Breaker 1-9 - Trucker strike

More on the buzz about the truckers' strike, From Bizjournals:

Across CB radios and trucker blogs, news has spread about an independent truck drivers' strike planned for the first week of April. With no central coordination, the potential strike's duration, scope and impact on the Tampa Bay area is unclear. Accounts vary across Internet forums, but most pin the start of the strike to April 1 or April 3.
In Tampa, the port is the most likely place where the effects of a strike would be felt, if it happens, said Thad Pennland, VP of Cypress Truck Lines Inc. in Jacksonville. "You might have some extra freight lying around if the (independent truckers) who haul it don't show up for work," Pennland said.
During the last two weeks, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a trade association based in Missouri that represents roughly 161,000 truckers nationwide, has fielded increased calls from drivers with questions about the strike, said Norita Taylor, a spokeswoman. Threats of strikes among independent truckers are relatively common but usually twist in the wind and fail to materialize, Taylor said. This strike appears to have progressed beyond the usual scuttlebutt. "I have answered a record number of calls this week," Taylor said. "But with so much rumor, it's difficult to pinpoint who is going to participate. I've talked to a lot of members who don't plan to participate."
What striking trucker's hope to gain varies, but the common complaint is the spiraling costs of diesel fuel, which has spiked to $4 a gallon in some parts of the country. Truckers who drive as part of company fleets have all their fuel costs covered by their employer, but independent drivers get reimbursed for their gas costs through a fuel surcharge. The terms of those surcharge programs vary across the companies and do a poor job of covering sudden spikes in fuel rates, Pennland said.
"The word is they're really losing money on the fuel," he said. "Especially the small outfits that don't have much clout and can't demand coverage of a higher percentage (of fuel costs)."
Additionally, some of those truckers never receive reimbursement, Taylor said. OIDA is lobbying for new legislation that would mandate that 100 percent of rising costs on food and other goods caused by hikes in diesel prices be passed along to truckers. Only independent truck drivers have considered striking. Drivers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are uninvolved, a union spokeswoman said.