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"A Savannah/Charleston port trucker association for the professional driver"
The (Intermodal Owner Driver Association, Inc.) is a non-profit association created by GA/SC truckers fedup with the same old intermodal system. We stand united to help the individual trucker fight for survival at the ports of Savannah, GA & Charleston, SC. The membership at these two southeastern ports welcome truckers elsewhere who also are willing to join forces with us in this battle to gain recognition within our marine industry.
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We are not responsible for individual comments or views on the forum. They solely are the right of an individual to express freedom of speech over critical issues. We will remove some post on advice of members who feel post are inappropriate behavior or mean toward others.
Each day hundreds of thousands of hard working truckers haul containerized freight across America. Most drivers just don't realize the power we have if only we unite as a group. Working together we can identify those unscrupulous trucking companies who continue to abuse labor laws, state laws, federal truth-n-leasing laws, and the rights of every individual intermodal trucker.
When motor carriers abuse our rights, they also abuse the public's trust by promoting unsafe operations. These bad carriers sadly attract inexperienced drivers who operate mostly unsafe junk equipment sometimes in a reckless manner.
However, there still are a few decent companies left who are just as unhappy about being undercut by the few rotten apples hauling freight as we are.
These deplorable bottom feeders that refer to themselves as legitimate trucking companies steal from owner/operator truckers like you and I on a daily basis. If every driver worked only for the reputable hauling companies we could rid our-self of the garbage carriers in the every harbor. The ocean shipping industry makes enough money to support good paying jobs from the shipper to the final customer destination. There is no excuse for any trucker to do cheap work at the seaport.
Working together as a powerful Army of organized drivers, we can run those bad companies out of town who continue to destroy our livelihood.
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"THE TRUCKER NEWS"
Pondering knotty port problems:
industry doesn’t really need crazy-quilt of rules
JUNE 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was evident last month during testimony
at a House subcommittee
hearing on the status of clean truck
programs at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
that some members of Congress are
contemplating changing regulations governing
the trucking industry.
What they want
to change is the Federal
Aviation Administration Authorization
Act (FAAAA), and as we reported
in the May 15-31 print edition of The
Trucker, it’s a long-standing law that codifies interstate trucking regulations.
Amending or changing the FAAAA to let ports and local government entities
regulate trucking on their turf would introduce a crazy quilt of rules that
change from
Port to port and municipality to
municipality, turning all of trucking on its ear just when
Freight is starting to pick up and
capacity is tightening.
The National Retail Federation asked Congress To reject
any attempts to change the FAAAA, saying it would devastate commerce
as we know it.
“Allowing the ports or other
local entities the ability to regulate rates, routes and service for interstate
and international trucking would wreak havoc on the commerce
of the United States,” the NRF said.
When the American Trucking Associations (ATA)
filed suit in 2008 arguing that port concession requirements were a violation
of FAAAA provisions
re-empting local regulation of trucking as a
violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause, the U.S.
District Court and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of ATA and
issued a temporary Injunction against the concession requirement. The
requirement
(at the Port of L.A. only) essentially
would phase Out owner-operators at the port and replace Them with carrier
employees.
The ATA has said
until it was blue in the face
that while it whole-heartedly supports efforts
to clean up air at the ports, phasing out owner-operators
has nothing to do with clean air, since the Port of Long Beach has accomplished its clean-air goals without banning owner-operators,
Indeed, several committee members expressed confusion during the hearings over what having company drivers or owner-operators
had to do with clean air.
The
line of questioning by other congressmen, however, seemed to be
worded as to elicit answers tying the two together.
For
example, in response to close questioning by Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman
of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the chief of the Port of
L,A. said if the ports don't have "legally set standards of our own" to regulate trucking, their clean air
efforts won't be "sustainable.
"His reasoning was that owner-operators can't afford new, cleaner trucks even with heavy subsidies and that carriers can.
Lin
Perrella, staff attorney with the Natural Resources
Defense Council said federal legislation
is needed to protect clean truck programs al ports across the country to "pave the way for local authority to address the [environmental]
effects of port drayage.
"Fredrick
Potter, director of the Teamsters' port
division, noted the notoriously low wages of port haulers and said they
shouldn't be saddled with paying for
cleaning up the air, He said the
Port of Vancouver has eliminated owner-operators
and mandated collective bargaining
with good results.
But it's my opinion that while
it's true that port haulers have
historically been underpaid and overworked,
changing the FA AAA would further impede
an already over-regulated industry.
The Retail Federation pointed
out that trucking
deregulation in the '80s was an attempt to eliminate the overlapping,
inefficient patchwork of local and state
regulation of rates, routes and
services.
They said the FAAAA pre-emption provision
"was enacted to make it absolutely clear that state and local entities
had no business regulating in this area, which is constitutionally
reserved to the federal government.
"Congress should eschew taking this dangerous step
that is
certain to have wide-ranging economic impacts onbusiness and
industry."
I’m not
saying the federal government has donesuch a perfect job of regulating
trucking or that the system at the ports is so great, And yes, independent port haulers
are grossly underpaid and jerked aroundby
many of the carriers for which they work and by the shippers.
And yes, they can barely afford to make a living, now, much less afford to buy clean trucks.
But to me,
these wrongs don't add up to a right, and I suspect ATA Vice President and Chief Counsel
Robert Diggs Jr. was right when he said forcing out owner-operators from
the
ports is a move aimed at unionizing the gross injustices committed
against port haulers have been going on for years and years, Have
congressmen just now developed a conscience about the plight of
port haulers, many of
whom are from underdeveloped countries?
I
wonder.
A source who used to be a Teamster and a port trucker told me he was shocked to find out
that the union really doesn't care about the individual owner-operators
and that they're using these workers' plight
to pave the way for unionizing not just the ports but "all cross-docking operations" and "distribution
centers," He was disheartened by it. He said at least it should be up to individual port drivers asto whether they' want to be independents or company
employees..
Nobody in their right mind would be against cleaning up
dirty air in the ports and consequently the residential areas that surround them.
And nobody should condone the slave labor like agreements under which port
hauler work.
But is it necessary to change interstate trucking regulations to
assure that pan haulers are paid a fitting wage to clean up the environment. I don’t
think so.
What do you think?
----------- Written by: Dorothy Cox E-mail: dlcox@thetrucker.com
<-- Dorothy Cox
****************************
BREAKING NEWS @ SAVANNAH PORT JUNE 2010
Port Trucker Staff ------------------------------------------------------------ It appears that Georgia port officials are now taking a survey on the year model of your tractor while entering the GPA port facilities. This is because they are being pressured by teamster backed environmentalist to get rid of truckers who have older equipment.
The nationwide labor backed Green coalition of environmentalist is seeking to take away your right to own a classic older model truck no matter what shape it's in. Actually this coalition wants to get rid of owner-operator truckers period just like what they are doing in California.
The GPA now wants to prove to the general public they are an environmentally friendly terminal facility by directing any blame to us for all air pollution. Their own incompetence at moving containerized cargo in a timely matter throughout their broken system is the number one cause of excessive idling by truckers. We don't have a choice but to run our engines while waiting to pull up in lines a few feet at a time.
As truckers we don't control wasted idling time each day which continues to be the norm for the Georgia port terminal operation. We don't make money while stuck in their bottlenecks throughout the terminal. Management could have, should have fixed these serious problems years ago but continues to ignore the long lines because of cost savings to them.
Remember it doesn't cost the port anything for you the trucker to sit idle most all day. That is a trucker problem not a GPA problem they tell us.
How many drivers do you know who want to be held hostage by the Georgia port for hours while searching for a road ready chassis, or waiting in M&R lines to have broken shipping line junk equipment repaired or held up in the terminal lanes to have a box mounted or demounted because of inadequate labor staffing or equipment shortages. The facts are most GPA manpower and equipment is constantly redirected to the ships while truckers wait in the container rows forever.
It's really incredible to imagine that our trucks could be bigger polluters than International paper, the Georgia Pacific paper mill, or the rest of the waterfront heavy industry where an evening smoke trail covers the low country of two states including choking out the Savannah wildlife refuge?
It's also amazing to me this port even considers mounting a green campaign against the small O/O trucker when they are operating not only lift equipment but also all GPA jockey trucks including the private vendor on port property with off road(high sulfur)diesel fuel. Maybe they had better clean up their own act before trying to blame owner-operators for operating older trucks.
The majority of our trucks are in better shape than most GPA equipment.
The Teamster backed Green Coalition group pushing this nationwide clean port truck campaign would have everyone believe we each own smoke belching environmental disasters killing children with our toxic fumes. The real truth is these folk are out to take away ownership rights not clean up air quality. That's right, they don't want you owning a small trucking business in AMERICA as a lease-operator to a motor carrier.
They hope to force each driver into company owned trucks making it easier to unionize everyone as a driver employee instead of an owner/operator trucker. This dangerous green coalition group has proven so far that they will use any means possible to carry out their plan including fixing statistics with falsified documents claiming everyone is dropping dead outside each port from diesel soot escaping from our exhaust.
If you wish to remain an owner-operator trucker or have the dream of one day becoming a small truck business owner you better be firing off some letters to your elected officials now?
Second law suit filed by another trucker against SC based Atlantic Trucking Company determines once again O/O's are employees of this major southeast motor carrier.
"SC Atlantic Trucking Company Owner/Operator is an Employee, Court Rules"
By Rip Watson senior reporter
2/4/2005
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that an owner/operator is considered to be an employee, the latest ruling in a continuing battle over driver status.
Judge Timothy Corrigan ruled in late December that an owner/operator was fired improperly because he refused to take a load. In addition, the court found the driver could not be forced to be part of an arbitration process to resolve the case. In the case of Charlton Bell vs. Atlantic trucking Co., Charleston, SC., the company filed an appeal on Jan. 5.
The court also said that the conditions of the contract (leasing agreement) between Bell and the company generally met a series of test that determines whether a worker is a contractor or an employee. Among the conditions were clauses that indicated Bell could not be forced to take a load he did not want to haul and couldn't work for competitors, according to court documents.
"While the contract's title and some of it's provisions signal that Bell was a true independent contractor, other provisions, particularly the non compete clause and Atlantic Trucking's course of behavior, denominate Bell as an employee,"Corrigan said in his ruling. The judge also found the company couldn't compel arbitration because a law called the federal Arbitration Act doesn't apply to interstate commerce.
Both the company and Bell's attorney declined to comment on the case. But ATA General Counsel Robert Digges told Transport Topics he didn't believe the court ruling properly applied the tests that are meant to determine wether a worker is a contractor or an employee.
Driver status has been in dispute in several cases involving FedEx Corp's ground unit drivers, which have continued in both state and federal courts, as well as for other motor carriers.
FedEx and other companies have won some of these cases, contending that workers are contractors, Lawyers for workers who are seeking employee status also have won in some venues.
Employee status for drivers continues to be an issue in Southern California ports, where the Teamsters union and environmental groups want drayage truckers to become employees.
The effort to change the current independent contractor status has been rebuffed successfully thus far by American Trucking Associations.
The Atlantic Trucking dispute began when the company directed Bell to pick up a load in Daytona Beach, Fla., in a cargo (high cube) container with one more foot of vertical storage space than standard containers. According to court papers, Bell was told none of the larger containers were available at the port where he went to obtain one. He then was told by an Atlantic Trucking agent to take the empty container to the customer, which refused to accept it.
The ruling said Bell than was told to take the empty container to Orlando, Fl which Bell refused to do.
Bell, who is African-American, also filed a racial discrimination complaint, claiming that a white driver had refused to take a similar assignment and kept his job.
THIS MAY BECOME A NATIONWIDE PLAN UNLESS STOPPED NOW!
"BEWARE TRUCKERS" -- Your right to truck ownership in America is on the line.
Here is what you as a trucker can do to fight the labor group Change-2-Win and the Teamsters new plan of lobbying Congress to change FAAA transportation laws. They want port management to have the power to implement an employee mandate banning the O/O trucker from hauling marine cargo within a fifty mile radius of the terminal operations. Yes, that's right. This group wants to make changes in transportation law that will open the door for their labor backed Green Coalition to pressure port authorities into requiring a clean truck plan that includes an employee mandate.
After many years of Teamster leadership trying to unionize intermodal owner-operator truckers their current plan now is just want to rid the industry of these truckers. You see it's legally much easier for the Teamsters to unionize company employee drivers on company owned equipment. They can do this without the legal implications of the independent contractor status that's associated with O/O's.
It's critical that you write, email, fax, or call your Representatives in Washington, DC. who are members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Let each member know we don't want FAAA laws governing surface transportation changed allowing port authorities to make trucking decisions that will effect our livelihood.
Contact Committee Members now, don't delay!!!
2165 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4472
Fax: (202) 226-1270
Members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
U.S. House of Representatives
111th Congress
Majority (2165 RHOB) - (202) 225-4472
Minority (2163 RHOB) - (202) 225-9446
James L. Oberstar, Minnesota, Chairman
Democrats
Nick J. Rahall, II, West Virginia (Vice Chair) Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon Jerry F. Costello, Illinois Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia Jerrold Nadler, New York Corrine Brown, Florida Bob Filner, California Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas Gene Taylor, Mississippi Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Leonard L. Boswell, Iowa Tim Holden, Pennsylvania Brian Baird, Washington Rick Larsen, Washington Michael E. Capuano, Massachusetts Timothy H. Bishop, New York Michael H. Michaud, Maine Russ Carnahan, Missouri Grace F. Napolitano, California Daniel Lipinski, Illinois Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania Timothy J. Walz, Minnesota Heath Shuler, North Carolina Michael A. Arcuri, New York Harry E. Mitchell, Arizona Christopher P. Carney, Pennsylvania John J. Hall, New York Steve Kagen, Wisconsin Steve Cohen, Tennessee Laura Richardson, California Albio Sires, New Jersey Donna F. Edwards, Maryland Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas Phil Hare, Illinois John A. Boccieri, Ohio Mark H. Schauer, Michigan Betsy Markey, Colorado Michael E. McMahon, New York Thomas S.P. Perriello, Virginia Dina Titus, Nevada Harry Teague, New Mexico John Garamendi, California Vacancy
Republicans
John L. Mica, Florida, Ranking - Republican Member Don Young, Alaska Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin Howard Coble, North Carolina John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Frank A. LoBiondo, New Jersey Jerry Moran, Kansas Gary G. Miller, California Henry E. Brown, South Carolina Timothy V. Johnson, Illinois Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Sam Graves, Missouri Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania John Boozman, Arkansas Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia Jim Gerlach, Pennsylvania Mario Diaz-Balart,Florida Charles W. Dent, Pennsylvania Connie Mack,Florida Lynn A. Westmoreland, Georgia Jean Schmidt, Ohio Candice S. Miller, Michigan Mary Fallin, Oklahoma Vern Buchanan, Florida Robert E. Latta, Ohio Brett Guthrie, Kentucky Anh "Joseph" Cao, Louisiana Aaron Schock, Illinois Pete Olson, Texas
L.A. Port is Trucking in Lobbyist to Help Unions
By FRANCISCO VARA-ORTA
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
At the same time the city-owned Port of Los Angeles is looking to lop off 10 percent of its employees, it has hired a big-name lobbying firm to try to change federal law that could help union truck drivers organize at the port.
The port has hired the Gephardt Group, an Atlanta-based consulting firm founded by former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt, for $50,000 to help on the matter, according to interviews and public records obtained through the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
The goal would be to loosen the law so the port could mandate that truckers who drive into the port not be independent owner-operators but employees of big trucking firms. As employees, the drivers would be able to organize as Teamsters, which they cannot do as owner-operators.
The port has tried to push through this employee mandate as part of its Clean Trucks Program. But the employee mandate is frozen by a preliminary injunction after a challenge by the American Trucking Association. The port has appealed; a trial is set for December.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer and supporter of the employee mandate, deferred questions on the lobbying matter to the port.
“The Port of Los Angeles is part of a national coalition that is educating federal lawmakers about needed improvements in federal law,” said Arley Baker, a Port of Los Angeles spokesman. “We are working with lawmakers to update the federal framework to allow ports to contribute to national clean air goals.”
The trucking community is especially paying attention to the lobbying. The trucking association views it as another attempt by the city and its port to push a union agenda.
“And they are spending money on lawyers and lobbyists at a time when 10 percent of their staff is supposed to be laid off soon. It just doesn’t look good,” said Curtis Whalen, an executive with the trucking association.
The move to change the law also doesn’t sit well with many other of the port’s business stakeholders, such as shipping lines and retailers, which say the port is overstepping its bounds and could set the stage for all ports, not just Los Angeles, to mandate various programs in each port that might drive up costs.
“It’ll be a nightmare to have a patchwork of regulations different at each port,” said John McLaurin, president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, a San Francisco-based trade association that represents the ocean carriers and terminal operators working at the L.A. port.
McLaurin said the act that Los Angeles wants to change has been in place for 30 years because it’s easier to have a uniform set of rules overseen by the federal government that allows for interstate commerce to flow more smoothly.
“I think the Port of Los Angeles is going to further alienate business by pushing this change,” McLaurin said. “I know our membership is discouraged by this.”
Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy for the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation, said many retailers and cargo owners that ship through the port are becoming weary of doing business in Los Angeles. His organization has co-signed a letter sent to transportation officials opposing any changes to the federal act.
“No one is opposed to the Clean Truck Program’s environmental goals, but I think we are losing patience with their tactics,” Gold said. “They should instead be focusing on how to better serve their customers.”
The port wants Congress to amend the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, or FAAAA. The law prohibits any political subdivision such as the port from “enforcing a law or regulation that would affect a price, route or service of any motor carrier” with few exceptions. That essentially prevents the port from enforcing the employee mandate.
Dual track fight
As the lobbying continues, both the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are awaiting a trial in December over a lawsuit brought against them by the ATA over some provisions of the ports’ Clean Trucks Program.
The program is a joint effort between the ports to sanitize truck emissions in the harbor where cargo is trucked in and out. The $2.2 billion effort essentially mandates that all trucks working at the port by 2012 meet low emissions standards set in 2007, among other guidelines.
The ATA favors the effort to require environmentally friendly trucks, but it strongly opposes the Port of L.A.’s plan to mandate employee drivers. It got that part of the program blocked with a preliminary injunction earlier this year.
However, the Port of Los Angeles has tried to characterize the ATA as opposed to clean trucks. The court decision “highlighted a crisis, that the trucking industry was misusing the FAAAA to block a first of its kind successful emissions reduction program,” Baker said.
Although both ports have similar clean truck plans, Long Beach is not seeking to require employee drivers, and it doesn’t plan to join in lobbying for a change to the FAAAA, Port of Long Beach spokesman John Pope said.
Gephardt, a longtime Missouri Democrat congressman and former presidential candidate, has longstanding ties to organized labor. His lobbying firm started working with the L.A. port in April.
In June, six members of California’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to the House Transportation Committee urging Congress to amend the FAAAA in the way the Port of Los Angeles wants.
“Despite the Clean Truck Program’s early and unprecedented success in emissions reduction and job creation, the program is under attack based on allegations that key components of the program are preempted under federal law,” the letter stated. “As a result, the FAAAA needs to be updated.”
Critics of the lobbying question why the port would pursue amending the FAAAA at the same time the port’s lawyers are arguing in court that the Clean Truck Program is able to move forward with the law as is.
“I think that says the port knows it isn’t going to win in court,” said Whalen, of the ATA. “I guess they figure if the law doesn’t help them in court, they’ll just help change the law in their favor.”
Whalen also pointed out that at the same time the port is telling lawmakers that the federal act is endangering the Clean Truck Program, they are also touting its success by announcing 5,000 clean trucks are on the road and more than half of its cargo is moved by those trucks.
“It’s a thin veil they’re using to get people to sign on to this without knowing their intentions of getting the truckers unionized,” Whalen said.
The money spent on lobbying comes out of the port’s budget, which is primarily supplied by the customers of the port.
Regardless, the time, effort and money spent to lobby for the employee mandate also comes at a potentially embarrassing time. The city has been struggling with a $530 million budget shortfall and has looked at early retirements for 2,400 workers. Likewise, port officials have acknowledged that they intend to cut their 1,073-person work force by 10 percent during the next fiscal year, but plan to enforce it through attrition, early retirements and by eliminating vacant posts.
Still, lobbying Congress is a common practice a city or state agency can use to push for something they want, said Mark Elliott, an environmental lawyer and partner at New York-based Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
“They aren’t prohibited from doing this but that doesn’t mean some won’t look down on it because lobbying has a negative connotation,” Elliott said. “From a strategy standpoint though, they are smart to pursue what they want both in court and in Congress. It just might rub some the wrong way.”
Despite the criticism, port officials defend their pursuit of amending the FAAAA, citing support from the ports of Oakland and New York-New Jersey, and environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club. The Teamsters also have signed on.
“We have a broad array of support from environmental, labor, local government, and private interests to pursue this,” Baker said. “The push to save the Clean Truck Program is well worth it.”
*** WEATHER NEWS ***
If you live in the South be aware. We have severe storms off our coast starting in June. It's time to start thinking about emergency preparations. Here is a link to a Hurricane forecasting site. There are more links in the trucker forum under your weather. http://stormadvisory.org/map/atlantic/
High winds at JAXPORT -- JACKSONVILE,FL. 8/13/2008
INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION A "RED HOT" ISSUE!
March 2009 -- This fiery accident could happen dockside at any port with the amount of dangerous goods stacked on board these large ships. An explosion or fiery accident may also take place at any time within the huge stacks of containerized cargo piled high at our waterfront terminals. Our own safety as well as that of thousands of US citizens who live near seaports depend on the quality of people the maritime industry employs to work in our intermodal transportation system. Those who provide transportation services to move the products, some of which are very hazardous, are a critical link in a delivery chain to make sure we have created a safe zone from port terminal to the final destination in any direction. Owner-operator truckers as well as company drivers need to be treated with dignity and the respect they deserve for the fine job that the majority do each day of the year. August 24th to the 30th is (Driver Appreciation Week) so let's do our part to recognize those hard working individuals who keep the freight moving at our ports. Together as a trucker group we need to continue work on a campaign to change this maritime industry in order to attract more professional owner-operators or company drivers who are willing to raise intermodal standards in the fastest growing business in the United States of America. The choice to own your own truck or drive for a company should be your choice alone not that of any special interest group, port, or government authority. The real issues are clear. We all know what needs to be done to make maritime transportation more efficient, safer, and more profitable for all concerned.
________________________________________________
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Don't you just love waiting in line at your favorite terminal?
Truckers' boycott affects gates at Port of Savannah
By Joseph Bonney / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE April 4th,2008
The Port of Savannah reported a sharp drop in truck gate activity Friday as scattered nationwide protests continued by truck drivers angry about increases in diesel fuel prices.
"During the last two days, we've experiences about a 50-percent drop in gate moves," said Robert Morris, spokesman for the Georgia Ports Authority . Morris said port gates remain open and that the slowdown in truck activity has not caused significant problems within the terminal. "We expect that by Monday that the situation will be back to normal."
Demonstrations by truckers were reported Friday outside state capitols in Richmond, Va., and Columbia, S.C., but spokesmen for the Virginia and South Carolina state port authorities said they had seen no evidence of trucker boycotts on port gate activity.
Keith Liverman, a Savannah driver who last year helped organize the Independent Owner Driver Association, said many truck brokers who hire drivers to haul containers to and from port and rail terminals aren't passing along all of the fuel surcharges paid by their customers and by ship lines. He said drivers can't keep operating that way with diesel fuel prices around $4 a gallon.
Liverman said drivers are circulating petitions urging state or federal legislation to require all fuel surcharges to be passed on to drivers who buy their own fuel.
"This is a broken industry, and if they don't fix it, they're going to be out of trucks," he said. "They're running these guys off left and right. I know we're probably not going to be able to do anything about the price. Our big issue is the surcharge and the fact that we're not getting all of it, and we need it."
REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT MORE NEWS STORIES ON NEXT PAGE
(Savannah,GA)
Each day hundreds of thousands of hard working truckers haul containerized freight across America. Most drivers just don't realize the power we have if only we unite as a group. Working together we can identify those unscrupulous trucking companies who continue to abuse labor laws, state laws, federal truth-n-leasing laws, and the rights of every individual intermodal trucker. 
"THE TRUCKER NEWS" 
<-- Dorothy Cox
The 
