ANP has detailed, multiple times, exactly what would happen if trucking stopped, no food or water on the store shelves as most grocery stores do not have enough in stock to run more than a few days without deliveries, and if there is a run on stores, as has happened during severe weather events, we have documented that within one day some stores are almost emptied of survival and basic food supplies such as milk, water, batteries, etc.....
With that said, and knowing the ramifications of how much damage a truckers strike would have on the economy, and the inability of those unprepared for disaster to survive for long, I am still saying, it is time for a truckers strike, since no one is paying attention to their dire circumstances, there pleas and their warnings of what is coming on December 18, 2017.
The issue is the ELD Mandate set to be enforced starting December 18, 2017, and while the 19,000-member group “ELD or Me” held nationwide rallies on December 4, 2017, notifying media, giving interviews, some of which will be seen below, it appears that "big business" and the national media, are completely ignoring them.
Local media reported as I can find articles and interview clips, but nationally, they are being cast aside. Understand that 97 percent of trucking companies operate fewer than 20 trucks, yet it is the other three percent of bigger companies that are behind this mandate that will actually come out on top, while these smaller businesses all are forced to lose money.
Via American Trucker in an article titled "Small business committee becomes the latest ELD battleground":
ELDs “are promoted as ‘silver bullet’ solution for highway safety despite distinct lack of evidence,” he said. “In reality, they are economic weapons for driving smaller competitors out of the market like me by increasing our operating costs.”
Wiederhold added that the ELD mandate is expected to cost the trucking industry $1.8 billion annually. “It is the most expensive regulation in trucking history,” he said.
He said there are currently 200 different ELD models avaibale ranging in price from roughly $100 to $1,000 per unit. “Then have monitoring fees, $30 to $40 to $50 a month. As a small business, a fleet like me; we’re not going to realize any savings from that,” Wiederhold noted.
However, he did point out that larger fleets can generate savings from ELD adoption. “They’ve got it figuring fuel taxes and cost of operations for them [and] some will actually gain money [by using] the technology,” Wiederhold noted.
He said one large fleet that said in Congressional testimony a few years back it would save $182,000 in one year using ELDs, which included the reduction of data transmission costs by $11,000 and the elimination of a $55,000 back office position.
“We won’t realize that,” Widerhold stressed – in part because his wife is the one managing his trucking company’s back office needs.
“The trucking companies I talk to are pleading to stop this mandate,” added Marty DiGiacomo, owner of True Blue Transportation out of Harrisburg, NC, who testified on behalf of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies.
“They just can’t afford a $700 GPS device with $30 to $50 monthly fees. Trucking always a fluctuating business; you cannot depend on everything staying same all the time,” he emphasized. “No one size fits all – you cannot work that way in trucking; we have crane companies, tanker fleets, towing and recovery, and food service operators. You cannot put one set of guidelines in place and run electronic logs for everyone; it will create a nightmare, havoc, and a lot of extra cost.”
While the ELD devices are being cast as a method to make conditions "safer" on the roads by electronically monitoring each mile on the road for truckers, no actual data has been presented to prove the assertions that it would make anyone safer, but the even bigger issue here is that whether the truckers are on the clock or not, these devices will be monitoring every movement they make.
As can be heard by a woman interviewed locally, she doesn't just use her truck to long haul, but the truck is her home as well, so it would be like the government telling any one of us that they have the right to monitor our movements in our own home, keep track of every person we visit, every stop we make, even when not "on the clock." Think about that, and listen below as the news reporter states clearly the ELD devices will monitor where these truckers are "at all times."
It is a massive violation of these truckers constitutional rights, treating them like criminals, even if they never even received a violation or a ticket.
Another man from the Fresno rally explains why this will force consumers to pay more for goods, and could cause some deliveries to slow down to a crawl:
Had these electronic devices been mandated only for those that have received multiple violations, it would be a different story, but these devices will violate the rights of law abiding citizens, the very people that put the food on those grocery shelves, and in our department stores, medical supplies to pharmacies, gas to the pumps, money to our banks, etc....
Via Truckers News, linked by Steve Quayle with a note saying "SQ-STAND WITH THE TRUCKERS AGAINST THIS 'ORWELLIAN CONTROL OF THE DELIVERY OF GOODS'. PARKED TRUCKS=EMPTY STORE SHELVES."
Pat Valenti, an owner-operator from Buffalo, New York, said he will be staying home when the ELD mandate takes effect unless things change by the Dec. 18 compliance date. An owner-operator for 20 years, Valenti said it’s not just a question of “ELD or Me,” a slogan associated with the anti-ELD movement.
“Having to have a GPS location on my truck at all times is an infringement on my rights,” said Valenti. He said he understands the need to keep track of his hours, but adds, “where I was is nobody’s business but my own.”
According to American Trucker, a little less than a third of trucks on the road are currently equipped with the electronic logging devices, meaning over two-thirds of the truckers on the road right now, are not equipped and would have to be by December 18, 2017, or risk huge fines, or forced to park their vehicles if they cannot comply.
The truckers feel as if no one is listening to them, the national media is ignoring them, and as one of the rally organizers, Doug Hasner, an owner-operator from north of Watertown, New York, stated, "The Congress is not listening to us. The president is not listening to us. The media is not listening to us."
So perhaps it is time for those smaller companies that are about to get slaughtered by government over-reach and regulations that benefits the mega-carriers while threatening to destroy smaller trucking companies, to strike, park their trucks, refuse to deliver their goods, which will guarantee the mainstream media's attention, Congresses and the President's, because when the trucks stop...... so does the economy.
Sure the mega-carriers will continue running their hauls, but are they the ones that deliver to YOUR grocery store, are the big businesses carriers the ones that make sure you have meat, food, produce, toilet paper, etc..... or is it one of the 97 percent that makes up the majority of the trucking companies?
The truckers, like the ones speaking above have less that two weeks to either comply, allow their rights to be violated by being monitored 24 hours a day, or to risk violating the law, or to simply quit doing long hauls. They should use that time wisely, since the rallies didn't garner any attention, since the courts have turned a blind eye to them and since the government is allowing these onerous regulations to threaten their livelihood, perhaps they should speak with their trucks.
Park them.
Maybe then Americans that can't get their food and supplies for the week, will finally stand up for them, speak out, call their Congress people, and help them get their voices heard all across the nation.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and December 18, 2018 is literally the end for some of these hard-working Americans that cannot afford to comply with the EDL mandate, yet cannot feed their families without the work.
