High fuel prices hit home

[deere755]

I work for a small trucking company. We have 15 trucks and about 15 lease trucks Monday of this week our boss announced that because of high fuel prices he was going to cut back to 5 trucks and lay off 10 drivers effective July 31st. He is also cutting out all lease trucks. He said he kept thinking things would get better but he can no longer hold on. He eliminated all over the road drivers. Lucky for me I have enough seniority to stay and I am also a short hauler home everyday. We also have to pay more for our health insurance which I am glad to still have. If he decides to lay off again I could go next. I farm a little to but not enough to survive off of it. He said the company has been struggling for about a year and he felt it was time to make some changes. First time I ever saw the man get emotional. I am afraid we have not saw the worst of it yet.

 

[ultrarunner]

Difficult situation... especially when you've worked with the drivers being laid off.

Lots of cut backs here in the SF Bay Area... the only good thing I can say about fuel is that it is still available without having to line up on odd/even days to buy 10 gallons under the rationing of the 70's.

Part of my family is in the Auto Business and the old timers remember what it was like in the 70's...

I work in Healthcare and every year we have to reach a little deeper from our paychecks to pay for Health Insurance...

Have you got a back-up plan on what it would take to take care of your family and keep the farm going?

I think people in the cities will have it much worse if things get really bad than folks in rural America...

 

[charlz]

I think people in the cities will have it much worse if things get really bad than folks in rural America...

Right up until they move out to the country looking for food etc. ...

 

[Birdhunter1]

I hear ya Deere, sorry for the bad nes and I guess it also doesn't help that our Governor has been "so good" to trucking companies!

I work for the state and farm too, there is talk about layoffs around here as well and I believe I'll be safe as where I work they can't really cut us and still run this office 24/7. But the way the boss explained it to us "it's a big turd sammich and everybody has to take a bite."

 

[oldmech]

Hi! I think we must change our lifestyle. Get smaller engines in Cars Trucks and tractors. Use BUS and Trains . Gaz here $5.51 US Gal. Diesel $6.00. I use less for mowing. I Ride less.
FOR NOW . I think OIL PRICE will GO DOWN to $75 or less in NEXT six Months from over $140 now.
We must import our oil. A lot of money Quit our country.
We must look for other energy. As electricity . Coal or nuclear etc. Good Luck . Oldmech

 

[Willl]

Or sooner.

 

[charlz]

Well, the prices _could_ come down simply because they can't go up anymore. We are already hearing of a drop in demand numbers for the US. _IF_ the current runup is largely a result of speculators as soon as something other than oil (stocks, other commodities) looks profitable and oil appears to flatten they may take their money and run. This would 'burst the bubble' and send oil prices crashing. However, I doubt you will see gasoline sub $2/gallon again, we have proven we will pay $4/gallon and 'whatever the market will bear' is always a factor in pricing.

We seem to have a 'perfect storm' going on in the economy.... mortgage credit crises, high fuel costs, looming credit card crises (how is everyone financing the expensive fuel?) these factors have slowed things down enough for job cuts etc to start happening.... sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I was a kid during the 70's stuff, then the 80's 'recession' and now this born at the wrong time I guess

 

[Bob_Young]

Well, they've gotta start drilling and they've gotta start searching for oil in the 'protected' areas. You're not going to find oil if you don't look and you're not going to get oil if you don't drill where it is. Even if this doesn't put new oil on the market immediately, it WILL start taking wind out of the speculators' sails.

We've got to have some confidence in our ability to protect the environment while obtaining the resources we need....can't succeed if we don't try. Avoiding mistakes by doing nothing is the road to extinction.

As a kid who worked in a gas station in the '60s and pumped gas for under $.30 a gallon, I truly resent how our bureaucratic and political classes have turned this country into a disfunctional basket case when it comes to natural resources and manufacturing. High fuel prices will do virtually the same thing to our country's agriculture...is that their goal?? Other than treachery, there is no reason for what we're going through other than political cowardice and a failure of will.

Do you think drilling ANWR, drilling the continental shelf, and developing the oil sands should be the subject of a referendum, or are you willing to let the politicos decide that for you? Remember, these are the same folks that can't manage Social Security and got the mortgage crack-up rolling while, at the same time, telling us that they should be managing the environment.
Bob

 

[charlz]

Looks like we are getting closer to thread closure

I saw a mention somewhere that lowering the value of the dollar may be/have been a political maneuver to make the US more export competitive. The lower the dollar the cheaper it is for people to buy our products. Agriculture products being chief exports. However, it turns out that a weak dollar causes money to flow into oil. Oil and its derivatives are a primary input into Ag.... thereby driving up the prices of Ag products.

The law of unintended consequences????

 

[machmeter62]

After a lifetime in the Golden State of Calif.; I see a lifestyle change for many in the form of mass transportation, for the daily long distance commuters here? Many must drive a total of 200 miles/day round trip... to/from work. Their on the freeway at four AM, and return at eight PM, five days a week. Spending as much time in their car, as they do at their affordable homes? The freeways are a "70 mph parking lot" too!

One can look at used cars here, that are only a couple of years old, with 150,000+ miles on the odometer.

I think more fuel is necessary, but this nation is very wasteful also? The goverment being the most wasteful, because of no accountability? This was from my observations of a 5 year tour in military aviation only! If the quarterly/yearly fuel allocation was not consumed; we were issued an aircraft to fly to no-where, and written of as training?!

I think fuel will always remain expensive, just as it has in other nations? Calif. decided to add a sales-tax, several years ago, on top of the other taxes here, when fuel was less than $1/ gallon. But all the politicians have been quiet about that issue; which adds almost $ .40 to a gallon now!! (If a little does a little good; a lot will do a lot of good!).