Anyone hear about a trucking strike?

This, hopefully, is a rumor going around that trucking companies are planning on going on strike because of the high cost of fuel. Anyone else hear any rumors about this? I'm just imagining what will happen if they do. I lived overseas on an island, and I remember what is was like after 9/11 when EVERY cargo ship had to be gone through before they could deliver food, supplies...we're talking about wal-mart, home depot, your local grocery store. I had to go for 2 weeks without kitty litter (I had 5 cats), so I was scooping sand from the beach 3 times a day to clean and fill their litter boxes.

What would you do? We're planning on REALLY stocking up on everthing this weekend since it's payday, and worry about things like cable bill, phone bill, etc until we find out what is going to happen. Food for us and the babies are the most important things.

My brother is a long haul trucker and I have heard nothing about a strike however if they did strike it would be an almost instant reaction because so may companies have what they call "just in time" deliveries like GM (vehicle manufacturing) the plant would shut down within a day.
Also the availability of fresh food would be drastically effected. Because most truckers are employeees of the big trucking companies if the companies strike the owner operators will not be able to take up the slack there just arn't enough of them.
If it does happen it's not good news for the truck drivers because if the truck ain't moving they don't get paid. Because they get paid by the mile.

I saw on the news this morning an interview with an independent trucker. There is a group who want to strike, but it isn't a done deal. It will be hard to get the big companies to join in.

Here's the complication. Owner/operators are independent businessmen. For them to agree to go on strike is illegal (collusion).

There is always talk about strikes, but what is a lot more likely is that a lot of owner/operators will just give their trucks back to the bank. There is excess capacity in the trucking industry, and fuel surcharges are covering most of the extra cost of fuel. In fact, when I had my truck, I liked it when fuel went up; since my truck got better than average mileage, I actually made money on the fuel surcharge.

And who would you strike against? The government has very little control over the cost of diesel; we're competing on the world market, and since diesel is extremely popular in Europe, it's going for a premium right now. Once it gets to be summer and heating fuel is no longer in high demand (heating fuel is essentially untaxed diesel fuel), the price of diesel will go down again.

But the really good thing about the high cost of all fuels is that it encourages us to make better choices. Idling is going way down, and more and more companies are installing auxilliary power units and heat/AC units. They're buying more efficient trucks, and the "cowboy" mentality is dying.

By the way, I used to have a big Volvo VN780 truck. But it was fairly fuel efficient. It averaged 6.3 mpg for the time I owned it. That doesn't sound like much, but for a Prius to be as efficient as that truck, it would have to get about 200 mpg.

When my Dad got home today he told my Mom the company drivers where he's leased at (he's an owner operator) are "planning" a strike for April 1st. Gotta love the date but truckers normally talk about a strike but nothing usually happens. Dad told Mom about it and he just said if they do, he'll be more then happy to have the day off. LOL