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Self-Employed Truckers Fear For Survival In Long Haul

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By ELLEN SIMON The Associated Press

Published: March 1, 2008

Trucker Robert Griffith is on the road three weeks out of four, pulling oversize loads such as crane booms, railroad ties and air-conditioning ducts. One of his biggest worries: how he'll find the money to buy his daughter a prom dress.

As the cost of diesel doubled during the past four years, his take-home pay has plummeted, from $50,000 to $11,000 last year. He's literally burning money; he spent $64,000 on diesel in the past eight months. Since he canceled his satellite radio, he's on citizens band radio constantly (handle: Instigator) talking about what needs to change so truckers like him can survive.

"I had to learn to live totally different," said Griffith, 41, of Lebanon, Tenn.

No more $150 family outings to Shogun sushi. No more weekly washes for his truck. No more health insurance for him and his family.

"It hurts," he said. "I'm a man who's trying to make a living for my family and I'm not succeeding."

Working To Fill The Fuel Tank

Trucking's owner-operators, the self-employed drivers who haul everything from Hummers to hay, are suffering. Many say they're running on the edge of bankruptcy, about to disappear unless they get help. While a wave of trucking failures now might be invisible to consumers, when the economy rebounds, it would push up shipping rates and, as a result, prices.

The housing downturn and decreased consumer spending have cut into loads; the extra trucking capacity is pushing down freight rates. Diesel prices have hit such highs that Truckinginfo.com runs ads for thief-stopping fuel-tank locks.

"If you can run all week without a flat tire, you're a little bit ahead, otherwise, you're basically just running to put the money right back into the fuel tank," said trucker Benjamin Stanley, 40, of Spotsylvania, Va. "Truckers are in the same spot farmers were in a few years back."

Nassau Asset Management repossessed 110 percent more trucks in 2007 than it did in 2006, according to president Edward Castagna. And it's taking less time to pick up a truck, which he sees as a sign that there's less work to keep them on the road - and out of a reposessors' reach.

"It used to take weeks, now it takes days or hours," he said.

Industries that depend on independent truckers, like logging, are starting to suffer. Maine Gov. John Baldacci declared a civil emergency at the end of November, speeding fuel tax reimbursements for logging truck operators and asking the Department of Transportation to identify roads that could tolerate logging-truck weight, allowing truckers to take more direct routes and save fuel.

About 9 percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers are independent owner-operators, according to the Department of Labor. Without the independents, the industry will turn into a group of "regional and national oligopolies" that would send shipping prices higher when the economy improves, said John Saldanha, who teaches logistics at Ohio State University.

Rumors of a nationwide truck strike are a nearly annual occurrence - but this year an effort in January generated more talk than usual on MySpace and the Sirius Satellite Radio show "Freewheelin'."

"If you eat it, drink it, wear it ... sit on it, if it is anything other than the air you breathe, an American truck driver made it possible!" wrote trucker Joe Misilewich of Norwich, N.Y., in an e-mail. "Don't forget it! Without truckers, America is nothing!"

Nanette Jenkins Rudd, 40, a third-generation trucker based in Mapleton, Ill., kept her five trucks off the road the week of the strike.

Like other truckers, she's hoping for government help. "The government stepped in and helped the farmers when they were in trouble," she said. "Why? Because the farmers feed America, the farmers put food on the table. But who do you think delivers that food?"

Middlemen Defend Practices

Truckers say they want caps on diesel prices, or tax credits for truckers, as well as increased regulation for the middlemen who broker loads.

Independent truckers are increasingly dependent on the brokers, who match shippers with drivers one load at a time, taking a cut for themselves. At one of the country's largest brokers, Landstar System Inc., revenue from brokered loads was $881.57 million in 2007, more than double what it was four years before. But the company said it paid less for transportation in fiscal 2007, while its revenue per load was nearly flat at $1,612.

Jim Gattoni, Landstar's chief financial officer, said payments were lower because volume was lower. Drivers carrying loads from the company earn between 80 percent and 90 percent of the value of the freight they carry, he said, depending on the weight and complexity of the load.

"Our margin, at the end of the day, is 7 percent," he said.

Griffith, who's been driving for 20 years, stopped working with brokers six months ago and started hauling specialized loads, which pay $2 or $3 a mile more than standard.

Not that it's helping.

Three-quarters of his pay is going to fuel and maintenance, up from half in the past. And how much work he can cram in is regulated, with the number of hours he can drive capped by federal regulations at 11 a day, all of which must be recorded in a log book.

"People will say, 'Run harder,'" he said. "I can't run harder. You can't run beyond your log books."

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