President Bush puts through legislation that could change the life of trucker's across the country.

I was under the impression that there was some sort of trucker shortage. I could be wrong of course - but just judging by help wanted ads it seems that there is either a shortage, a very high turnover rate or both

There is a high demand for truckers. There are some companies that are not good to work for as they stiff truckers and do not pay them well at all and those are the companies that have a high turnover rate are always placing the ads.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for publishing this!

I published an article in December about this coming and I got three comments. I deleted the article because I realized that no one cares. I hope this country wakes up before we are nothing more than a Bannana Republic.

The ultimate plan is to have ALL imports offloaded in Mexico, by Dubai Ports Inc., and shipped into the US with Mexican trucks. This will not only effect the truckers. The Long Shoremen, the warehouse jobs and tens of thousands of other shipping related jobs, will be transferred to Mexico.

The trucks will be inspected by Mexico and exempt from DOT safety regulations. Billions of our tax dollars are already commited to the infrastructure to make it work and the Dubai Ports is running the show.

Remember Dubai ports buying US ports? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/09/AR2006030901124.html

Strange that Cheney's Halliburton just moved to Dubai! The largest defense contractor is now a Dubai company, not an American company. But thats another story in itself.

It is not JUST bush. It is almost every politician in office, selling this country to the highest bidder. Chances are your local water treatment and highways are for sale too.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50938
http://www.gcrg.org/bqr/6-3/nafta.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p08s02-comv.html
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15763

Thank you for posting this. I have just written to my congresspeople about this.

I don't understand how Bush can single-handedly put this into effect. I heard a report about this on NPR a few weeks ago - they said that many of these truckers are on drugs to help them drive over extended periods of time and that they would not be held to any of the laws/guidelines that US truckers have to.
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People keep saying that impeachment is useless at this point in Bush's term. When are people going to start to wake up to the fact that this man can do a LOT of damage in his remaining days in office?????

Thank you Jimmy for the added input.. my husband is a trucker along with several family members and this is a big deal.

Sheryl... no many truckers are not on drugs the help them drive over the road for the extended hours they work.. Some might be due to loads having to be at such and such place at a certain time period and they do not let the trucker reset his hours. So, instead of a trucker driving 10 and off 10 or something like that.. they may only be able to get a 4 hour nap before hauling again for 20 hours before they get another sleep period.

It is not the fault of the truckers... it is the places the companies get the loads from that require the loads to be on time or the truckers sit for days... when the truck ain't moving you ain't making money is the saying..

and you are right he an do a lot of damage in his last days in office because it does not matter anymore what he does .. he is not up for re-election and his head is not on the block.. I wish there was more that we could do to impeach him now.

thanks for sharing

Yes, that's the whole idea behind the neocon dream of New World Order. One global state, no middle class, just rulers and serfs. So far, it looks like their evil agenda is right on schedule, and too often when you try to make people aware of it they get ruffled and call you a left wing radical. Go figure. At least I notice some states are putting their foot down about the NAU. (Once they had the privilege of even FINDING OUT about it since it was all signed in secret.)

Yea I noticed alot of things are signed and done in secret.. then we hear about it afterwards...

America is not what it used to be and it is only going to get worse as they get closer to making their one world govt.

Thanks for sharing

http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2007/Mar07/032607/033007-01.htm

here is another link to some more information on this article..

Trish, I know this may be off-point here, but you said that your husband and some family members are truckers. Can I take a moment here to say "Thank You!" to them? I mean, besides being a tough job and them doing so much to keep this country going, I am also personally grateful to them.

A few summers ago I flew out to Seattle to help my daughter pack up her things and fly home (we live on the East Coast). She had bought a 2nd hand car at the beginning of the summer in Seattle to get her around during her internship at Boeing and was planning on selling it at the end of the summer. Well, she didn't get any offers and really loved the car, so I decided to leave a little earlier than she was able to leave and drive the car home myself. My husband was not happy about it, but I saw it as an adventure. I had been to many areas of the US, but had flown to those places, never driven across country.

Long story, short - I drove across Route 90 from Seattle to Boston over the next 5 days through all kinds of weather and the truckers on the road were my guardian angels. I can't tell you how many times I relied on driving right behind a truck to make my way through driving rain and pea-soup fog. They must have known I was right behind them - many of them waved at me as I passed them once out of danger. It was such a blessing having them as a guide during these times.

Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate them and what they do.

Thank you Sheryl.... yes it can be quite a treck across that part of the country.. and a lot of those truckers are going from west to east and back and forth each week bringing loads back this way.. you can be assured that if you do not see alot of trucks where there should be..check the weather as they may have taken an alternative route to avert weather.

I am glad you felt you could trust truckers like that... many people cannot trust them or they cause hazzards for truckers.

Very Interesting. I was not aware of this. I'm going to click on the link to find out more. Thanks foir the info Trish!!!

Your welcome... I just found out today myself and wanted others to know about it.

Trish,

I am as concerned about this as you are. My husband being a trucker too. Truckers are good people. They are concerned about the rules. But there are companies out there that want their drivers to push it too far. They are the ones that have a hard time getting and keeping drivers. My husband worked for one of those companies for 8 weeks and that was too long. The good companies can be hard to get into. My husband waited 6 months to get into a good company. If the big companies would respect their drivers there wouldn't be a "shortage". Which there really isn't. Lately companies have had a hard time getting loads. So this is the lobbiests trying to drum up business for big companies.

Truckers get paid by the mile. So in order to make a living they have to be moving. The regulations make it hard at times too. So relaxing the regulations for Mexicans would be stupid. People complain now that there are too many accidents involving truckers. Triple that number at least if Bush gets his way. We will be reverting 20 years of truckers regulations doing this. The trucking industry is safer now then it was even 15 years ago.

Please support truckers. They keep this country moving.

Just another example of how our government is destroying our country..one citizen at a time....

My uncle was a truck driver for many years. Thank you for sharing.

I am in total agreement with you Kristen...

Dave.. you said it so well in so little words.. thanks..

Your welcome Karolyn.

Thanks for sharing! I will forward the link on.

Thanks, Trish. And thank your trucker from me, too. My son is home for this weekend and we will be talking about your information, I'm sure. He is at his third trucking company in three years. This one seems to be a good fit for him. They work very hard to get him home when he asks. They respect his family issues and the need to accomodate the drivers. Without our truckers, we would have nothing in any of our stores. What at national disaster that would be.

I agree totally Deb... My hubby too has gone through 3 companies in 3 years till we found the local company that hired him and we just love the company.

I don't know any truck drivers, but I have seen plenty of accidents with them. Especially around my husbands parent's home. They live on a very steep hill with lots of bends. A lot of drivers don't slow down there, and greatly regret it (if they are alive) afterwards....

Bush is going to ruin this country completely before his term is up.

Driver turnover according to the ATA is 300%+ annually. We are just not satisfied! Companies send thousands on training, recruiting and orientation but fail to listen to the requests and voice of the driver. I ran a trucking company back 1987-2002 where we learned to listen. Our turnover dropped to 10% annual. Small changes can make big differences. Yes there is still a driver shortage due to the DOT HOS rules. A driver today is less productive than one 5 years ago if they run legal. The Mexican driver is not our enemy. He is just doing his/her job same as a Canadian driver or anyother driver. Every year we import hundreds of drivers from all around the globe to work as an "American" driver to ease our shortage but yet we still fail to answer the need. The DOT proved that the Mexican driver from the 100 select companies that were allowed in the US, had higher safety rating the US driver. (http://thedotdoctor.com/the_dot_doctor_speaks) Let just each do their own job out there and stop being concerned about the name on the side of the truck. Stay safe and make the company listen to your needs.