A Shortage of Trucks - WSJ

I never thought I’d say it, but...

Percentage is making me a lot of money right now.
I’ve been against percentage since I was first introduced to it back in the mid 90’s.

 

Me too .

 

Fake News

 

Horse GIF - Horse - Discover & Share GIFs

 

Our miles driven per week are down say 20%. But, pay is up 30%+. We are leaving quite a bit of freight on the table that we would normally haul for our customers, but cannot due to HOS. The only change has been the ELD, not weather related in the least. We run short haul, call it local work, normally never more than an hour from the house.

When things kick in say around April, Katy bar the door! Truck availability is going to really tighten and rates should go much higher. Problem is, this is all artificial. Yes the economy is taking off, but even so, this is the slow period and we would normally not see issues in capacity. Depending on which side of the logistic chain you are on, this will be good, or very very bad. I am predicting a good year, just wondering how long this will last before Washington changes the rules, again.

 

I've been busy all month and haven't heard any other drivers,complaining about slow freight..

 

Same here, I'm running harder now than before with the ELD. Instead of a nice easy pace, now it is hammer down to get the first load of the day done to go get the second or third... Wearing my tail end out. I miss the days when I could relax and do my job. Beat the Clock BABY!

 

I really don't like being under the gun with the ELD, so I have changed what I am doing quite a bit. I cut back to four days per week, length of haul less than 500 miles, minimum rate of $4 per mile. Less than that and I park the truck. It's just not worth the trouble. The ELD fouls up and doesn't go into driving, can't put it there manually anymore, and I end up with a messed up day that I can only partially fix. I envy the guys that I know that were able to retire in December, I still have a couple of years before I can join them.

 

I didn't notice any speeding up in refrigerated loads receiving.It still takes them hours to unload and count few pallets.