Bob McCarty Writes

Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The phrase above is often used to describe futile efforts to fix or save something already past the point at which it can be saved. While many of America’s independent truck drivers are fast approaching the point where their deck chairs are about to go overboard, some have already seen theirs slip into the water.

One is a friend of mine whose real name I will not use in this post. Instead, I’ll call him Roger.

A few weeks ago at church, Roger told me he had taken only a handful of days off since August 2007 in a valiant attempt to make ends meet at a time during which the industry is experiencing the highest fuel prices in history. Yesterday, I saw him at church again and asked how life was treating him. His answer was worse than I expected.

He said he had found it impossible to make a living and, more specifically, to make payments on his big rig. As a result, he had had to turn in his big rig to the finance company and was now unemployed. At one point, he confided, he had broken down and cried his eyes out over the situation. In short, his proverbial “deck chair” had already slid off the deck.

Though I’m confident Roger will bounce back (i.e., he’s already taken the initiative of enrolling in classes and is focused upon his goal of becoming a graphic artist), I’m worried about the fate of so many other owner-operators like him.

You might recall that skyrocketing fuel prices, costs of insurance and other factors had pushed many who count themselves among the truck drivers’ fraternity to stage a one-day shutdown April 1 (see No Joke: Truckers to ‘Shut Down’ April 1, How Will the Trucking Shutdown Impact You?, Truckers’ Shutdown Effort Produces Varied Results and Truck Shutdown Deemed ‘100 percent successful’).

Since then, many of the same truckers involved in the effort — including Dan Little, the Carollton, Mo., trucker who is generally credited with organizing the shutdown — have joined forces to form a new group, Owner-Operators United, to fight for their collective survival (See Owner-Operators Forming New Organization).

Here’s to hoping their efforts are not too little and too late.