Are we owner operators really stuck around 2 bucks a mile?

I remember few years ago before the pandemic it was sometimes hard to get a load over $1.25/mile flatbed and I sat a bit here and there. But as mentioned fuel prices and parts were way cheaper.

Luckily I have such a low overhead and a paid off truck I can afford to be picky with my freight.

 

3 years ago everything was way cheaper than now.
Not only diesel but parts, tires, labor….
Inflation is 30-40% in reality, not 9% they say. Everything became more expensive so rates should be higher also. But because a lot of people bought crazy expensive trucks they taking everything just to survive.

 

9% is cpi only, not reality cpi doesnt include medical, energy or housing, to name 3 things...

Cpi, consumer price index, this is conflated with "inflation" and what everyone reports as inflation, but is not a meaningful measure nor in fact even remotely linked with inflation.

 

Exactly

 

I base inflation off how pissed off the wife is after returning from the grocery store. She doesn't miss a thing, if butter is up $0.50 she's gonna make noise about it!

 

…..I don’t know about you guys but I’m sure glad I landed this 4-8 week project.

2 - 12 hours shifts - these are numbers on one of those shifts

 

The problem is that this business in general it's just not a great thing.

Sure, having your own truck is nice. Picking where and when you want to go is nice. But it is an industry that the rates have not really gone up since the 80s and have not kept up at all with the cost of living. Yet all of the other costs associated with it have gone up.

On top of that, it's a business that what you actually are earning changes because of the economy and truck volume, and aside from the pandemic I don't know if the fluctuation up is really that great. Or if that offsets the downward swing... so if you calculate all that together, I myself think that calculation will not be a great number.

On top of that when you're not working you are working on the truck or even worse you have someone else working on the truck. Or you're washing the truck or cleaning the truck. Or you are doing your billing or you're IFTA or whatever else.

Then of course you are working for brokers and you sign your life away with those agreements. Sure if you go from A to B and have no problems and you get paid, wonderful. But if you have a problem you may have to sit on that load for a week or more. You have very little recourse, virtually nothing, for how much money they will give you. They will give you what they feel like giving you and you will take it.

The last problem is that in trucking your service is not unique enough that you can command a higher revenue than someone else. Actually, it usually works the other way around. You find an account or you find a broker or you have a direct shipper whatever the case is and you're getting paid and you're happy with the amount you're getting paid and then somewhere along the line oh well you know we have to make a change I have a carrier that can do it for Less can you do it for this...

I think if you're willing to work hard you can still make money but it's a rough business in the ways that I described and then some because on top of that you have to deal with unscrupulous repair shops and unscrupulous towing shops and sometimes unreasonable Dot cops. On top of a lack of parking and everything else and of course being away from home even if it is only one or two nights.

I get the guys that are super hardcore in this business but overall I don't think it's really that great. I think you have to really love what you are doing and love the lifestyle and never want to do anything else ever.

In the end, myself, I just don't think it's that great of a business.

 

The fedgov removed the things you have to have everyday to survive , good fuel housing and medical care , from the inflation calculations on purpose .

If the sheep knew how bad the inflation really was , they’d be headed to DC with pitchforks .

y’all need to be preparing for the day that the dollar is totally worthless , like Weimar Germany or one of those African countries that just keep printing money until it’s totally worthless, because , friend , that day IS coming .

there is no stopping it at this point .
The fedgov borrows or invents and prints half of what they spend every year .

To balance the federal budget would require cutting spending by half , and cut it even more to have some left over to repay the existing loans .
, and the rats in DC won’t ever reduce spending. they either tax and spend or borrow and spend.

 

You forgot "magic into existence and spend"

THAT is your inflation right there
Increase money supply with roughly the same amount of goods, definitionally thats inflation