DONT CALL BROKERS

And fortunately I will either be too old or dead to be involved by then. Until that point, I myself still have to produce sustainable revenue, and it normally isn't done through the broker avenue. I enjoy "retail transport", whereas I charge my customers an hourly rate for the local work and a fair (but sensible) one for longer distances. It's a numbers game and it's all in how you play it.

 

I'll believe that when I see it. There's an old issue of Popular Mechanics from 65 years ago that said we wouldn't be driving cars in the 1990's. We'd be flying around like the Jetsons in personal air cars or whatever. There's lots of predictions like that which never materialized. Some people say a solar flare could strike and set us back 165 years technologically. That's just as likely or, just as much nonsense, as your prediction. Nobody knows what the future holds.

 

That's true enough... But they were trying to forecast a lot further out than I am. I don't necessarily think that trucking is a definite lock to no longer be a job... But does anyone doubt that it won't be a call center job where you control a drone truck? They can probably already operate those legally in Florida or Texas lol.

Bottom line though is that there is an awful lot of #####ing about how rates need to go back up to where they were in the old days on this forum. I'm not saying the old days weren't better, because for a lot of people they obviously were... But these are the new days and the old days are gone. I'm 32 years old... Which means that I don't get the privilege of pretending that this stuff isn't going to happen in my lifetime. It's going to happen, and then I'm going to have 30 years left to go. I #### sure have to have a plan for as many eventualities as I can think of. I also never got to enjoy the old days. Let's all give the baby boomers a nice golf clap for ruining it all for my generation.

 

If automation was the be all end all for transportation, in the ability to use resources more efficiently with little to no labor, every single freight train in this country would have been automated a decade ago.

 

Simple economics here. The market's flooded. More trucks around than "new" business means everybody competing for the same thing over and over and over and over again, just a different bottle of wine and a different pair of football game tickets to con the customer into the contract now.

Too bad "truckers" nowadays don't have the same mentality as a plumber, electrician, carpenter, and tradesman whereas they charge a rate that's based upon their skillset and their demand. You might see a complete paradigm shift for once, where shippers would be in dire straits needing service. But as long as there's white volvos, open borders and cdl mills not requiring the student to speak or understand English 100%...that ain't a'gonna happen friends. (Here we go, just started a temporary ban on myself now...)

 

I live in Chicago, half of the business you mentioned above, trades such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, masons, roofers, painters, siding installers, drywall installers, landscapers, are held by people who you might perhaps call "white volvos" too. They thrive here because they know what they're doing.
Maybe "white volvos" skill set, and service they provide is regarded just as good by brokers, shippers or whoever else as yours. Otherwise, why would they not have figured it out yet? It is not like they showed up yesterday. As long, I as remember, the "white Volvos" have always been there.

 

I have to respectfully disagree on that. The industry i started in and enjoyed began for me in the 1970's . Volvo wasn't in existence in the USA yet, let alone the broken English speaking drones that operate them somehow.
There were tarrifs, carriers set rates...hence this business was once lucrative. The beginning of the end was deregulation, followed by a glut of new trucking companies flooding the market. Insurance rates, fuel prices, expenses rising...along with absolutely too many carriers competing for the same work, contributed to the demise of the once highly respected job i dedicated myself to.

I'm sure the older guys here understand what I just said and meant.

 

The brokers work on a margin, so they really don't mind higher freight prices themselves. The shippers/receivers are the ones pulling the strings for most part. I agree though that O/O who focus on browsing load board then calling brokers tend to create a poor bargaining position for themselves. Learn how to post truck and wait until broker calls you. Brokers often proscrastinate to last minute then call out of desperation. That's when driver wages rise.

 

I agree with what you write regarding truck load marketplace; however, the White Volvo (VNL780) is currently best bang for O/O buck. The Volvo high tech package of reliable D13 engine and CARB emission system, I-shift automatic transmission, and cab comforts is best on market today. Guys who buy Peterbuilt and Kenworth are dreaming legacy and nostalgia rather than business sense.

 

If that's what you're into... Good luck to you. Not everyone considers a Volvo to be their path to success, and I'm one. I and many others did just fine and continue to do so in Peterbilts and Kenworths, and the resale value of the Volvo in the end..... not very attractive to anyone except an exporter.