The War on Independent Truckers

[SlugSlinger]

From what I’ve read and watched, it’s more of a lack of product to ship via trucking. The US ports are essentially empty. China has been on lockdown so there is little coming here.

If there is nothing to ship, demand for drivers drop and so does pay.

It’s going to take years for the economy to normalize. The stores ordered a ton of inventory and it was delivered. Now consumer purchasing has dropped and the stores are sitting on it. The economic collapse will happen around Q3 or Q4

 

[Boaty]

I’ll explain it one last time then I’m done. Because companies have 100 trucks and no driver is because they are a well known ****** company to work for and no one wants to hire on for them. That’s not a shortage. Loads out there no one wants to haul because the rate is to cheap that you don’t make any money is not a driver shortage. When you empty out in a major city at 0800 and are told they looking for a load, you finally get a load at 1600 that loads the next afternoon and the truckstops are full already at 1600, there’s not a driver shortage. Hope y’all understand. Again, if your butt ain’t in the seat for a first person point of view…

 

[Boaty]

Umm… No. He was home longer than a day or two before going out. Sure he was gone for a few weeks at a time, but didn’t miss out on time with the family. That’s the great part of being an owner operator is you decide when, where and how long you’re out on the road. He showed me most of the lower 48 before I was 5 years old and I got to see where the things we use on a daily basis come from. I’ve been to the forests and lumber mills in the PNW and seen skyscrapers across the country wrapped in glass made at the Ford plant from my hometown.

If it was as miserable as you’re experience, I can see why you got out. I can assure you that isn’t the case for everyone that gets behind the wheel.

I was an owner operator. Not my daddy. I know first hand what it was like. Was a company driver for 20 years. I know what it was like. Your like a parking attendant telling a firefighter how to put out a fire.

 

[Boaty]

I have no CDL, but I pull and submit IFTAs, MVRs, payrolls. I ensure the federal filing or form E get done, along with the MCS-90 and BMC-91 or -91x. The MCS-150 if they need help doing it. On top of that submit all the payrolls and revenues to the insurance carriers. I've certainly been involved in payroll audits of transportation companies. All of this is in addition to your normal policy management of equipment and cargo that is. So, I don't claim to be an expert but I sure do see a lot of trucking company financials. Feel free to shoot me your DOT and I'll run your CAB report on your company.

I have no CDL, but I pull and submit IFTAs, MVRs, payrolls. I ensure the federal filing or form E get done, along with the MCS-90 and BMC-91 or -91x. The MCS-150 if they need help doing it. On top of that submit all the payrolls and revenues to the insurance carriers. I've certainly been involved in payroll audits of transportation companies. All of this is in addition to your normal policy management of equipment and cargo that is. So, I don't claim to be an expert but I sure do see a lot of trucking company financials. Feel free to shoot me your DOT and I'll run your CAB report on your company.

You see they’re financials. You don’t see their 130% turnover rate cause the jerk their employees around. Take your list of companies you work with, and search driver reviews of those companies. Give you a better perspective. If you read my earlier posts, I was explaining why the carriers, media, and government are screaming about a “driver shortage “. Don’t feel the need to retype it.

 

[JD8]

You see they’re financials. You don’t see their 130% turnover rate cause the jerk their employees around. Take your list of companies you work with, and search driver reviews of those companies. Give you a better perspective. If you read my earlier posts, I was explaining why the carriers, media, and government are screaming about a “driver shortage “. Don’t feel the need to retype it.

Financials are part of it. You're not really understanding here it seems. I work with a lot of local companies, including many that lease on owner/operators. When they have turnover, I'm the first to know due to the fact that they have to delete the equipment too. Namely, when that driver leaves, the company has no insurable interest on that vehicle. I dunno who you worked for, but you're jaded and I get it. Lotsa douchey carriers out there, but the point remains, there's a helluva shortage.

 

[RCSteve19]

Another huge ass problem (pun intended) is the new requirements started by Obama and guys being barely overweight and when they go to renew their medical card certification they are told they need a C-pap machine if their neck is over 18 inches. I know a guy in great shape with 18.5 inch neck and is ripped like a gorilla and a C-pap was put on his paperwork and they gave him a 1 year medical card
Pure BS

 

[Lewis F Jones]

The Canadian trucking protests may have had a bigger impact than anyone realizes. If what I am piecing together comes to pass, it appears that there is a move by the power structure to eliminate independent truckers.

We frequently hear of independent truckers parking their rigs because the cost of diesel makes being on the road a losing proposition. What is not in the news is a looming DEF shortage that will be blamed on fertilizer shortages: DEF is made from urea.

Who benefits? 1. Railroads...and the powerful folks who own big blocks of their stock. 2. The power structure who never wants to see a repeat of what happened in Canada.

I am speculating but his makes sense to me. Please shoot some holes in my thinking.

Guess who profits from the railroads shipping oil from Canada into the United States? (Since the cancelation of the Keystone Pipeline by Uncle Joe,)

 

[Freedom]

Don’t let a good crisis go to waste. There is NO driver shortage. If the job paid well enough a company would have to turn drivers away. They keep the pay/ freight low enough that nobody wants to haul it so they can cry that there’s a shortage of drivers. The reason is, when enough people cry about not getting their crap they ordered, wether 1 or 2 items to individual or whole truckloads to distribution centers, then the trucking companies believe that congress will let them operate computer controlled driverless trucks on the interstate in all states, with no legal responsibility cuz it will be mandated as an emergency by congress. Driver pay is their biggest expense by far. It also gets rid of Hours of Service regulations. No 30 minute mandatory break, no 10 hour rest at night. They can operate that truck 24 hours a day between terminals, then pay somebody $10 hour to deliver the load locally. Way bigger profits, and will put the Independents and small companies out of business. Wait and see.

Driverless trucks don't make sense to me. Can a computer put the tire chains on and off or change the fuel filters when they gel up in cold weather?

 

[Timmy59]

And let's not forget Farmers . Both feed the nation.