Uber - coming to a dock near you...

I really like this post.

To say "simple solution..." and leave it at that dismisses the various ramifications Uber will have on the industry.

True - some consequences may actually be unintentionally positive for the average driver. But my instincts tell me the bad will outweigh the good.

 

So it is them who own Otto. Ha!
Maybe having your own authority is not that bad after all, all I need to do now is to buy myself a few Ottos have my wife stare at the loadboard and deal with brokers. This way I'll finally find time to take care of my lawn.

 

Cheap freight has always existed and cheap operators continue to cycle through the industry to pull it. They aren't my competition. They can have that market.

 

Then you're in a good place and you have the luxury of taking the "simple solution."

Not every driver is so lucky. And the Uber effect will also trickle down to company drivers.

 

Uber is German for "over." Uber alles = "over all."

 

It has nothing to do with luck. It had to do with deliberate action. The dry van market is absolutely flooded with guys that don't have an understanding of economics and will pull cheap. Get away from dry van and you get away from 90 percent of them.

 

Getting away from dry van may actually be true. I really try not to be cheap and I am not desperate for any/pay me whatever money; truck is paid off, the house is paid off...but still I don't get rates that I thought I would. What understanding of economics? The freight volume this year (at least for April) was bigger than last year but the capacity is even bigger. Actually the mediocre or poor 2016 did encourage newcomers. To me it is all very simple...too many trucks. I am kind of thinking that even reefers would not make much difference either. I look at all these poeple doing the dry van thing and I see o lot of them in a very poor physical shape. Some barely walking. Some old. Some are women. And I don't mean to belittle them at all.
Maybe flatbed...This is a good sift 1. You need to be physically fit and strong. 2. You need to get your hands dirty 3. You need to be certain about the securement, that itself discourages a lot of people. But still is there enough room?

 

With a dry van you have to get into the last minute freight to get rates that are above or well above typical dry van market rates. Failing that the other option is taking advantage of typical situations where ordinary freight must go. Nothing to it really except for the ocean of cheap every day ordinary dry freight one has to wade thru to find anything like that worthwhile.

 

I pay attention to DOT #'s, and I see a lot more #'s starting with 2,xxx,xxx out on the road.

 

The reason i like flat bed so much compared to van and even reefer is while we have shippers trying to get things moved for rock bottom prices, and trucks willing to do it, you don't have them in the sheer numbers like you do with the boxes. Its 10, maybe 20% vs the 80%+.