ON STRIKE:
Local trucker parks big rig in hopes of relief
By Elizabeth Billips lizbillips@yahoo.com

Veteran trucker Richard Inglett stands next to his parked rig with his grandson Ryan. Although he doubts the strike will reduce fuel prices, he hopes it will foster legislation requiring agents to pass fuel surcharges on to the truckers. Staff - Elizabeth Billips

When Richard Inglett's big rig is parked, so is his paycheck.

But last week, the Sardis trucker turned off the ignition, made a homemade sign and joined a shutdown staged by independent drivers across the country.

"It costs me twelve hundred dollars to fill up my tank, and I do that three times a week - it's killing all of us," he says as a passing trucker blasts his horn in support. "I'm seeing plenty of truckers getting out of the business … and plenty who are stuck in it because of debt."

Inglett knows about debt. When he invested $65,000 in his truck and flatbed, the move from a company trucker to an independent one seemed like a wise investment.

Now, diesel prices are eating away his profits and casting doubts on his 22-year profession.

"We're looking at a truck payment, insurance, toll roads, road taxes, fuel taxes … we're already taxed to death," he says, noting that a 5,000-mile trip demands around $4,000 in diesel. "I may only make four or five hundred dollars on a road trip now … and if I blow out one tire, it can cost me the whole paycheck."

Inglett's wife, Tiffany, sits behind a desk inside their Highway 24 home, calculating figures and searching out short runs that will keep her husband close to home.

Diesel prices are bad enough in Georgia. A fill-up in California or Washington would cost 50 cents a gallon more ... an extra $150 right out of his pocket.

She shuffles through papers and wishes aloud that the strike could have been bigger and better organized. With independent operators moving the bulk of America's freight, a stronger stand could have brought the nation to its knees - especially in areas like New York where food supply was estimated at 10 days.

"Not everybody can afford to park, and we completely understand that," she points out. "We can't afford to either. But we are anyway."

Inglett spends his downtime taking care of routine maintenance and repairs on his rig. No matter what the year brings, he'll be stuck with it - and its monthly $1,500 payment.

State highways and driveways are already glutted with big rigs for sale - but buyers are few and far between.

"They can't sell them ... it's worse than the housing market," he says as another truck horn sounds outside. "In fact, it's tied to the housing market. If people aren't building, we aren't hauling their materials."

While the nationwide strike is aimed at protesting high fuel prices, Inglett says he'd be satisfied with legislation to funnel all fuel surcharges into the pockets of independent truckers - instead of their agents'.

According to Inglett, when high diesel prices kick in, big companies typically tack a surcharge onto their shipping payments to help compensate for expenses.

For a $400 job, the company might add on as much as $100 to help with fuel.

"It should go straight from the customer to the driver, but the agents aren't passing it on," Inglett said, explaining how independent truckers rely on agents to act as middlemen between them and the large companies. "The agents have got us by the neck, and there ain't no bargaining. They know there are desperate truckers out there who will roll for a lot less money."

A few miles up the highway at Jackie Lovett Trucking in Alexander, the wheels kept rolling all week.

Owner Johnny Lovett says his company was largely unaffected by the strike, despite concerns he had about the safety of his drivers.

"A lot of our loads were headed close to ports, like the Port Authority in Savannah where trucks were lined along the sides of roads," he said.

He worried about road closures and hostile strikers but found neither.

"It was business as usual," he said.

That was also the case at A&W Oil Company in Waynesboro.

While the strike didn't directly affect business there, company officials say they, too, feel the pinch of the diesel prices behind it.

"We absorbed the cost to a point but eventually had to raise rates," company spokesperson Chris Sylvester said, noting that fuel costs for distributing and transporting petroleum products are up nearly 100 percent from this time last year. "It's astronomical ... we definitely feel the squeeze."

Sylvester said that since A&W operates on contracts, shutting down for the strike was simply not an option.

"But I certainly understand," Sylvester said. "I sympathize with all the truckers who did."