NY Times article The Trouble with Trucking

What a well written article. Thanks for sharing.

 

I didn't read it but I'm sure it all boils down to corporate greed

 

So much for fake news........ they seemed to on the mark with that article.

 

There is no shortage of drivers. Just a shortage of drivers willing to live out of a 6 foot fiberglass box for less than minimum wage.

 

I read the article some time back.

Frankly it has a number of issues. Whole libraries are full of these related to Trucking. They could have done themselves a favor by calling up the Kansas City Star to collaborate.

The biggest is the idea of the pay rate and overtime exclusions plus abuses from shippers and recievers. They are not outrageous punch your face abuse, but soft abuse such as making you sit 16 hours waiting for a dock after you arrived 5 minutes prior to your appt date and time. They knew you were coming for a week, with something they ordered last month, or 6 months ago from Europe or asia and now you sit.

No wonder we have such a crappy life. What we give in the name of the USA.

I am not bitter or angry. I gave my life time to trucking because as a boy that was what I was going to do, and everything I set out to do I have done all my life. No regrets. However. You have to plow through a awful lot of difficult roads that break the truck before you find the promised land over the mountain and ride easy.

 

There was a part where a sharecropper for Prime says that he ran 6000+ miles and was paid $480 and he and others have a class action lawsuit. I wonder how smart you have to be to figure out, when you’re sitting at a table, and they’re selling you on this whole lease purchase deal...

...that the numbers don’t add up.

You’re in a company truck and they’re paying you $.45/mile. You’re gonna sign a lease, and pay $1200-1400/ week (all in), but your rate is $1/mile+fsc. They have a brand new truck for that their shop has destuned and put their corporate beancounter tune in the ECM. Guys, if you don’t know and haven’t figured it out yet, the reason why your truck keeps on having regen problems is because of that beancounter tune they put in the ECM. Just about every mega carrier does this.
You go for a week every 5-6 weeks, your payment snowballs. You’re in the shop again for that freakin regen, your payment snowballs. So, if you averaged 3000 miles a week, but your payment is $1200-1400/week, and out of 6 weeks, you went home 1 week and was broke down a week, how much more will you make than if you’re running the same amount of miles as a company driver?

 

No,

It involves 'Slavery'...and violation of 1099 contracting!

 

Low pay blah blah blah, lease ops being fleeced blah blah blah


Different theme but same scenario