Trucks- John Oliver

The conundrum with that is this...

All sides have the same conviction of heart and spirit.

 

The immovable object vs. the irresistible force...

 

“That’s Piss, That’s my own Piss”
Classic.

 

Buying the 2 party lie is why you have ONE group in government, mitch mcconnel has more in common with pelosi than anyone else "in his own party" because theyre both top of their food chains. Incoming senators and representatives have no ability to get anything done and its all the party-elite at the top talking to each other to see how they want to frame the narrative.

A vote for ANY republican or democrat is proof that you beleive the lie that we have a democracy or even a republic. Go down the stated goals of each party, then go by what the leaders of the parties vote on, they are not even remotely the same thing, and what happens when you find that you want a bit from the dem party platform, and a bit from the republican one and are over in left field for the remainder of your views? Who represents you then? Who can you in good conscience vote for? Still an r or d? If so, you are a good little mindless slave to the system that actively works against your interests unless your intrests are corporate interests

 

I owned a rig that I had leased to a power only company .

I took a load to a food warehouse .
Once …..

after that experience I always refused the loads .
Then i got tricked into taking a load to a DC for a pet store .

I opened the back doors and it looked like you had literally taken a pet store and dumped it in the trailer .

not one single item was in a box or shrink wrapped or on a pallet .

i had to unload everything , one item at a time and set it on a pallet and separate every different item and count them .
It took me 21 hours . At the dock .

Never accepted another load to that place .
If the drivers would stick together , they could accomplish anything . Literally anything .
If the drivers simply refused to be treated that way , closed the doors and drove away , or just never accepted another load to that type of place , without fair compensation , things would change overnight .

 

If I'm ever at a Costco for more than 2 hours, it'll be the first time. They have about the most efficient operation out here.

I've always gotten detention paid on my Wal Mart loads.I've always gotten my detention.

The detention rate is built into every contract a carrier or broker has. You just have to make sure you properly document your time so that they can collect and pay you.

Now do carriers, brokers and shippers jerk you and each other around on that documentation process ... sometimes.

 

Funny you bring up the beef market. There are regulations that require the packers to buy a certain percentage of their cattle on the open market. I’m not going to quote percentages because I can’t recall them off the top of my head. But for years the big four have purchased well above their limit of contract beef and not a single one of them have gotten in trouble for it. And every year the government is going to “look into it” and nothing ever comes of it. So what good are the regulations the government comes up with when their not enforced because they’re getting their pockets lined?

And the part you keep overlooking in regards to detention is that people choose to do business with them. Nobody forces a company or owner operator to take a load to Walmart or any other large DC that is notorious for long wait times. The free market should decide and dictate certain things, not the government. The government fixes nothing that they touch.

 

The trucking industry is both:

1. A heavily regulated industry by government entities ostensively for safety purposes.
2. An totally unregulated industry in terms of its dependence on pure market(financial) forces.

There is another industry in exactly the same position: The Airlines.
The difference being any airline that suffers a catastrophic loss(crash) will immediately feel it in their market (financial) position.
They have determined it is unacceptable to put humans at risk in order to increase the financial gain. The $ stakes are too high
So, no significant crashes in the last 20 years.

The trucking industry is not so motivated. The carnage(both to quality of life issues and actual deaths) is simply a cost of doing business.
And the public is complicit in it's acceptance of the 5000 people who die and thousands who are injured every year.
They enable the situation to occur in the name of "free shipping" . It is the downside of capitalism run amok.

Nothing will change.
The "driver shortage" will be addressed by allowing large increases in immigrant drivers, just as in other industries like construction, food processing, hospitality etc. all of which are restrained by the same free market forces.

 

As far as restrooms for truckers at shippers/receivers.
They should plan better and have restrooms built with all stainless steel toilets and sinks in built in cabinets, like in prisons. Paper towel and toilet paper dispenser set up to electronically administer a certain quantity of each and then no more until the door lock had been activated, Maybe that would solve the no restroom policy.

 

You prison analogy is priceless.
And make sure you mention that at any job fair attempting to recruit individuals to make trucking a career.
I am sure it will cause them to flock here in droves.