The high cost of fuel...time to unite on a shutdown and do something about it.

I am not on here complaining about the price of fuel and you can bet the ones that are complaining are not getting anywhere close to 9 mpg nor do they care about getting better fuel mileage with their truck.

 

Oh yeah, meet the new dictator in chief. Same dictator in chief as the old dictator in chief. LoL

 

Makes me think of this....

 

If you want somebody to stop running have wannabes quit running to the BFI's . Quit supplying them with fresh meat . What happens when a carrier with 5,000 trucks doesn't get the 4,500 replacement drivers they need each year ? The newbie temp drivers are the problem.A carrier with several thousand trucks can run with a much lower profit margin than a carrier with a few hundred trucks. Other posters are right . Fuel prices don't matter much if you can get a good rate . Force the BFI's to reduce their fleet and they'll have to raise their rates and driver pay.It'll never happen though . There are too many wannabes willing to fulfill their boyhood Billy Bigrigger fantasy , think a sleeper berth is more comfortable than a cardboard box, or want to go on the road and hide from their responsibilities. All these would probably work for as little a $.15 a mile.

 

I heard somewhere that 9 out of 10 loads going down the road are hauled by small companys or owner ops. If that number is even remotely close then the BFI'S are not the problem.

 

You hear guys badmouthing JB Hunt or SNI or "insert your favorite BFI here" for being cut throats. The thing is a small operation can't make a profit of a nickel a mile and thrive but JB with 5,000 trucks turning 2000 miles a week can - economy of scale. That said I doubt very seriously their margins are that thin on every contract. Ol Johnny Hunt or whoever he was started with one truck and sound business principles. Again the real problem is small operations attempting to compete with and emulate the BFI's.

 

Not sure what the number of loads are but 63% of trucks as of 12/2011 where O/O. Now many of these are leased to someone.

And you are right. BFI is not the issue. You think if Nordstroms had a bad quarter they are going to point to Walmart? Most that complain about the rates and fuel are competing on one end of the load with the BFI market but don't know how to price on the other end to do that. Or more than likely have zero clue about the market they open a business in.

 

We hear a lot. Got a link to verify that ? Do they consider BFI L/O's as O/O's ?

 

OOIDA always makes the claim that 90% or better (or some large number like that) of all trucks and freight moved in this country is by companies with 10 trucks or less (or some small number like that). So that's not the first time I've seen that number. There has to be some truth to the fact it is the cheap haulers themselves who can blame no-one but the fellow looking at them in the mirror.

 

Yep and JB Hunt might have 3 trucks out of a 100 or even a 1000 that take a "fuel money load" on a daily basis to get them back to contract. There's a big difference in a 5000 truck operation absorbing that, it's nothing to them much less than a percentage of their entire fleet doing it, as opposed to a 10 truck operation that might have 3 or more trucks (30% or better of their fleet regularly rolling cheap) doing it on every other load as a matter of routine.