simply impossible under the inescapable burden of this rent. While we're at it, we could afford to toss out zoning regulation too.

The truckers could try driving something truly streamlined, not those wasteful cubes. Even the 'streamliner' series of current rigs are very big and not smooth. They could double mileage with a new body design or some smooth outside canopy.

MedowDweller, the best way to solve this problem is to RAISE taxes on fuel to fund the alternatives.

Anything else slows down the inevitable switch, and makes life harder for people for longer.

Not that it'll help the truckers out, (it may actually hurt their business), but buying locally grown/made products means it doesn't need to be shipped to get to you.
Central PA has some of the largest trucking firms in the country, but also has some really great farmer's markets. :)

I work in an office doing Accounts Payables amongst other things, and the trucker argument puzzles me. EVERY freight bill I've received in quite some time has a fuel surcharge added to the base rate. We the consumers are footing the bill for the fuel regardless of who pays for it at the truck stop.

Ben Schiendelman, the 'best way' is not to raise taxes on fuel, but to convert all public roads to be funded 100% pay-per-use - and ideally share-privatized into the hands of the citizenry that funded their existence until now. Let the market set both prices tax free.

I work in an office doing Accounts Payables amongst other things, and the trucker argument puzzles me. EVERY freight bill I've received in quite some time has a fuel surcharge added to the base rate. We the consumers are footing the bill for the fuel regardless of who pays for it at the truck stop.
Mark says:

Mark, you company is doing business with a trucking company which is intelligent and run properly. My brother is an independent driver and started adding a fuel charge a couple years ago to his bills. Consequently he did lose some business as customers went to other truckers. However many of the drivers who did not, ended up losing money on their loads and he knows many who have had to go out of business and sell their trucks. Not all companies would pay a fuel surcharge, and not all truckers instituted one, this had lead to the crisis in the industry, prices on many items have not increased with transportation costs, but it will happen. Also many large truck fleets buy fuel in bulk so the immediate fuel cost increases do not show, right now many of the companies are running out of their reserves and will have to buy at the new higher prices and that again will drive prices of consumer items up or truckers out of business.

Meadowdweller says:

"This sucks the only way to solv this in a proficiant way is to lower taxes"

Hmm. It looks like you're basically assuming that the price of oil will go down again.

What if it doesn't? Then governments will be out of the revenue, and the price of diesel will continue to rise.

We've seen high oil prices for the past several years now. Can you remember when gas was $2.50 a gallon? That was a few years ago, wasn't it? If you were in government, would *you* make that assumption?

Maybe the government will make that assumption, and cut gas taxes. Maybe that revenue will never come in again and the roads that those taxes are supposed to pay for will decay and cease to be usable. In which case, they would just completely screw the truckers. Even if the price of fuel comes down, those truckers wouldn't be able to get anywhere.

But honestly, perhaps long-haul trucking should go away anyway. It's many times less efficient than shipping by train, for only marginal time savings. I'm sure that the truckers wouldn't be so unhappy if they spent less time away from their families because they could only get jobs doing short-haul regional work.

Sorry truckers, but you're feeling the wrath of the free market. If you're not making any money trucking, find something else to do--ask the UAW, they're experts on that. If there are fewer truckers, trucking rates will go up, and the other ones will be able to make money.

"The truckers could try driving something truly streamlined, not those wasteful cubes. Even the 'streamliner' series of current rigs are very big and not smooth. They could double mileage with a new body design or some smooth outside canopy."

Where do I send FedEx to pick up your wind tunnel model to verify these claims?

If it were that easy, why wouldn't Kenworth or somebody do it and get 100% of the truck market share? People have been researching this for years with only minor improvements, and most of them impractical in the real world.

Unfortunately every truck has to be backwards compatible to the standard loading dock, and support the use of people or fork lifts unloading, so lower height equals longer loading and unloading times.

My 2 cents:

1. Increase fuel taxes
2. Leave the strategic oil reserve alone
3. Fund research into better aerodynamics for long haul trucks. The DOE recently threw a measly $1million at this. If we spent ~$100million on this we could save $billions in fuel annually.
4. Long haul trucks are inherently wasteful and their use should be reduced. The market is currently making that evident.

Hybrid trucks.

JC:
Walmart has increased it's truck efficency since 2005 by steamlining, mild lightweighting, APUs, and using more efficent tires. They expect to double their trucks efficency by 2015.

Definitely agree fuel taxes do NOT need to be lowered. Why artificially ease the pain so that we can put off solving the real problem?

I am all for improving the enviroment as much as possible, but I come from a family of truck drivers and I believe that it would work to just get rid of trucks and ship everything by train. First of all the railway is not designed for that and would have to be expanded and repaired. not to mention the millions without a job, and not just the drivers, there is also the owners, dispatchers, mechanics, salesmen, factory workers, customs brokers, and waitresses, cooks at truckstops, what about the consruction workers that make the roads, the list just goes on and on.
There are also the items that cannot be made or grow locally that would probably spoil by the time it got there by train, then there are items that are to large to haul on a train, can you imagine a combine which is needed to harvest the local fields fitting on a train, it would never work.
I know that it is nice to dream about it, but it is just not a logical option. The economy could never handle that number of unemployed people.
Maybe in the future trucks could be converted to an alterative fuel, but they will be around for a long time.

Some service providers and manufacturers like UPS, Chilectra, Coca-Cola, Domino's, Guru Beverages, Googlehave shifted to EVs for at least some of their transporting requirements. I can see that more will have to go that way.

Definitely agree fuel taxes do NOT need to be lowered. Why artificially ease the pain so that we can put off solving the real problem?

A tax is never the answer, just as war is never the answer. Both are lingering diseases from our savage past. It is very sad to see any tax being advocated anywhere. Sustainability and conservation are not compatible with forced confiscation.

Roads are insanely expensive scars across the planet. Let their users pay that cost fair-and-square through 100% tolls, 0% tax. Let the whole world operate this way and watch it heal.

"AMERICA IS STUCK ON STUPID"

You might spare a thought for European motorists - on today's price at the pumps I paid an equivalent $8.60 per gallon for fuel (mainly due to gov't tax of over 60%). This may also explain why the average car engine size in the uk is between 1 & 2 litres. A big, powerful pick-up truck in the uk would probably only have a 3 litre engine. Why do American car owners still insist on a 6 litre V8 monster to drive the kids around in? I bet a 1 litre car would be sufficient for 80% of average americans...

Trucks are here to stay! In a world of online shopping, people expect shipments from one side of the country to arrive at their dock/door within days. With loading and unloading times, trains will never be able to accomplish this. Without a significant price break, people will never choose rail over trucks.

The people who are complaining are owner/operators, not large companies. Until you hear Schneider National, Roehl or any of the other larger companies talking, nothing will happen. They are the ones driving down shipping prices and they are the ones making it almost impossible for independant owner/operators to survive with rising fuel prices.

I believe the best way to lower gas prices would be to arrest and charge CEO's of Exxon, Shell, and Chevron with extortion and running a monopoly operation. They will be held in federal prisons until gasoline prices are lowered and reset to a more appropriate value to reflect the TRUE value of gasoline, around $1.50 a gallon. We'll need to follow up on that by requiring auto makers to make hybrid, more fuel efficient, alternative vehicles. Last, we'll need to pursue economic sanctions against oil rich nations such as Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, both who support hostility towards the United States (Especially Saudi Arabia with its links to terrorism), and reenforce these sanctions with the possibility of preemptive military action.

The trucking industry needs to push to make trucks more fuel efficient. Where are the milage standards for long haul trucks?

As far as fuel goes we need to reduce our dependence on oil and the oil cartels by producing an American fuel, made by Americans for the American trucking industry.

American truckers need to support bio diesel fuel as a competative product for diesel. If farmers can get together to support crop prices and invest in ethanol plants then truckers can get together to support bio diesel production and distribution.

It's our dependence on a few oil companies and a few major suppliers of oil that has put our nation in the choke hold of high oil prices. We need to begin using alternative fuels and provide some competition for BIG OIL and the middle east countries. We can not afford to keep sending our dollars overseas to countries that are using our money against us. Our national security is at stake. We need a strong bio fuels industry in America. This will provide American jobs producing an American fuel for an American trucking industry..

As long as Big Oil call the shots and makes the rules, the motorist have no rights to complaiin about $4. gas..
Unless they are willing to step up and question elected officials.
View:
http://www.patrioticallycorrect.org/

We made it easy to pressure politicians and get answers.

How about the complaints and protests go to some of the ones in charge? Like, say, OPEC........ Here's their contact page!

http://www.opec.org/home/contact/contact.aspx

Here ya are folks, complain away! :-D

Open up more areas to drill for oil. You people that are wanting fuel prices to raise so users will go to other modes of transportation are living in a dream land. If you would put a sign on you fore head that you are a tree hugger you days on earth would be short

We're not stupid but what can we do. Don't expect people not to drive to the point that the oil companies start to hurt. People will curtail driving habits a bit because of these prices but not enough to get things changed. And don't expect the feds to do anything either because there is a lot of windfall tax revenue from these increased prices that they reap the benefit from. The oil cans know that the life of oil is limited - maybe about another 20-30 years and they want to get as much as they can out of it till it dies.

So demand is demand and the oil companies know you got to buy one way or the other. Don't expect them to be good corporate citizens where profits are involved. Would you if you were in their enviable position?? It's obvious that the oil bunch reached a consensus that they can rake us for what ever they want and are cooperating with each other by suppressing competitive activity between them - you know, it's bad for business (I wonder if there was another meeting of the commission at Appalachia in upstate NY). I am certain they are feeling out for a pain point now and you can be certain it's going to get a lot worse.

Here's what you can do. Exxon/Mobil is the biggest profit taker of them all and is probably leading this assault so they are the ones that need to be targeted. You have to use boycott creatively. People need gas - they need to drive so don't expect them to leave their cars at home and use a bicycle or the bus. It ain't gonna happen. But what you can do is buy your gas anywhere else but Exxon/Mobil or anyone who is supplied by Exxon/Mobil. The way to win is to single out one of the oil cans to show the others what can happen to them if they play these games. The beauty of it is that it fucks up Exxon/Mobil in a way they can't easily recover from. Oh sure, they will lower their prices temporarily to get you back and many people will take advantage of that but the moment they bring their prices back up, you boycott them again. They are constantly running a deficit because they can never make up for the losses of gas sales sold at lower prices and if the boycott is widely respected by americans, the only way Exxon/Mobil can sell gas is if it is at lower prices than the others. They will be forced to keep their prices lower which will force the other oil cans to match up with. When that happens, Exxon/Mobil gets boycotted again and the downward price cycle starts all over. In the mean time Exxon/Mobil retailers will start jumping ship further aggravating the backlash situation for Exxon/Mobil.

I think it can work if the boycott gets good enough traction but I am a busy business man who really would like to but can't afford the commitment to make this thing work. It needs someone who can spend some time getting the word out . Please send this plan to whomever you think can help get it rolling.

Albert