The Pickens Plan and Stimulating America
The trucking industry is changing or at least let’s say that it better change. Thousands of trucking companies went out of business in 2008 and many more are still struggling to hold on. New CDL drivers right out of school are discovering that there are few openings available for recent CDL graduates with little driving experience. Many drivers are finding themselves sitting more than making the wheels turn and of course, the age old problem of “cheap freight” is still going strong.
There are still those trucking companies out there that continue to treat drivers as nothing more than a number … just something that they can toss away when they are ready to move “old” drivers out and bring in lower pay earning truckers. At least the days of $4.67 per gallon diesel is gone, but for how long? All it will take is just one little ‘blip’ on the Middle East radar screen and we will be right back to the high cost of petroleum fuel.
Many professional truck drivers can read the writing on the wall . . . but can the trucking companies? There are millions of Americans out of work and who are one step away from being homeless. The Government is spewing out trillions of dollars, more so than ever in history, and still . . . there are no jobs. Exactly what is being done to really bring America back where it once was and should be? Where are the factual ideas and innovations that will get this country moving? Millions of people are waiting . . . millions of Americans are hoping.
Yet, hope is not enough. It takes action. It takes partisanship, which sadly, we do not see from any of our “leaders.” No matter what the idea is, there are always those who prefer argument over logic. If we do not start looking for solutions toward the future, and then begin implementing those solutions, where will this country be taken to?
TruckerDesiree writes about The Truck Stop of the Future and sums it all up better than anyone I know. The Pickens Plan is an innovation for the future. Is the Government really serious about limiting our importing of foreign oil? Instead of shelling out billions of dollars for a Cash for Clunkers program, why are they not gearing up for this plan that is a viable and very doable solution? The Pickens Plan is actually a “stimulus” plan that will stimulate! Imagine that?
The Cash for Clunkers program was a success. Or was it? The first part of the plan was suppose to last through November, yet the first monies were gone within two weeks. The number of new autos sold in the two weeks were the same amount sold in an average year. Now, two billion dollars more is being considered to add to the plan, yet, the number of auto dealers associated with the program only averaged between 12-16 new sales each. I hardly consider this as a stimulus.
Instead of building an impossible debt for our children and their children, why are they not working toward a real, stimulating plan that can get America moving again and get the people of this country back to work?
Allen Smith
© 2009, AskTheTrucker. All rights reserved.
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Tagged with: cdl • cheap freight • drivers • graduates • the pickens plan • the truck stop of the future • truck drivers • TruckerDesiree • Truckers • trucking • trucking companies • trucking industry
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