Dozens, not thousands, show up for DC trucker protest

[highplainsdem]

Source: Fox News

A trucker protest aimed at clogging the Capital Beltway around Washington to protest government "corruption" was not shaping up to be quite the commuter nightmare organizers had threatened.

As of Friday morning, dozens of tractor-trailers were said to be on the road as part of the protest convoy.

Virginia state police say they stopped four tractor-trailer drivers on the Beltway, pulling them over after they began driving side-by side across all four northbound lanes of the Beltway in Fairfax County.

Their actions slowed traffic to about 15 mph. Officers warned the drivers not to impede traffic and did not write any tickets.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/11/dozens-not-thousands-show-up-for-dc-trucker-protest/

[Kelvin Mace]

1. Way to bring down the man

[nolabear]

2. Oh we got a mighty convoy...oh wait, not so much.

[nolabear]

3. The rest are home trying to get onto that damned ACA site.

[modrepub]

4. Anyone who drives on the Washington Beltway during rush hour in protest

deserves the full measure of their insanity!

[pam4water]

5. Yaay. I hope they all get arrested. I can' wait for the tea party-ers to figure out their shut down

may reduced their social security benefits via cuts to the chain CPI. Of-course that require a tea party-ers to figure something out so...

[munster69]

6. Truck drivers demonstrating for the rich elite

Hoffa must be rolling over in his grave, wherever that might be.

[lunasun]

16. HA ....a dozen or so but many are happy union folk

[GreenStormCloud]

24. Very few long haul truckers are unionized.

The ones you see in the video are almost all less-than-load or local delivery truckers.

[lunasun]

31. true long haul is hard work too

Had a friend lasted 2 yrs max and said adios

[GreenStormCloud]

32. I was a long haul driver for about 4 1/4 years.

I loved actually driving the truck and seeing all 48 continous states and some of Canada, but otherwise the lifestyle sucked.

[lunasun]

33. Yeah he had some stories and travel but the lifestyle sucks is right on

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. There are dozens of us! Dozens!

[Shrike47]

8. It sounds like dozens is an exaggeration.

More like 'a few', who are now driving away pretending they didn't participate at all, like a cat who does something clumsy.

[Lifelong Dem]

9. More family member Republican supporters

[Zorro]

10. That's one sure way to win commuters over to your position

Not.

It's about as smart as the rock group that blocked the 101 in LA during the rush hour with a truck and proceeded to play their instruments to promote themselves.

[Xyzse]

11. Don't laugh, I was afraid that they would tie things up and make my awful commute even worse.

You have no idea how happy that makes me.

[Mz Pip]

12. In other words

Just like any other rush hour Friday.

[lunasun]

13. FOX Link with great comments

[awoke_in_2003]

14. They didn't write tickets?...

why the hell not?

[Faygo Kid]

15. Love that it's Fox News: Here's yesterday from Fox:

"Another shutdown? Some 10,000 truckers expected in DC" http://video.foxnews.com/v/2733702982001/another-shutdown-some-10000-truckers-expected-in-dc/

Why am I guessing we won't see all day in-depth reporting from Fox News from this event that they hyped?

[durablend]

17. They'll take care of it

They'll just photoshop in 99,000 (give or take) more trucks into the photos.

[Downtown Hound]

18. I'm actually surprised

Dozens is more than I thought they'd get. LOL.

Sure showed me Repukes.

[Rebellious Republican]

19. I think more sensible truckers got to them, namely the Teamsters....

Probably made them an offer they could not refuse! The only ones that did show up were probably a few dumb ass rednecks...

[GreenStormCloud]

21. There aren't any unionized long-haul trucking companies any more.

The power of the teamsters is long gone. The only unionized companies are a couple of less-than-load companies.

[Rebellious Republican]

23. Thanks, I did know that, I am old, my how things have changed.

[A HERETIC I AM]

36. 3 of which just happen to be among the largest carriers in the country.

Yellow/Roadway, ABF and UPS.

But your point is correct. The vast majority of truck drivers in this country are not members of a labor union.

[GreenStormCloud]

37. None of those you named are long-haul companies.

Yellow/Roadway & ABF are less than load carriers. UPS delivers packages. I will explain what that means. A receiver orders three lawmowers. ABF picks up the three mowers, takes them to a sorting terminal where they are loaded onto a truck going to that state. Upon arrive they are taken to another terminal where they are loaded onto local delivery trucks and taken to the store. The driver then picks up a trailer loaded with various shipments going back to his home terminal. Rinse, repeat. The driver covers the same route, back and forth. Getting them together for union business isn't too hard.

Irregular route, long-haul. Driver picks up entire 53ft trailer of frozen peach pies (35,000 lbs) in Macon, GA, takes them to Los Angeles, then gets load of ice cream to Salt Lake City, then gets load of bread (4,000lbs) to St. Louis, then spare parts to Maine, them blueberries to Los Angeles, then something else to Seattle, them to Miami, etc. Each load is one entire trailer full and goes to one receiver.

There are no irregular route long-haul unionized companies. The driver for a 48 states carrier can live anywhere in the 48 states and still drive for a company that has its main terminal anywhere in the U.S. One of the major carriers is Schneider National and their headquarters is in Green Bay, WI, well off the beaten path, yet their drivers live everywhere. Of course they have terminals scattered all of the country. The point is that trying to assemble such a company's drivers for a union meeting is impossible.

[A HERETIC I AM]

39. Jesus H fucking christ, I've been an OTR truck driver for 26 god damned years!

and drove my first tractor trailer in 1978.


Sorry, you probably had no idea, but it chaps the living fuck out of me when someone tries to tell me things I've known since the 1970's.


BTW, this statement; "The driver for a 48 states carrier can live anywhere in the 48 states and still drive for a company that has its main terminal anywhere in the U.S." is not true for every 48 state carrier. Some won't even talk to you unless you live in their "hiring area".

[uncle ray]

28. more like the power of "os shit, i don't wanna lose my CDL!"

in other news, i see the Convoy torrent is doing well today. i guess they all stayed home to watch the movie instead.

[Rebellious Republican]

35. forsure rubber duck!

[GreenStormCloud]

20. As predicted by many Duers, it flopped.

At first this was supposed to be a national strike of all truckers. LOL.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. One for each attendee

La-who Sa-her

[Plucketeer]

25. PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTT.......

The sound of the air going out of these thousands of truckers!

[Myrina]

26. Why is their phiosophy "I'm going to be as big of an asshole as possible"?

... both them and the Nut Baggers.

Do they really think that will win people over to their side?
Make people want to VOTE for & take direction from them?

Teh Stupid, it hurts!!!

[PatrynXX]

27. don't know many Political truckers

they don't have time to be political . High paying job but no life and usually has an accident on the record because some idiot thinks when they get into the left lane (like one did today) oh why not pass them on the right (do'h ) thought for sure I was gonna see another accident. again not a job I'd take although probably take it before Mining

[uncle ray]

29. truckers are political.

maybe not Dem/Rep political, but their job is highly regulated by the federal gov't, so they have quite an interest in how the gov't affects them personally.

[freshwest]

30. Officers warned the drivers not to impede traffic and did not write any tickets.

Hello? They were keeping the speed in all 4 lanes down to 15 mph to impede traffic and they let them go?

[IronLionZion]

34. We hardly noticed they were here. Today was a very rainy day

with some accidents on the beltway. But these truckers had circled the beltway and left by 11.

[Sunlei]

38. so police warned 4 trucks not to impede traffic and -protest over-

republican tea party another fail

Their republican media will probably publish a picture of 4 trucks for years to come along with the 2 tea party woman on an overpass.

[Dwayne Hicks]

40. Looks like a bust

Just like that biker protest last month lol. Idiot rednecks.