Letters to the Editor: Oil Company Profits, Alaska Pipeline, Idling Laws

b> Oil Company Profits

And this is not price-gouging in what parallel universe? We’ll drag some mom-and-pop hardware store to court for overpricing plywood after a hurricane, but this monumental rape by the oil companies is simply fine? (Click here for previous coverage.)

Brenda Hay

BCO Transportation

ade City, Fla.

Alaska Pipeline

These crude oil price increases translated to retail fuel costs are terrible. It’s killing the trucking industry.

Our industry has enough problems — lack of drivers and technicians, expensive insurance and bad press — and now someone doesn’t have the guts to release oil from the government reserves? Who has the authority to request a release? The “energy czar?”

And BP with $7 billion in profits — why not spend some of that and send in a blitz team to fix the 16 miles of pipeline in two weeks? Like a million others, I am sick of this inaction and stupid excuses.

David Litchfield

i>Account Executive

-M-S Inc.

oyal Oak, Mich.

Idling Laws

Several recent letters-to-the-editor writers seem stumped about reconciling idling laws with maintaining comfortable tractor temperatures. Generators offer a very feasible solution. Long-term savings in fuel costs and engine wear far outweigh the initial generator purchase expense.

Elizabeth Sebren

i>Vincent Fister Inc.

afety Director

exington, Ky.

How many of us shut off our air conditioners last week during the heat wave in the Northeast? How many of us shut off our furnaces during a blizzard? Well, I guess that, according to the State of New York Environmental Control Board, truck drivers delivering to the city are of less importance than their stray dogs.

This past week, one of our drivers was cited by the Environmental Control Board for idling his engine longer than three minutes when he was not loading or unloading. When I questioned the officials regarding the heat wave that had just affected the city, her answer was, basically, “Not my problem.” It was one of the hottest weeks in the past few years, even at night, and these officials wasted more fuel and expelled more pollution than the trucks they were enforcing these inhumane rules on.

What if we decided that our drivers are our most important resource and stopped sending them to states that treat them lower than the asphalt they drive on? Would it make a difference?

G.L. Warner

i>Director of Safety

rothers Trucking

ork, Pa.

These letters appear in the Aug. 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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