Trucker on strike TODAY Gas wars

[ruffryder]

It wouldn't be so bad if the Oil companies,,Weren't posting...

RECORD----PROFITS----Every quarter....

My bottom line goes down..while theirs keep going up,up,up,

As the consumption of fuel goes up every year and the cost of fuel goes up every year, record profits are going to be a direct result.

Fuel prices are going to stay high, get used to it.

 

[ruffryder]

So, what would be a good idea? what would make it better?

I own an excavating business and It costs me $1500/day for off road diesel now to run my equipment. much worse for larger companies. not to mention it costs $500 to fill up my triaxle dump, which will last us maybe 2 days. It has gotten way out of hand for people like me, which are very similar to the independant truckers situations. I could care less if I have to pay 2 more bucks for a gallon of milk, or that loaf of bread. I have to pay bills and these extra costs are impossible to recoup in this market.

So please, tell me what the solution is. something needs to be done. I support what they are doing!

You need to raise you prices, find ways not to use as much fuel and reduce costs, or leave the market. Only options I see.

 

[Good to Go]

So, what would be a good idea? what would make it better?

I own an excavating business and It costs me $1500/day for off road diesel now to run my equipment. much worse for larger companies. not to mention it costs $500 to fill up my triaxle dump, which will last us maybe 2 days. It has gotten way out of hand for people like me, which are very similar to the independant truckers situations. I could care less if I have to pay 2 more bucks for a gallon of milk, or that loaf of bread. I have to pay bills and these extra costs are impossible to recoup in this market.

So please, tell me what the solution is. something needs to be done. I support what they are doing!

Impossible??? bad business thought process. You see impossible, I see opportunity.

What to do?? Well, the solution sure doesn't include getting the government involved...anyone come up with one example of a bureaucrat actually improving the economy?

Let's put it another way: it's a free market as it should be. For those of us that excavate, we have two choices. Raise our prices to what it actually costs to do the work and make a profit (and do you really want someone telling you how MUCH profit you can make..?) or don't, and starve and live in your trailer. The customer at the other end, has a choice too: hire someone and get the work done, or don't. I personally would rather hire someone that was charging the price that will keep them in business long term...they usually do better work too.

And before those whiners start talking about how they can't get work if they raise the price, I say it's time to go work for someone else.

This bandwagon people want to jump on in knocking the profits the oil companies make is full of retards... Next, it will be the profits the grocery store makes, then the profits the dry cleaner makes, then the profits the paperboy makes... Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

 

[T-Bone]

I was listening to the Bubba the Love Sponge show on sirius yesterday, and they were playing clips of the ceo of exxon testifying in front of congress. He was asked in so many words why oil companies continue to raise fuel prices even though they're showing record profits.

What was his response you ask?

"Life's tough"

Take it for what it's worth...

 

[SNOW JW]

Ok you can only pass the buck so much before they just can't keep building or starting large projects that is why I am on the PC right now. We bid a job as cheap as we could would have been 2-3 weeks work easy for a bunch of trucks and the company just said they are going to cancel the whole deal so they shut it down for good. It takes 2-3 years to get large jobs going and for them to bid them and try to estimate the fuel is hard to do and also the prices of copper and other stuff *** well just a large trickle effect. So then after they just shut down a project it then is a also a trickle effect down from the truck drivers and dirt diggers to the plumbers then they can't go out buy as much from the retail side of things from the stores.

I agree you have to keep raising the rates to stay in biz but over time it's going to start to slow things down allot.

 

[Good to Go]

Snow JW,

yes, it does have an effect; but on the over all cost of a project, it's not insurmountable. You hit part of it I think, it's the rising costs of lot's of things, i.e. copper, steel, lumber. The world market is creating a huge demand on all the things we here in the US use, which in turn, obviously raises costs.

We do have an economic slow down, which I think has more of an impact on whether projects are a go or not. Investors are less willing to change their budget to start projects now, when prices come in to high. It's the nature of the beast. But for people to focus on one thing (fuel) is not fair (like life is fair..another subject).

I know everyone has different ways of dealing with increased costs. Prices that we send out are not good for indefinite periods.. more like maybe 30 days. And fuel surcharge is based on a percentage increase off of a base amount. If fuel goes up, the bill goes up.

 

[GODEEP]

We burn roughly 400 gal. of diesel a day avg. between all our machines we run on a day to day basis. I have been *****in even since off road went over 2.00 gal, but now im really ticked. We have cut down on our fuel usage some, made sure machines dont sit in idle as long, and installed idle controls on some machines. Yeah, in the scheme of things $800-$1000 loss per day due to fuel prices increasing to 3.89 gal for off road here doesnt sound to bad. well add that $1000 up on a job we are on for 6 months. lets say on a avg. of 20 days/mo runnin equipment. that $20K more a month in fuel X 6 months = $120,000.00. It adds up for sure. me *****in doesnt accomplish anything, and im sure nothing is going to change. but as SNOW JW said, this presents problems when bidding jobs. now the market is not as strong and there is a lot of competition where I am. lots of people who need work and are doing it at cost, just to pay their bills. This is just making it harder to make a buck. luckily most of our work is for our own development's, which pays the bills for now.

 

[GODEEP]

oops.. i made a mistake. just checked with the accountant(wife) lol. 360 gal. per day avg.

I was guessing, but I knew it was close to 400. but still makes for a big impact.

 

[Good to Go]

oops.. i made a mistake. just checked with the accountant(wife) lol. 360 gal. per day avg.

I was guessing, but I knew it was close to 400. but still makes for a big impact.

It's a huge impact on you... my point isn't about the impact individually. Obviously,those of us that burn bunch's of fuel get hit harder.. But the overall impact on any one job is not insurmountable. Pass it on. The economy of this country can take it, just might not like it.

And I wouldn't take a 'loss'... Certain jobs might turn less profit, a choice that we are always going to have to look at, but a loss?? Stay home and watch TV then..it'd save you money.

 

[jsledder]

Excavators around here are putting fuel surcharges on their contracts.

Work for cost??? You wont be in business long.

Us sorry suckers that have to drive hundreds of miles for fun don't have any way to pass that fee on to anyone, our wages sure as hell aint following the increase in all the products we buy.

Me and the accountant (wifey) sat down and figured out what we spent just to heat our house this year (wood pellets) and then we compared that to what it would have been if we used LP to heat all year..... I don't see how some people do it on the wages being paid around here.

 

[snowmobiler]

theres millions of independent truckers scraping by taking crappy loads from ripoff brokers.u cant just raise your price.

 

[GODEEP]

Excavators around here are putting fuel surcharges on their contracts.

Work for cost??? You wont be in business long.

You just dont have a clue... your not getting it bud.

I wont work for nothing, but others will!!! and if they are covering their payroll and all other costs, they will stay in business until work picks up. until then, these guys will get the work for their low bids.

With this type of market, you cant just add a fuel surcharge without pissing off the client or loosing the job. The kind of clients I deal with are large developers and they rely on these bids to be within a tight margin for their development loans.

 

[GODEEP]

here is an example. There is a developer I am very involved with and on one of their commercial developments, the bids were 2.5-3 million. they did not start that job or accept a bid and just recently sent out rebids to all the excavating businesses interested. Well guess what. some company came in at 750K who's previous bid last year was 2.5 million. guess what also. they got the job. That type of price is rediculous... and we are seeing this kind of stuff happen alot on these lare job bids.

 

[Good to Go]

here is an example. There is a developer I am very involved with and on one of their commercial developments, the bids were 2.5-3 million. they did not start that job or accept a bid and just recently sent out rebids to all the excavating businesses interested. Well guess what. some company came in at 750K who's previous bid last year was 2.5 million. guess what also. they got the job. That type of price is rediculous... and we are seeing this kind of stuff happen alot on these lare job bids.

That's a good example of frustration...and what does happen. It's also part of the free market. There is always someone hungrier. But most of them won't make it; they tank on the job, lose their iron, whatever. Mostly, won't make their payroll taxes. It's tough, but we can't have all the gravy and not expect and prepare for the tough stuff. Fuel prices are our latest challenge.

Personally, I don't mind watching some fool give a job away... 'cause when the market comes back, he won't be there which means less competition and better profit for us.

 

[rocketron]

I don't know the answer but, it can't be some or most of the diesel burners that shut down, it has to be all of them. That being said, it just aint going to happen, there will always be the guys that are holding by a thread that will pick up the work! Don't get me wrong, I have a good buddy thats in that position right now, and is scared he's going to loose everything. At the end of the day it's "TOGETHER WE STAND OR DIVIDED WE FALL!". Again, I don't know if this is right or not, but either way I'm zipping up my flame suit, (XP pinecone, exploding gas tank, broken driveshaft retardant) so fire away (remember fuel prices so go easy!!!).

 

[jsledder]

You just dont have a clue... your not getting it bud.

I wont work for nothing, but others will!!! and if they are covering their payroll and all other costs, they will stay in business until work picks up. until then, these guys will get the work for their low bids.

With this type of market, you cant just add a fuel surcharge without pissing off the client or loosing the job. The kind of clients I deal with are large developers and they rely on these bids to be within a tight margin for their development loans.

I get exactly what your saying and I was merely pointing out that excavators around here are putting fuel surcharges in place, just like the truckers/shipping companies/etc...
I was also pointing out that people cannot be in business long if they simply work for cost, one job can have one expense pop up that is not figured in that cost and put that contractor in a world of hurt if he is simply working for "cost". I wasn't saying YOU, yourself, Mr. Godeep, Godeep excavating, is going to go out of business... I was making a blanket statement. Sorry if you took it the wrong way BUD.

I'm not at all familiar with your company, or the company in the example, but perhaps his cost of doing business is less than yours??? Maybe their equipment is all paid for and he's just living the easy life??? Who know's, but there will be more bids and more jobs and the people that low ball bid stuff usually don't do it too many times in a row before getting burned and there is usually a reason why they low bid it and the end result will show with the quality of work and then word of mouth starts to work in your favor, if you do quality work then you'll get looked at.

Good luck..... If there was a book to read that had all the answers, it would be a best seller.

BTW.. what kind of work do you do? Roads, cable placement....? I work with a company that puts cable in the ground, does directional boring, etc.. and they are going through the same thing, so I kind of have a clue. They have lost bids to companies that hand in ridiculous bids, but the customer usually regrets accepting it.

 

[GODEEP]

BTW.. what kind of work do you do? Roads, cable placement....? I work with a company that puts cable in the ground, does directional boring, etc.. and they are going through the same thing, so I kind of have a clue. They have lost bids to companies that hand in ridiculous bids, but the customer usually regrets accepting it.

No worries. I was just fired up last night..

We do mostly commercial and residential development on our own from buying the land ourselves and developing it completely from start to finish,,, to.. Bidding on mid size excavating jobs in the 250K - 1m range.

I have large amounts of bills, so yes, there are people with less costs than me. my equipment is all less than 5 years old. we do the best quality work in the area, but for some reason, people would rather save money than look the best for their own jobs. but your right, i hear names from time to time being dropped about how bad a job he did and how many mistakes they did, etc.

just wish it translated more into them not even getting a chance to bid, beacause they just hurt the chances of the good guys making a buck.

lets turn this away from my business or yours or his. Im sorry to get this off topic. crazy how far these darn fuel prices will make us sway into so many different directions of frustrations.

Here's to a great year for all of us! what the hell. one more one kill us right?

 

[racingpit]

about ready to sell my truck
and go dumb and dumber style - 100 mpg

Hahah, but I bet you would save a lot of money.

 

[racingpit]

My Grandfather was a truck driver, my Father was a truck driver, and my Brother is a truck driver. My Brother had to get rid of his truck, and went to work for a company that provided him his truck and pays for the fuel. I think that the root of this problem is the brokers. The truckers shouldn't have to worry about the costs of fuel, as their pay for each load should be adjusted based on fuel prices.

 

[R J]

Bottom line is, we need to drill for more of it in North America ... and produce more of it in North America ...

A bit more to that bottom line is truckers need to stand together but in this day and age it won't happen. I bet the majority of owner/operators are simply thinking I can't afford to do that and so the circle continues. I would really like to see it happen, not just for fuel prices but to show people that still have a pair!