By now, major mainstream news organizations have already investigated and dismissed the idea of a trucker’s strike on October 1 as a right-wing AI-powered hoax.
But Overdrive spoke to one driver with a huge social media following who said he’s going to make sure it’s real.
Jeremy Johnson, the owner-operator better known as The Disrespected Trucker, with 670,000 followers on Twitter, said he’s determined to shut down and planning to use his social media muscle to boost any other driver who does the same.
Even still, he’s not really expecting fireworks.
“I don’t think anything is going to happen,” said Johnson. “There’s too many of the naysayers that come out of the woodwork, saying it’s not going to happen, it’ll never be enough to make a difference -- it’s the same thing every time. They sit back and point their finger and laugh and call you every name in the book, but they’ve never joined a cause in their life.”
Johnson, by parking the truck and promoting the strike, might just be the de facto leader of the now-viral movement. Otherwise, it’s mostly propped up by AI infographics and an Instagram pundit who said, “in the trucking world they put out a deal to strike until the fuel prices drop.”
Well, Johnson is in the trucking world, and he has no idea what this deal is or who started it all.
“I don’t wanna take credit for something somebody else started, but if other people shut down, I’ll absolutely post them,” said Johnson.
Astronomical diesel isn't the only issue on drivers' minds
Johnson spoke to Overdrive from a fuel island in Minnesota, staring down $6.39/gallon for diesel. That’s a bit of a discount compared to the national average at $6.52. Add to that ballooning insurance costs, inaction on broker transparency, and an absolute mess from Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Motus rollout, and there are plenty of reasons for drivers to protest.
“I dunno what’s it gonna take for the rest of you” to strike, said Johnson, “but I had a couple guys in the industry say they’re going to on October 1 shut" down.
October 1 falls on a Thursday. Johnson said he’d sit it out maybe until Friday, maybe through the weekend, and “if nothing happens, I’ll just go back and rock and roll.”
Who's with him? Larry Cothran, a leased owner-op with a big following and a mission to “spread joy” actually took the time to speak to his fellow drivers about the strike.
In video after video posted to social media, Cothran hollers at drivers headed into truck stops, asking “Have you heard about that strike?”
“That who?” the response goes, more often than not.
Another common refrain: “It ain’t gonna happen.”
But the drivers agree -- in fact nobody disagrees -- that the country runs on diesel truckers hauling goods over-the-road. The question isn’t whether or not drivers could hold the most powerful economy in the history of the world to a standstill, but if they actually will.
[Related: Owner-op group launched 'nationwide shutdown' over FMCSA inaction on broker regs]
Cothran heard about the strike from a friend who sent a video claiming 50,000 drivers would strike.
“That was the first time I heard about it,” he said. “I know a lot of drivers and have not heard one peep. I think it’s a social media hoax, something that’s going on in social media and not in the real world.”
Almost no one Cothran talked to had heard about the strike. Among people who had heard about it, there wasn’t anything unified or concrete.
“A handful of people said if they were to do a strike, they would participate in it, but most people haven’t heard about it,” he said. “I heard variations, October 1, October 1-3, October 1-5. A couple days ago I heard the whole first week of October. There’s no real organization. We don’t have a union. Who is in charge?”
Plus: What are they striking for?
“Fuel prices? Broker transparency? Insurance rates?” Cothran asked.
A few truckers said if big companies joined the strike, they’d get somewhere, but company drivers might not even be able to participate, Cothran noted. “A lot of people that are company drivers are not about to park their trucks” when they have to give two weeks' notice. Company drivers deciding to strike could “end up fired or blackballed.”
Is an organized strike even legal?
Ultimately, what would a strike be trying to achieve, and how would it achieve those goals? Overdrive contacted the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association to see if they knew anything.
What we heard back was even more challenges to the very notion, both legal and practical.
“While strikes can be very effective if they work, there are many difficulties associated with such an action,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh said. “Besides the obvious difficulty in getting hundreds of thousands of drivers to all agree to shut down, the greatest obstacle involves anti-trust laws and illegal boycotts. Legally chartered unions made up of employees for the purposes of collective bargaining enjoy certain exemptions under the labor law that allows them the option of strikes and boycotts under specific legal guidelines. It is not possible for OOIDA to organize such an action because of the makeup of our membership.”
Businesses could sue truckers, OOIDA warned, over an organized shutdown.
Ironically, unorganized shutdowns, like the country saw more than once in the 1970s, would be harder to prosecute.
[Related: The California convoy that capped the ELD protest week]
“The truck shutdowns in the early seventies were successful, or at least went unprosecuted, mainly because they were the result of spontaneous individual decisions to participate or take action,” said Pugh. “We were not organized and, therefore, there was no identifiable target for criminal or civil actions to be filed against. There was some discussion relating to going after some of us who were out in front as spokesmen, but the fact that we weren’t really in control and had no resource to speak of left little to gain from targeting us.”
Cothran had a similar reaction: “How do we know if we’re going to have measurable results?” he asked.
Pugh noted “there are no shortcuts” to being an effective advocate, and that the only way was ground-up organizing and changing the system through persistent pressure.
Cothran agrees. “A lot of people don’t have the business acumen, don’t even know their bottom line, don’t know their cost per mile, or what they’re profiting from each load," he said. "they look at themselves as a truck driver, not a business owner.”
At the core, the strike, imaginary or not, gets at a real issue -- truckers get pushed around. By brokers, by shippers, by regulations, by roadside enforcement, even by our four-wheeled friends who suddenly realized they're about to miss their exit.
“Truckers are being pushed around” said Cothran. “But you have to know who you are, first of all. Yeah, you get the short end of the stick, this is what you signed up for, but get with another person and have some grassroots initiatives to try to maybe get a PSA out there.”
[Related: On the 'Freedom Convoy' protest: With cross-border owner-operator Mike Murchison]
A strike might not be in the cards, but Cothran said drivers can and should make efforts to organize and advocate.
“Back in COVID, we were top of the line, we were respected, a driver could walk around with your chest out and people would say, ‘Oh, let me buy you food, let me do this for you,’ but now they’re back to not letting you on the road and treating you like crap,” he said.
In an industry that often forgets the driver, drivers should remember themselves. “A lot of times you have to make yourself a priority, find like-minded people,” he said. “When it comes to the trucking community, a lot of times drivers see themselves as the bottom of the barrel, like ‘I’m dumb, all I can do is drive a truck,’ but you’re running a business and talking to people in high positions every day.”
Even the industry meetups and conferences can center around selling truckers on products, services, and ideas, something Cothran wants to break out of.
“I go to different events and conferences, and when I go, it may be for the trucking community, but it’s not for the truck driver,” said Cothran. “It’s a lot of brokers, dispatchers, and people trying to sell stuff to truck drivers, a seat you can sit in, a service you can use.”
Not for nothing, but many of those same trucking influencers are now dismissing the idea of truckers organizing with the strike.
Cothran’s solution? It won’t fix diesel prices (neither would a strike), but it might put a smile on your face.
“I made a Christmas party, I don’t even want people to come dressed up, just wear your ugly Christmas sweater and a headset," he said. "Don’t come out here wearing a suit you got cause you’ve been driving and it’s probably too small for you now.”
On December 12 at Peach State Truck Centers, 460 Edge Road in Villa Rica, Georgia, just off Exit 26 on I-20, a party just for drivers hosted by Cothran promises the community that other trucking spaces lack.
“It’s just a highway hustling Christmas party” with parking and everything, he said. “It’s a great place where drivers can network and talk about 2027. If you’re still complaining about the rates and this, that and the third, get together with some other entrepreneurs, industry professionals, and let’s celebrate each other have a good time.”
