I am always on the lookout for ways to make money on the internet without having to spend a lot of time and money to do it, and I’m not easily swayed by all the get rich quick schemes that you see out there. That’s why when I saw this, I knew it was different. Better. Easier. Check out this short video. It explains it all better than I can. I’m doing it, and it seems to be working pretty well! http://www.freedom.ws/borganik/show_dvd/

I haven’t posted in awhile, but this piece of news hit close to home and I wanted to get the info out there.

TRAVERSE CITY — A 6-year-old boy from Greece was hit by a truck and killed on U.S. 31 as he tried to cross the road with his family.

Konstantinos Pantelys Kotsores was walking across U.S. 31 near Four Mile Road with his mother, aunt and grandmother when he was hit by a semitrailer traveling west around 10:35 p.m. Sunday, Grand Traverse County sheriff’s officials said in a statement.

The boy’s family stopped in the turn lane halfway across the road to wait for traffic to clear, but Kotsores continued across the road and was hit by the truck, which was not carrying a trailer, officials said.

David James Lubben, of Delano, Minn., was driving the truck. Authorities continue to investigate the death.

I listened to an interview today on Sirius’s Road Dog channel 147 with Doug Pray the maker of the new school trucker movie entitled, “BIG RIG”. Buck 65 does the soundtrack and managed to reinvent classic truck driving music into soon to be modern day classics. They said over and over that this movie is straight out of the mouths of truckers, real life, real concerns, real people. They don’t glorify it, or demean it. They rode in a semi for 21,000 miles with a camera on their lap. They were in and out of truck stops doing interviews and experiencing life on the road.

“BIG RIG” is a broad portrait of modern America as seen through the eyes of long-haul truck drivers. Spanning 21,000 miles, 45 states, and dozens of truck stops, director Doug Pray and producer Brad Blondheim (the team who created “SCRATCH”) went far beyond just the chrome and coffee culture and made a film that delves deeply into the lives and personal struggles of these working-class heroes, who are, literally, carrying the nation upon their backs.

From the opening scene at New York City’s Hunt’s Point Market, where semis arrive at 3am to feed the Northeast, to California’s San Joaquin Valley, where all that produce came from, “BIG RIG” is the ultimate road-trip movie. And though it is filled with gorgeous roadside vistas, it is really about the people you meet along the way. Like Jessie, a Mississippi driver who is battling Graves disease while his son fights in Iraq; or Loretta, a mother from Ohio who carries a concealed weapon in her cab for fear of truckstop violence; or Ron, a native-American who uses his 18-wheeler to visit tribes throughout the country while delivering vinyl; or Bear, an Idaho steel-driver whose love of country has him wanting to overhaul our government, to name a few. All of them are fiercely independent souls who, as one young driver says, “represent the last of the spirit of the American cowboy… it’s a dying breed out there.”

Underlying this east-to-west odyssey of stories is the reality that every single item you own, including everything you’re wearing, everything you ate today, and even this computer screen—was delivered by truck. And the gas that fueled that same truck was delivered by truck, and so on… In short, if America’s truck drivers staged a strike tomorrow, within 48 hours, this entire nation would grind to a halt. Yet, this community of truckers we depend upon face a mounting crisis of skyrocketing gas prices, government interference, corporate take-over of their industry, and a very unsympathetic public full of “four-wheelers” who’d more often give them the finger, than the right-of-way.

“BIG RIG” was shot during four, two-week periods and was the result of random, documentary-style “casting” of everyday truckers at truckstops from coast to coast. Director Doug Pray, who also shot the movie in HD, and Producer Brad Blondheim would fish for interviews, and, when they had a catch would hitch a ride with the drivers for the next hour or two, or, in some cases a whole day. Pray would conduct interviews with his camera from the passenger seat, while Blondheim followed behind in a van. One assistant, Jim Dziura, helped with lighting, sound and camera. During a year of editing, about a dozen key stories emerged to form the narrative of the film. While they unfold, the entire country seems to fly by outside the window. The result is a poetic blend of scenery, character, and commerce.

Except for a handful of classic trucking tunes, the music for the entire film was written and performed by Buck 65, an artist whose blend of country-roots music, spoken lyrics, and solid beats create a signature sound for “BIG RIG” and drive the editorial narrative to a high degree.

BIG RIG will have its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, this SATURDAY MARCH 10th, 2007, at the Austin Convention Center at 10pm. We hope you’ll all try to make it out for the big event! The film will also screen on Thursday, March 14th at 2pm, and Saturday March 17th at 1:30pm, both at the Paramount Theater in Austin.

Also, don’t miss the BIG RIG PARTY featuring a rare, live band performance by BUCK 65 on Thursday night, March 14th at 401 Guadalupe, in Austin (from 7 to 10pm). Buck 65 (along with many of the musicians who played on the soundtrack) will perform along with visuals and scenes from the film.

If your’e east of the Mississppi tonight between 4:30 and 8:50 pm EST, you might want to get out and take a look at the moon. A total Lunar Eclipse is set to happen and be visible in the eastern half of the country tonight.

Sky watchers west of the Mississippi will miss this lunar show, but another eclipse on August 28 will favor them (if they choose to be awake at 2 A.M. PDT (08:51 UT to be exact).

I encourage anybody to go out, watch and enjoy.

Washington, DC - “The Bush Administration’s announcement that the Department of Transportation (DOT) is forging ahead with a pilot program that would open our U.S. highways to Mexican trucking companies is deeply troubling, particularly in light of the fact that the DOT’s own Inspector General intends to release a congressionally mandated report in the coming months that closely examines whether the program had met safety and security requirements. An earlier 2005 DOT Inspector General report confirmed that the Administration had failed to meet a number of strict congressional guidelines aimed at protecting the American driving public.

The Administration’s decision to move forward with this pilot program without confirmation that these issues have indeed been adequately addressed once again exhibits a disregard for the laws and the safety of our nation. The Administration’s mere assurances that these safety requirements have been satisfied are not enough. I applaud Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, for convening a hearing on March 8 to examine whether the safety requirements have been met, and I will be monitoring the situation closely in the coming weeks to ensure that the Administration’s rush to judgment does not ignore important questions about the safety of the program.”

The Bush Administration intends to open the U.S. border to unsafe Mexican trucks in the next six to eight weeks for a one-year pilot program. The border has remained closed since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement because the Mexican government has failed to meet the truck safety and driver training requirements of NAFTA.

Now President Bush wants to reward this failure by providing up to 100 Mexican trucking firms open access to American highways, and putting American drivers at risk.

Tell your representatives in Congress to stop this “narrow experiment” before it can get started by holding hearings on the safety of the plan.

Visit this link to send a message. Tell your friends.
http://www.teamsterstakeaction.org/campaign/safe_trucks

Increase driver pay! If freight costs go up, then so be it. It is supply and demand at it’s finest. The answer is NOT importing cheaper labor!

By Randolph Heaster MCT News Service

Industry sees 100 percent turnover. Wages not enough to keep drivers on tough job.

Current estimates are that the U.S. is shy 20,000 long-haul drivers. A recent industry study said the shortage could rise to 111,000 drivers by 2014.

Despite demand, wages have stagnated and turnover in the industry is running more than 100 percent. Potential drivers have migrated to construction jobs, where the pay has been better and they don’t have to be constantly away from home.

Even as the industry struggles with the shortage, talking about higher pay and attracting immigrant drivers, trucking officials say it is everyone’s problem. Trucking moves more than 70 percent of the freight in this country, making it an essential link between the consumers and the things they want and need. At some point the shortage will mean delivery delays and higher prices for consumers.

”Without truck drivers, nobody’s got food on their shelves, clothes on their racks and electronics in your big-box stores,” said John Wagner Jr., president of Wagner Industries Inc. of Kansas City. ”The average age of drivers now is about 50 years old. We’ve got to find a way to attract more drivers to the industry.”

Bill Graves, chief executive of the American Trucking Association, says the difficulty finding drivers has become the chief concern of trucking companies, even ahead of the cost of fuel.

”Issues like fuel prices come and go, but the driver shortage has sort of become a constant drumbeat,” Graves said. ”Fleet operators listed the driver shortage as their number one concern.”

Once a headache mostly for large national truckload companies, the problem now hampers the small trucking companies that make up most of the industry’s employers.

Driver turnover rates exceeded 100 percent for both large and small truckload carriers in the third quarter of 2006, according to an industry survey. Small-truckload firms, whose annual revenues are less than $30 million, reported 100 percent turnover rates for the past four quarters. That was the first time that had happened since the ATA began tracking the data in 1995.

”They create incentives for new drivers through sign-on bonuses, but those drivers quickly move on to another company that’s offering the same thing,” said Wagner, whose company provides warehousing and distribution services in several cities. ”The industry is not creating a stable, permanent work force.”

The causes of the shortage are numerous. Although there is a need for more drivers, their pay has not kept pace with other industries where working conditions are better. With lots of little companies, shipping rates have been very competitive, keeping pay for long-haul drivers stagnant this decade.

”I’ve had one business owner tell me he’s been shipping at the same cost for 20 years,” said Robert Merrell, who has been driving his own truck out of Liberty, Mo., for eight years. ”How are you going to make any money in a case like that? Fuel prices are going up, and the cost to maintain your equipment is going up. Everything’s going up except what drivers are getting paid.”

The industry measures its wages against construction because people who consider truck driving are often the same ones who take construction jobs.

In the 1990s, pay for long-distance truck drivers in the United States consistently was 6 percent to 7 percent higher than that of construction workers, according to a study by the ATA done with the consulting firm Global Insight. But with a flourishing construction industry, that differential disappeared. By 2004, the average weekly pay for long-haul truckers in the United States was $725, compared with $736 for construction workers.

”Construction jobs have provided a viable alternative to truck driving over the past four years since housing construction remained one of the steadying forces of the economy during the recession and the ‘jobless’ recovery of 2002-2003,” the study said.

Couple lower wages with the lifestyle a long-haul driver has to endure and it’s not surprising that fewer people are becoming drivers, said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in Grain Valley, Mo.

”Drivers are expected to be away from home three weeks at a time, and they basically live in their truck,” Spencer said. ”They’re only paid for the miles they drive, but they may end up working 70 to 90 hours a week when you count the time they wait on the loading docks. Unless something comes along to change the compensation approach to this business, there are going to be driver shortages.”

The squeeze has not been universal. In 2006, the driver work force was more stable for American Central Transport than the previous year, said Tom Kretsinger Jr., president of the Liberty long-haul truckload carrier.

But the company distinguishes itself by offering more specialized services to clients, hiring more experienced drivers and paying them $45,000 to $55,000 a year. And over the years, American Central has had to invest in more of its own trucks.

”It used to be the majority of our drivers were owner-operators,” Kretsinger said. ”But the cost of being an owner-operator gets higher and higher every year, with the cost of equipment, fuel prices, insurance and so forth.”

Haulers including Kansas-based YRC Worldwide Inc., whose units are mostly unionized and handle less-than-truckload deliveries, also have not been affected as much. The turnover rate for the mostly unionized less-than-truckload sector was 14 percent in the third quarter of 2006, according to the ATA survey. But it is a much smaller percentage of the trucking industry.

”I think the biggest difference is in the benefits,” said Bill Zollars, YRC chairman and chief executive. ”It’s also a quality-of-life issue. In our business, you don’t normally have drivers away from home for three weeks at a time. They have a set schedule that lets them know when they’re going to be home.”

The level of wages, the investment required and the lonely lifestyle make it unlikely that large numbers of recently unemployed, like the nearly 75,000 General Motors and Ford Motor Co. hourly workers who have taken early retirement and buyouts, can be drawn in.

The trucking association is exploring how to attract more minorities and women as drivers and is lobbying to make it easier for veterans to attend truck driving school through accelerated benefits from the GI Bill.

• Safety groups call for oversight hearings on Mexican proposal

  (tags: mexican truckers nafta)