Why is FREIGHT SO CHEAP??

You're just mad I let the cat out of the bag! Don't get me started I'm from south Texas I know how it all works. Seen it all first hand.

 

Well, this about covers 75% of the Mega drivers.....

 

that's pretty sad. The third world is moving into the USA, and it is to late to do anything about it.

 

What is cheap freight .

 

Haha i left them about a few weeks back as well as 25 other O/O drivers reason why things have changed there they used the slowing economic trick to lower our rates. We our container guys so we work off the ports. Check out how many empty doors they have. Their off sea accounts got wiped by other companies near by. They are not pulling hardly anything from the ports so almost nothing is going out west. Some guys are still working half Regional the other half OTR. But those are the brown nose guys with their nose so far up preferred freezer management butt they can see what they are seeing and get this nice fly ball for the leased on guys with their own trucks already paid for. They are charging cargo insurance so pretty much you own the truck and also you pay cargo insurance that is not yours so you cant work for anyone else.
Why would anyone stay you say well some people were making a decent wage 1800-3500 for local and 4000-5000 weekly for otr. Thats the reason i stood as soon as it turned soar I left. And yes i worked in nj

 

Carriers are to blame 100%. If carriers along with o/o's would come up with a respectable base frieght charge then things would change(kind of like a minimum wage for frieght and the trucking industry)

It certainly does not help that truck drivers are still classified as unskilled agricultural workers(it is what the industry was labeled as when the labor department came to be because most "truckers" just hauled produce/meat/poultry from farms to markets)

I said this in as another thread, untill we as drivers can get on the same page notbing will change...o/o or company or l/p it doesn't matter. Trucking industry rates and wages have been stagnet for 25 years. Wages are just now starting to creep up(very slowly I might add).

I am not one of those guys that says to strike or do some invasion of bobtail trucks in DC. But we do have numbers and there is power in numbers through the legislative process but we are to busy talking #### about and to each other to band together and work at making things better.

 

Sam... what you state here and in your original post is factual. The rates are in the toilet and I see it to be true whether the volume of freight is low, or extremely high. Even where the ratios are over 12 loads per truck avail for van freight, expect a mediocre rate. Average. It just seems like a great rate because everything else you've seen all month is paying a dollar a mile gross. Used to be that the market would dictate the rates and you could expect to be able to balance out with moving in and out of hot or cold markets.. Now however, it's a pretty sad state of affairs out there really. Personally I think the issues here are multifaceted. However, my personal opinion is that one of the biggest concerns is that 3pl agents and brokers are out there undercutting each other to get the freight . They're selling shippers on their ability to get it done for less money. So what happens is eventually the o/o is cut right out a pay check. He takes a cheap load hoping it will lead him to the next "better payer"... and it doesn't. It's like a cat chasing a mouse that can never be caught. I work both ends of this business. The industry is full of dysfunction and conflict of interests in many ways. I am a broker and I am also a carrier. I broker freight and I take freight from brokers as well. I feel for my drivers every day! There are too many fly by nights in the game that shouldn't be playing it really. Too many that have zero investment in the business and don't know much about "trucking" at all. Maybe a well organized "sit out" is in order! LOL. I think that carriers with capacity need to take back the business and figure out a way for those who have no capacity at all to get pushed out of the game! Hate to say it.. because I know that there are some good brokers out there who play fair... but anymore... by and large... they're the bottom feeders undercutting everyone and have no clue what it costs to run a trucking business.

 

It's such a competitive industry. What's so hard about driving a truck, getting your authority and moving freight from point a to point b? Many more will do it and will provide mediocre service, cheaper. There will always be a truck or carrier available for that next load.

 

OK let's start with one issue, the fact that CDLs need to be limited by a harder testing and harder requirements to meet.

Then we need to tackle the crackerjack authority to stop the marginal owners and carriers from trying just to make a buck. Maybe means testing every year would be a good thing, maybe a tougher entry with higher fees could help.

Then we need to force real disclosure laws - not regulations - to be put in place for brokers, a simple one would be disclosure of the originating party (and broker) for a shipment which means no more blind or third party shipments from brokers who just scrap and post at an adjusted rate.

 

100% correct.