How's Everyone Doing in LTL Right Now?

They must be very good BS artists. Probably blaming everything on the union while neglecting to talk about how mismanagement led the company to be $1.5 billion in debt.

 

I was told Saia getting rid of their teams, and start using contractors to pull the team freight. Team drivers given the opportunity to bump back into linehaul by seniority if they wanted on scheduled runs. Bottom drivers getting the axe. Only effecting terminals with teams.

 

“Hmmm our team operation is too reliable and cost effective, how can we make service worse while also costing us more money?”
- former Yellow executive, probably

 

If it means shippers move to OD for more reliable team service I won't be mad. I'm out of HEB Snickernut coffee pods and I need to start pulling freight to Dallas pronto!

 

I got cut on a friday. OHHHHH YEEEEAAAAHHHHH

 

Them $ 1 a mile owner operators are cheaper to use.
No insurance
No retirement
No fuel
No fixing broken truck

 

Cheaper until they fly down the Grapevine with flaming brakes and careen into a sea of cars like a bowling ball.

Imagine the stock devaluation when the news discovers "Big Company" contracted "Small Company" to save a buck

 

It’s unfortunate but we see almost daily the vast majority of the contractors pulling Amazon Prime branded trailers not being top shelf professional operators. I have thought for years Amazon would either stop using branded trailers or the cheapest contractor available, but it doesn’t seem like they are changing.

 

They sure don't care about their brand when it comes to transportation but legally their hands are clean whenever one of their contractors kills somebody. They usually issue empty statements about condolences then quickly follow up that contractors aren't Amazon employees. It would take a CBS kind of story like on Super Ego to shame them but in all liklihood that wouldn't change anything. Death and mayhem doesn't really cost them anything.

 

I don't think a lot of people realize the scope of how big Amazon is. Their store is the biggest in terms of size, but their biggest actual profits come from their Amazon Web Services were they host entire websites. It would not surprise me if this very page was hosted on a AWS. But I digress... I think using garbage contractors is just factored into their business model. I would think Class A drivers would be the least of their worries since they are at least required to be commercially licensed, and given their driven miles to accident ratio, they probably get enough of the product to their final distro center to stay profitable.

The huge problem is probably their final mile people. I think they call them delivery service partners? Those guys are the real face of the company with their uniquely coloured vans and company logos. My neighbor actually was run over by one of them a few months ago (and unfortunately it was my good neighbor that we invite over for dinner and not the stupid lady feeding the stray cats). He spent probably two weeks in the hospital and had to undergo multiple surgeries on his back. And just like you said, he got a generic statement about "How we hold our employees and DSPs to the highest safety standards blah blah blah and we extend our deepest condolences, but the third party driver that ran you and your mailbox over is not an employee blah blah blah. Please direct all legal inquiries to our subcontractor instead".

So back to how I started this rant. Amazon makes about $716B a year, that's around $1.3 million every single minute. Even if my neighbors lawsuit is successful against Amazon (and they have the financial resources to tie this up in legal purgatory forever), the payout would be couch cushion change to them. Meanwhile my neighbor is like completely screwed physically. I mean he can still walk, but he will never be able to pick up hobbies like rock climbing or surfing. A massive part of his qualify of life was taken away from him for the rest of his life. It's wild how this company just keeps chugging along and major accidents are just a business expense to them.