Does it seem busy yet?

I guess I was uneasy at the chassis I would have to haul. Blown trailer tires would be our responsibility to pay for. So many things to think about for the pay. The last thing I want is to be held responsible for is #### equipment I'm hauling. You bring up good points though, striker.

 

Thats what im learning. Pros and cons. My big issue is if your at a customer and hit a bolt seal now you pay 500$. Not cool.

 

Per the UPRR policy, once a chassis leaves the gate, it's the driver/trucking company responsibility, within reason keep it road worthy. If you pulled it flat, then it would be on you, if you pulled it inflated properly and it blows, that's an act of nature, typically you replace it send the bill to the chassis pool, or they send road service out at their dime.

 

Care? Dont most big fleets lease trucks because its cheaper to lease instead of buying and most megas have drivers who dont care how they drive or care about equipment. I think the biggest reason for having junk trucks are because most drivers have this i need to make the next load mentality. Most guys i know dont even take a break to eat. The ones that run ports run back and forth and dont see dot for years. I have worked ports last time i got pulled over was 7 years ago. Now my truck is a 2011 and i am maintaining it. Its my livelihood and if i keep it in good condition I wouldn't have to buy another truck for a while. When i first started it was a 1985 mack with a 5 speed and no airbags. Not the prettiest but was legal with brakes tires and no air leaks. I ended it when i cracked the frame it got welded and got shipped to Africa. biggest benefit would be no payments made fuel since my max each week would be 50 miles home by 5pm would make $1600 dirty each week more depending on how sore i was . So drawback is Comfort it would beat you to hell.

 

I work for a small fleet, we buy all our trucks and turn them over about every 5 or 6 yrs (although we do have 3 spares that are about 14 yrs old, but because we take care of them , they look maybe 5 or 6 yrs old). We have competitors that do lease trucks, at one time it was gutless wonder Int'l 8500's that every driver despised. They now lease Volvo's from Penske.

As for O/O's, this is an area where the companies are failing. Most O/O's hauling cans are lease operators, leased to companies that don't give a dam(n) what the drivers do, they don't check up on them, they don't look at the trucks. I see it in my area, flease operators driving trucks that are falling apart.

My employer, we require our O/O's to be a true O/O, own registration, insurance, IFTA, etc.. They only use the company as a broker and for our SCAC code, while they have their own insurance, I think the rails require them to be listed on, but not covered by our cargo insurance. My bosses randomly will look over our O/O's trucks and point out when something needs done, but one of our O/O's is in the yard every Sat. morning tinkering with his truck to keep it 100% legal, if he can't fix it, he sends it out, but otherwise he does his own work, and his truck is always tip top. The other guy, not as meticulous, but he takes care of his truck.

 

Saw this today. Harlem and 79th

 

Fuel prices need to stay high, over the road carriers are killing the intermodal market with their trash rates

 

That's just part of it, mostly it's the volumes of cans coming into the US are just low, not to say exports are almost non existent...at least here in Chicagoland.....

If the volumes were normal, or high, you'd see the dry van guys on here making a killing!!!...even with the added capacity from the oil field trucks!

Instead were all making about the same!!!!...check out Sawmill's thread, or DY (he threw in the towel) or several others....Sawmill does flatbed for Landstar and he's averaging about the same as we are pulling cans!!!!

It's just a BAD freight market, coupled with the additional capacity from all the oil field trucks!!

Add to that, the fact that the high FSC had been masking the fact that freight rates have not changed substantially in a LONG time and you have a perfect storm for the freight industry!!!!

And here come EOBR's!!!!!!!! Shippers are gonna be in for a RUDE awakening!!!!....I just hope to survive long enough to see it!!!!!!

Not long ago, I found an article on a trade magazine saying CMA was moving freight from China to the West Coast for FREE as an incentive to shippers!!!!

 

Well, here's a different exp. for you. Tuesday afternoon, picked up a chassis at one depot, went to another for the can. Boogied an hr up the road to get loaded, didn't notice any issues. 10 minutes after leaving customer, I notice smoke after a hard stop. Thought I smoked a brake, as I pulled away, the smoke increased. Pulled over, hub cover came off, inside the hub was bone dry, outer bearings were gone, inner were failing, no grease at all, wheel had grease on it, but it wasn't fresh. Boss was pissed, found a repair shop two miles away, can was there till Friday afternoon. Mechanic said when the pulled the wheels, the entire assembly disintegrated, the outer bearings had been dry long enough to have rust (the chassis hadn't moved from the depot in 3 weeks), there was even rust on the spindle. They had to chisel the race off the spindle and make it smooth again, the inner bearings were ready to fail as well. Chassis pool manager ended up going to look at it on Weds., pool is paying for it.