"freight is slow"

Okay and if they see it then what?
People complain about companies all the time, just dont give away your identity.

 

I'm really feeling the pinch right now (otr) never had this problem when I ran local and regional dedicated, I definitely took it for granted

 

I have explained this several times before, but let me explain this again. I will use truckload dry van freight as an example since by far most freight in the truckload industry is run on vans. When dry van gets a cold everybody else sneezes.

Most trucking is seasonal. Truckload dry van surges in the late fall to winter. This is because most of dry van's customers's are retail business. Retail business surge as 30-40% in the buildup for Christmas. Some as much as 50%. Since everything that goes into stores is a truckload customer at least twice, once from China to depot and once from depot to store, dry van truckload surges as much as twice the retail businesses they serve. Now your company may not serve retail, or even move a van, but you are in the same market with mega-crap companies that do.

Mega-crap, to serve retail, needs the seasonal workers to deliver the goods. After the seasonal surge, they do not lay off workers like retail does. If they did they would have to pay unemployment benefits. To get out of paying these higher unemployment taxes, they spread out the reduced freight for everybody as they work on firing workers. If the fire drivers for safety reasons, they can get out of paying unemployment. So the small preventable a driver has in July, is added to the log violations he had in November is added together to make a report of a unsafe driver. The driver is fired for safety violations and therefore not eligible for unemployment. The drivers DAC is clocked so he is unlikely to find employment at one of the trucking companies competitors.

Throughout the year they work on hiring new drivers. Recruitment and drivers services staff gets paid salary and office staff does not like to be laid off. Companies can sell schooling, which is a money making deal for those that do. Most trucking companies get tax breaks that account for more than half their drivers income for hiring new drivers. Those tax breaks disappear after a year or two of employment. So it pays to get fresh meat in the seat.

Very true. When I say at many companies the average miles a week is around 1500-2000 some drivers get bent out of shape. They are only thinking of the time several months ago when they were getting 2500+ for the seasonal surge. When averaged over the course of the year, milage is way down and so is pay. People take pride in their work and where they work and like to think they are worth more than what some of these companies actually pay.

 

Is your name Jethro?

 

Beer? Toilet paper? Soda? Tampons? Dry doesn't slow. Newbs earn the company a tax break if they stay on. The story is that when you started you were bangin and all of a sudden you ain't. No more free ride. Don't get me started on refr. Gotta eat? Eventually they gotta make the payment on the truck you are sitting in. All of a sudden you run. They can plan a bb from Sacramento to St. Louis to the top of the hour. Remember that.

 

From the largest truckload dry van companies sec report:

"Seasonality
In the truckload industry, results of operations generally show a seasonal pattern. As customers ramp up for the year-end holiday season, the late third and fourth quarters have historically been our strongest volume quarters. As customers reduce shipments after the winter holiday season, the first quarter has historically been a lower volume quarter for us than the other three quarters. In recent years, the macro consumer buying patterns combined with shippers’ supply chain management, which historically contributed to the fourth quarter "peak" season, continued to evolve."

Before you make up BS again. Also from the same company sec report:

"Retail and discount retail customers account for a substantial portion of our freight, creating a dependency on consumer spending and retail sales for us. Given this, our results may be more susceptible to trends in unemployment and retail sales than carriers that do not have this concentration."

Wrong again! Tax credit is independent of retention: https://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/

 

I used to drink the Kool-Aid. I'll let you google the gov poropaganda and prove a driver shortage.

 

The mega carriers have to hire a lot of new drivers to replace the ones dropping off the other end. A few years ago the churn rate was 106%. That's hiring 106 drivers to keep 100 drivers for a year.

The guy on the big hill living in the big house overlooking the community of taxpayers is spending the money the taxpayers give him as subsidies on new hire training. He smiles a lot.

 

Something I believe is that all the monies that was being made in the oil patches around the country is almost gone. Again. So there's just not as much activity. I've even seen parking spaces available at truck stops and rest areas at midnight! Has anyone else had this experienced, lower traffic, more parking?