Before deregulation?????

I started driving in 1985,de -regulation was in play.Before i started driving,while i was wrenching in the shop,i heard horror stories from drivers about the de-regulation.I didnt pay much mind-as i started hauling livestock to rodeo's-so all i cared about was delivery,cold beer n those cute babes w/those huge belt buckles.
It(motor carrier act) removed goverment restrictions.It De-unionized.Increased competition by letting in the non union little guys.And gave them the ability to grow.Also,brokers grew.
It de-regulated what could be carried/took restrictions off i guess.Opened up certain highways/routes that used to be off limits.It was like freeedom for the trucking industry-most everbody gained,prices went down.
At the cost of drivers salary.Drivers pay suffered,certainly with the elimination of the unions.Drivers pay is still suffering because of the de-regulation.For drivers it was bad(i remember listening to them)but for the rest of the world,it was great.
Kinda like de reg w/the airlines.Everybody n their brother wanted wanted de-regulation.NO big brother,get off my back,who's the goverment to tell me how much i charge-bla-bla-bla.
So- ok-here we go.We get de-regulation,now theres competition-price wars-price gougeing-overpricing---------------------kinda like a catch 22------was it better w/de-reg?Certainly not for the drivers n the pilots.
Too complicated.As long as they keep selling diesel n cold beer,im gonna keep jammin gears n thinkin bout them belt buckles.
I bet ya De-regulation would have pissed off Jimmy Hoffa!

 

It did piss off Hoffa and alot if us who where union....

 

You had to prove that the freight hauling need does exist. Then you were permitted to haul it. But only that. Nothing else. It was changed and deregulated to where it's fair game. NAFTA came along and now Mexican and Canadian can get loads inside the USA just as we can get loads inside theirs.

Just because we can does not mean we should.

Ive been on the fence with deregulation, I stayed in the food side (Reefer) because people have to eat and protected my ability to keep trucking even if it was into Hunts Point in NYC or the Market in Chelsea Boston downtown several times a week. I would have no pleasure or joy to do that now. No way.

The Unions took a hit. I was given a oppertunity in Baltimore one day long ago, but had too much wanderlust to travel the USA and change to stay put. After watching about a million flee the city and industry replaced with condos for those who have money to live above the violence and crime... they can have it.

 

There also were exempt commodities, like produce. That's why practically every owner/operator had a reefer. To get operating authority then, you needed to prove the need for it, and the existing companies could block you. To haul back you trip leased your truck to the outfit that hauled the freight.

 

Everything I need to know about regulation I learned from "Cannonball Run".

Knew a guy that ALMOST spent his retirement savings on buying a small trucking company with a sweet little route...... two years before de-regulation.

 

Lots of times when I was young and dumb. We hauled boxed pork. Regulated freight. But paperwork we had said frozen whole turkeys. Not regulated.. see where I'm going with this. Never got caught, or grain to Salt Lake. Reefer blasting ninety to nothin. Hey got to keep it cool...

 

Here is a good ? But I warn you , might make you think .....

Why regulation in the first place ?

Why deregulation after regulation ?

 

Because back then it was a free for all
They had to have some control over it
Then the Democratic party, said wait this isn't good, everyone should be truckers,etc etc
When trying to get your authority, you had to have shipper support. They would say that nobody wants to service our place or theother company can't or won't supply the trks we need. Now the other. Company can show up and say wait, yes we can keep up.
Also your authority was good as gold if you needed to borrow money ftom banks.. If you sold your business you also sold the authority separate or complete. Then it also had to be reviewed by the ICC board.

 

Like Bean said, most O/O had a reefer and hauled exempt commodities. There were some O/O that did lease on with regulated carriers also though and some that really lived on the edge and sometimes hauled "hot loads', but man you didn't want to get caught. There is still a list that defines what is exempt haul.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/Administrative_Ruling_119.pdf

Operating authority was obtained from the ICC by not only showing a need for it, but they also had to show that that lane was not already being served by another carrier. The operating area(s) and commodities hauled were strictly defined. There were two types of authority, contract and common. Contract authority was easier to obtain than common, but both required one to "show cause" for issuance...

The freight rates were much higher before de-reg, which equaled to a higher wage for the driver and good benefits/pension, due to union strength. The last thing a carrier wanted was for all their drivers to strike. Believe it or not, but back then the dispatcher, not the driver, was the low man on the pole (I know hard to believe), all they did basically was co-ordinate runs, and man don't mess up. Drivers dictated to the dispatcher what they were going to run. Piss off the drivers and watch out, dispatchers were just a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. Brokers, what brokers, them snakes hadn't slithered unto the scene just yet. Driver seniority ruled, the senior most driver got first bids and then so forth right on down the line. It wasn't uncommon for a driver to work his whole career with just one or two carriers.

It was sometimes tough to get on with a good carrier, most had waiting lists, some longer than others, depended on the area. It really helped to "know" somebody with some juice, same as today.

Well, along came de-reg, seems like, at the time, most everyone wanted it, but, remember in the '80s most everything was still made here, read lots of freight for few trucks. Fast forward to now, read too little freight and lots of trucks and cut throat competition. Add in NAFTA and many more foreign plated trucks (MX & CA) running freight for peanuts, many times illegally (point-to-point).

As a whole, will it turn around, I doubt it. Too much government intrusion, higher taxes & insurance costs, coupled with cheap freight rates and the so called "safety regs" (ELD), the O/O and small carrier will continue to feel the pinch. Mega carriers will rule and continue to gobble up smaller/inefficient competition. They (megas) will continue to treat drivers like an expendable commodity, continue to abuse them, and pay them peanuts.....