The American Driver's Goals, beyond the current fuel price issue...
1. Transparency in the trucking industry. Professional drivers are currently kept in the dark to the charges being paid by the shipper, and therefore are forced to accept what is being offered.
-- We are currently contacting several legislative assistants and all representatives involved with the TRUCC bill, reinforcing the need to get this bill passed. As well as contacting every other representative with information (emails we receive from drivers, articles and reports in the media regarding this issue as well as any pertinent info we can find...such as forum posts and blogs.) We are also trying to educate, and locate, representatives to initiate legislation that mandates transparency with legal action titles when violations occur. We haven't seen anything yet that ensures transparency within the trucking industry, only mandates of what needs to occur. It does no good to state that 100% of the fuel surcharge is to be passed to the person paying the fuel bill if there isn't any safeguards to ensure this is happening, with penalties for violations. For those that don't know...the fuel surcharge legislation was instituted after the '73 shut-down, and in that legislation it state's the person paying the fuel was to receive the surcharge.
2. Establish a minimum rate based on price of fuel. (establish a bottom line) Since the de-regulation of tariffs in the early '80s...this is what professional drivers should have done, instead of allowing the brokers/companies to take over and dictate rates.
-- This is an educational goal directed towards drivers, especially the new age drivers coming from non-trucking families. We believe professional drivers should establish a minimum rate per mile, instead of the brokers dictating the dollar per mile. We currently are approaching, emailing and calling when possible, drivers open to discussion about dollar per mile rates with our opinion of what all professional drivers should be doing. This will be a goal only accomplished through long hard work. We feel this to be very important to changing the attitude of cooperation between professional drivers, as well as the way the industry is controlled by the brokers. Without drivers - brokers have no business.
3. Lumping needs to be stopped NOW.
-- It's illegal due to the labor act in the '30s and again by the 1980 Motor Carrier Act (de-regulation.) It hurts the American economy/jobs. It supports illegal immigration. Any shipper or receiver in the shipping and/or receiving business needs to be able to ship and receive. It's their responsibility to supply the manpower and equipment. It's their responsibility to load and unload their product they are profiting on. Professional drivers are in the transportation business, not the shipping/receiving business. We have been trying to educate our representatives regarding this issue. We assist getting info out to drivers when class-action suits (SuperValue most recently) to aid in getting as many drivers involved as possible.
4. Get legislation to mandate FMCSA's inclusion of uncompensated hours at shippers/receivers.
-- The lost uncompensated hours caused by shippers/receivers is outrageous, and is the leading cause for non-compliance of HOS regs. The need for this issue to be dealt with is extremely important. We have been, and are still currently, trying to educate our representatives regarding this issue. We are pursueing other avenues as well (developing relationships with union reps [ILWU], watchdog groups and any other organization which could aid in getting our government's attention regarding this issue.) Also, it has become obvious that receivers are utilizing professional drivers as warehouses...by leaving them sit with their product on trucks without compensating the trucker. This is an issue which will be hard to convey this activity to representatives, but it needs to be addressed as well.
5. Stop our government from opening our borders and bringing in immigrants to fill American trucking jobs.
-- NAFTA, the Cross-Border program, Special Work Visas, the CDL Licensing of immigrants prior to becoming an American Citizen or even the lack of understanding english...all these are unconstitutional and destructive to America. We have been attempting to influence, and educate, Americans regarding these issues. We aggressively contact our representatives about these issues whenever any bill on the calender is related. We do not pursue shoving these issues into anyone's face, only look for openings to present the information...and then cautiously at that. These are all issues the majority of citizens, both professional drivers and average joes, are not aware of the truth, or have already formed an opinion, and will square off in the corner regarding their understanding of what the deal is with each issue and what needs to be done.
6. To take our federal governments power back, severing the control the elitists have on it, and return it to the true owners...The American People.
Issues regarding our infrastructure (toll roads, leasing of our roadways, the continual attack on drivers by governmemt entities regarding our right to drive...it's no longer a priviledge.) Issues regarding our country (the protection of our borders, the allowing of illegal immigrants to remain and utilize our system [ie. the pell grant, which US citizens are not qualified for, gives free money to people from other countries], the legislation being passed that never assists the citizens which really need assistance.) Issues regarding our federal governments abuse of our system (the big salaries our federal representatives pay themselves, the continued refusal to do anything effective for our citizens, the constant attention being paid to other countries infrastructure and economies, the abusive waste of our tax dollars, the incompetent management of our tax dollars and systems, the subversive methods to hide what our government is doing, the control of our society's media [digital conversion], the manipulation of our constitution to fit their agenda, the violation of our rights to effectively control Americans, the abuse of our judicial system.) The list is huge, and the goal here can only be achieved through the one single effort of all American citizens taking an aggressive stand to enforce our constitution. These are achievable, but only with great sacrifice.
7. To regain the respect and brotherhood that once existed within the trucking industry.
-- My grandfather, uncles, cousins, brother and an aunt, as well as myself, have been in the trucking industry for many years. My grandfather and uncles were around during the days when truckers were looked upon, and respected, as Knights of the Highway. Since the early 80's our government has been a force in destroying what once was. We are constantly attempting to reach out and educate truckers, and citizens, about the ethics that used to exist within the trucking industry. This goal, being one of our main goals when we started our endeavor over two years ago on the internet - and still is - will be one of the most difficult to achieve. We know this, but we continually pursue achieving this goal.
We started out over two years ago with our main site to assist drivers. We decided to stop talking about...be about. We feel our progress has been steady and strong. We've been able to get the attention of many citizens, some representatives and quite a few movers and shakers. We have managed to get our site linked to Landline Mag, Pilot Challenge Mag, several trucking sites, advocate sites and many blogs...without advertising and before we became heavily involved in the fuel price issue. Since April 13 we have succeeded in attracting over 66,000 visitors to our sub-domain attempting to organize Americans regarding the issues at hand. My brother and I were the major reason for the American Energy Production Act of 2008 to become a bill, even though the Democrats voted it down...we consider this to be a major accomplishment towards our endeavor to bring about change. We continue to provide information on our site to educate Americans (currently the main focus is on oil, but we continue to attempt to educate in other areas by making pertinent info available.) We push - we offer to assist - we support where ever support is warranted - we strive to influence action where action is needed. I feel my actions here on this site warrants what I'm trying to relay in regards to our progress.
We feel, and promote, each and every American's need to communicate with their representatives at least once a week, as well as any representative involved with action that will affect them. We believe a need to organize in one place (network) is critical to the success of taking our country back. Every single American needs to reach out to each other and communicate openly, and honestly...to allow those wanting to make an effective change to identify those which don't care. We want Americans to use their power of the consumer to make statements to the companies raping America. We want people to show their support by placing signs in their yards, signs in their vehicle windows, emailing their family and friends regarding these issues, contact their local media (as well as national media) about how they feel, send suggestions and info to legislators regarding what they feel could make a difference, start paying attention and get educated with what's happening to our country, make a stand - participate in actions - and commit themselves to take that stand until something actually gets done. We want Americans to actually read our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. We want Americans to read, learn and apply our rights according to our constitution. We want Americans to...
STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT!!!
-ss-
ps: sorry guys, but she asked for this...lol
