except for the parts that pretty much call me an obsolete relic, an old timer whose time to face reality has come!  It's a fairly long read, but it states well some of the points I often make when discussing the changes in trucking in the last year and the disappearance of the old fashioned long haul solo driver.

Truckers, firms shift to compete

"It was up to me. I had control, said Mr. Cook, a driver for J.B. Hunt out of Jacksonville, Fla. "I was drawn to the coast-to-coast (drive), the traveling."

Thirty years later, Mr. Cook, now 50, sat in a musty drivers' lounge off Interstate 85 in Greenville, S.C., and spoke about lost miles. In the past six months, his familiar 2,800-mile to 3,100-mile cross-country routes have been shortened by more than 1,000 miles and his paycheck is less than what he earned 15 years ago.

"I have lost all the love I had for trucking," he said. "I am sick of it. You are not seeing the U.S. like you used to."

Trucking companies today, faced with record high fuel prices, a slowing economy and a shift in freight patterns and regulations, are scrambling to survive. Thousands of trucking companies have declared bankruptcy this year, and others are cutting hundreds of miles from drivers. Cross-continental truck drivers such as Mr. Cook are watching their numbers dwindle.

The economic storms rocking the trucking industry also are reshaping two of the nation's biggest long-haul carriers -- Chattanooga-based U.S. Xpress and Covenant Transport.

"You had the most perfect storm that could have ever been created. It has just been a compounding over and over and over again," industry expert Lana Batts said.

THE PERFECT STORM

Nearly 1,000 trucking companies declared bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2008, and another 2,000 to 3,000 are expected to either go bankrupt or teeter on the edge of bankruptcy in this year's second quarter, said Ms. Batts, former president of the Truckload Carriers Association and managing partner with Transport Capitol Partners, a mergers and acquisitions company.

The industry has seen its way through many ups and downs, but few trucking executives have seen worse times, said Pat Quinn, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress.

"(Companies) can't borrow, and they can't buy fuel and they are out of business," said Mr. Quinn. "Some of them have found (bankruptcy) just like that. Today they are gone."

Trucking companies face challenges in several aspects of business: equipment, fuel and driver recruitment.

In late 2006, many companies overbought truck engines before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated improved environmentally friendly motors, Mr. Quinn said.

Companies bought dozens of these new engines at a time when the economy was slowing and there was not enough freight to keep truckers on the road, he said.

Skyrocketing diesel fuel costs compounded the problem. Diesel prices rose $1.87 per gallon in the last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and left companies such as U.S. Xpress paying $8 million to $9 million a month for fuel.

Trucking companies also struggled to recruit drivers to fill the seats of baby boomers set to retire in the next few years, Ms. Batts said.

"Drivers are out five, 10 or 14 days at a time," she said. "That is not a very attractive lifestyle for most people -- eating chicken fried steak and using public showers."

Turnover was costing trucking companies. After offering a sign-on bonus and training new hires, most companies lose $10,000 each time they had to replace a driver, she said.

THE OTHER SIDE

Even as trucking companies struggle to stay afloat, the nature of the transportation industry -- the way goods move about the county -- is changing, experts say.

Twenty years ago most foreign goods were shipped into three major ports on the West Coast: Los Angeles; Long Beach, Calif.; and Seattle. But frustrations over congestion and delays have increased traffic at existing ports on the East Coast, Thomas J. Malloy, vice president of business development at the Intermodal Association of North American in Calverton, M.D., said.

Ports in cities such as Jacksonville, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; Charleston, S.C.; Houston; and Mobile, Ala., are booming, he said. The number of 20-foot containers coming into Savannah's port quadrupled between 1995 and 2007, according to the association.

Shipments from China to the East Coast via the Panama Canal have minimized retailers' and shippers' dependence on truckers to carry goods cross country.

Also, retailers such as Wal-Mart have built more distribution centers across the United States to reduce the cost of trucking goods long distances. The company began with one distribution center in 1970 in Bentonville, Ark., and today has 121 centers throughout 38 states, said Phil Keene, a spokesman for Wal-Mart.

Improvements in railroad service also triggered change in the trucking industry, Mr. Malloy said.

Rather than using truckers to move goods across the country, some trucking companies are cutting their cross-continental routes and putting their freight on railways for the long haul.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a major U.S. railway, carries freight for 37 of the top 50 trucking companies, and has increased its business with trucking companies by 2 percent to 3 percent for each of the last five years, said Suann Lundsberg, a spokeswoman for the railway.

"We provide long haul, but trucks deliver to the door," said Ms. Lundsberg.

In 1980, railroads carried 3 million trailers or containers. By 2007, the number of trailers or containers carried by railroads reached 12.1 million, said Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads. Record traffic in the last two years can be attributed, in part, to the growing number of trucking companies using railroad service, he said.

Contracting with railroads has allowed trucking companies to save money on fuel costs and provide shorter routes for younger drivers who want to be home more than once or twice a month, Ms. Batts said.

"The railroads were finally starting to get their act together providing reasonable, reliable and consistent service to the point where the (trucking companies) said, 'I am willing to put my freight on the rails,' " said Ms. Batts. "Now (railways) see the trucking company as customers."

A LONG ROAD

The industry's future may be in flux, but drivers view its past with pride.

Older truckers remember a time when it seemed like their big rigs owned the highways and byways that snake throughout the country.

They don't recall congestion, dilapidated interstate systems or fuel prices. Instead, they view their early years delivering loads thousands of miles as a time of responsibility and independence, said Lee Young, a librarian at the American Truck Historical Society.

"It is a throwback to the old cowboys who would stay out on the range riding fences," Mr. Young said.

Many older drivers in the fraternity of long-haul trucking who were destined to work factory jobs navigated toward trucking because the job offered adventure, he said.

Dennis Schlanger, a 56-year-old long-haul driver from Bemidji, Minn., said he left hard labor at a granite company in his hometown to become a trucker in the late 1970s.

"It looked like it would be easier than working at a factory," he said.

But while he escaped the type of work that can cripple the body over time, he learned the road has its own demons. Without a family to return to, his free moments are spent in bars alone, he said.

Being away from loved ones for months on end and working 10 hours days doesn't fit with modern ideas about work, said Robert W. Wendover, managing director for the Center for Generational Studies in Aurora, Colo.

A new generation of employees seeks life balance. These drivers have a focus on convenience and technology, making jobs such as cross-country truck driving unappealing, he said.

Walter Moughler, a 56-year-old long-haul driver for Werner from Bakersfield, Calif., who has driven a truck since 1977, said he doesn't worry about getting home to his wife and children because the miles he pushed put food on their table.

"The new guys, they want to be home," he said. "You miss a lot of things being a truck driver."

Joel Morales, 48, of Los Angeles, who has been on the road for three months training to be a truck driver, said most industry newcomers don't want the long drives of their predecessors.

"I don't know how these guys do it. I don't think you can have family," he said. "I am looking for a regional or local job."

MOVING THE FUTURE

Cross-continental drivers will never disappear completely. There always will be refrigerated items or valuable goods that need to move faster than a train can carry them, experts say.

In fact, both U.S. Xpress and Covenant Transport recently increased the number of team drivers, which can deliver expedited freight across the country in two days.

David Parker, president of Covenant Transportation Group, said he is positioning Covenant to carry valuable freight when the economy rebounds.

And, many long-haul solo drivers' routes are on the chopping block as trucking companies focus on developing regional and local trucking routes less than 500 miles. Local routes may help the trucking industry draw the next generation of drivers, who want to be on the road but also with their families, said Dan Bearth, features editor of Transport Topics, a trade publication.

"(Long-haul trucking) is a difficult life, and I am not sure a lot of people will be sorry that it is gone," said Mr. Bearth. "There are fewer and fewer people who want that type of a lifestyle."

Shifts in truck routing will help the industry recruit drivers, and some say the changes also pave the way for a more environmentally friendly world.

All the changes in retail distribution, port cities and railway traffic will mean fewer diesel-guzzling, cross-country truck trips and a smaller carbon footprint on the environment, said Edgar Blanco, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Transportation and Logistics in Cambridge, Mass.

A freight train is three times as fuel efficient as a truck, and one intermodal train could replace 280 trucks from the highway, according to the Association of American Railroads. In the last two years, railroad traffic removed more than 24 million trucks from the road, said Mr. White of the railroads association.

"It is a cleaner and cheaper way to move goods," said Dr. Blanco. "If you would have talked about this five years ago, it would not have been an option on the table."

Today, the tag line for trucking companies -- "You call, we haul, that's all" -- is antiquated, said Mr. Malloy. Shippers want to know the fastest, cheapest or safest way to get their goods from point A to point B and that now can require more than a truck, he said.

Just as the cowboys, who drove cattle across the West to the Chicago slaughterhouses, made way for the railroads and the railroads made way for 18-wheelers, the trucking industry will make way for another era.

"The older I get the more I learn don't worry about the past because you can't change it," said Max Fuller, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress. "The future is what is exciting. Nostalgia doesn't get you much."

Well, hard not to notice the lack of traffic on the roads this holiday weekend. I decided to brave it a while and headed out on the town for some weekend festivities that I thought would be dead in the water. Just stuff that goes on every weekend.

No traffic on the highway, and when I got where I was going the place was slammed. I dare say more than usual.

And one really needs to think where the gas prices are taking our economy. This weekend alone, think about it. Not as many travelers which means a bad start to the season for businesses in travel destinations.

But let's look at the big picture, shall we?

Trucking companies are going to have issues turning a profit and may cut fleets and/or raise delivery prices. Businesses will then also have a tough time turning a profit due to the higher prices set by the trucking company, and our prices will go higher than usual (we're already seeing this). Remember a lot of businesses, retail included, use armored car services, and those are trucks, too. While they are smaller, it still costs around $500 to fill the tank. I have a buddy that works for one of these companies and he said the fleet in one part of Texas is 150 trucks. 150 trucks times $500 = $75000 a day. And some of them need to be refueled twice a day. So now they have to deal with their deliveries plus the armored car carriers.

Here's a scary thought. When costs need to get cut, the armored car service will be done away with by many companies since apparently most companies aren't sending out thousands of dollars a day and could take the stuff to the bank themselves. This means armored car companies won't have the income to keep the businesses running. So how does the money get to the banks without the armored car?! It is very likely since they pay the armored car company anywhere from $100 to $1000 per stop. If your average pick up is $300 (very common according to my buddy) what's the best way to cut costs?

Businesses, especially in the retail sector with employees being paid less than $9 an hour, will suffer due to employees seeking employment closer to home since it costs too much of their paychecks to get back and forth to work. Shoppers are also less inclined to go any distance to shop, especially if customer service starts lacking, so the customers for businesses are cut down to those in the immediate area.

I know people hate trucks and all, but in all honesty, they are the life blood of the USA. When gas prices go on the rise, so do their costs, which effects the businesses and ultimatly the citizens, because someone's got to pay for that gas. I'm even seeing prices go up at the local farmer's market which is all run by local farmers, because someone has to pay for them to run their machines and also for them to haul their stuff to the market.

You could say that there are two liquids running through the veins of America: fuel and ink.

And I see on the news last night that people are thrilled because with the Arctic melting away, it is opening up areas to drill for oil, because apparently there is plenty of oil there.

See, now, I think we're doing this wrong. We're focusing our attention on finding more oil, new ways and places of getting oil. And I personally think it is time we let the black gold go. I think it is time the world turns its attention from getting more oil to developing alternative fuels.

But, again, we need to worry about said alternative fuels. Someone has developed a small engine that runs on water. That's fantastic, but our great nation is still in drought conditions, so is a water powered engine going to work for us? Humans would plow through the water supply even harder than they are now. These are people who water grass! GRASS! I always thought, "Who does that?!" but apparently a lot of people are obsessed with having a green lawn. Personally, I say let it go brown. Brown grass doesn't need to be mowed. But to each their own.

I saw a TV show years ago about two kids from the future living in our world. One kid entered a science fair and built an engine that ran on milk, apparently something that was common in his day, but unheard of currently. Another interesting idea, but wouldn't we be milking the cows to death?

How about an engine fueled by trash? We all have plenty of that. And think about it, when you're done eating the Big Mac while driving 70 MPH, you can toss the wrapper in the tank. Of course, now you have to worry about smell and emissions. Which will have the hippies all in a tissy.

You know, someone developed a washing machine that ran on human waste. And that would make sense, since the methane in human waste is flammable (think about that the next time you toss a cigarette into the toilet! LOL! Yes, yes, I know the toilet helps stop it from exploding, don't get all smart on me) and could do the work. But now we're back to emissions and an ungodly odor.

So yeah, coming up with an alternative fuel source won't be easy. The time to start working on it is now. Well, it really should have begun back in the 70s, but now we really need to step into high gear.