Deregulation specifics

1934 ICC excludes trucking specifically.

Railroads were separate and their own world. Even the new social security etc is not for railroaders.

Trucking helped chop railroading up in the 50's and onwards.

I cannot imagine today the average mindless steering wheel holder working with bingo cards and a bagful of permits saying where he or she can go and cannot etc.

 

Interline to get loads to their destination outside your authority...

meet the Canadian carrier at the boarder then layover in Sweetgrass, MT waitin' for them to get back with your trailer....

that's a one projector movie theater and one small two tap bar in the middle of nowhere while you wait 2 - 3 days.....

We did one load of 'Bad Stuff' to Mississauga, Ont. the driver and his space helmet he wore while off loading had to ride in with the Canadian driver and off-load instead of a simple layover...

 

Regarding your last sentence, yeah, it was a real PITA trying to keep all that straight; however, enforcement was no where near the level it is today. Once upon a time, in many States scales were closed more than they were open. If you did get stopped without the proper permit(s), there was good chance they'd just sell you it on the spot to gain compliance. If fined, it was usually a minimal amount, unlike today with it's zero tolerance, cash cow money grabbing, made to feel like a criminal, approach.

Law enforcement, for the most part, exercised common sense then. They knew the difference between who was trying to get away with something serious vs simply an honest or lazy mistake.

Computers didn't track your movements to the exact second as they do now. "We found that you ran 15 minutes past your allotted driving time, park it, you're OOS." "Oh, by the way, your insurance company's gonna hear about this too."

I hopefully have got a few good years left, but I could pack it in any time now and be fine. When the day comes though (and it's coming) and I'm forced to install an EDL and a big brother spy cam in the cab, I'm done, you boys can have it. I just thank the good Lord for allowing me to work & run when He did...

 

I wonder if people ever think that drivers made more before deregulation because things costed more back then partly due to the high shipping cost from the regulations.

 

Hate to even get started in a thread like this, because I sometimes don't know when to stop.
Background. Was a single truck, single trailer mostly Teamster leased operator for 40+ years, started in the early 70's, happily and comfortably retired. Never drove a company truck, O/O my entire career. Lot of time on both sides of the reg-dereg fence. When it comes to true black bottom line income, money in, money out, made way more and much easier living before deregulation. Also, it was signed in, in 1980,but it took almost a decade before it was fully implemented, and everyone finally figured it out, and understood it. You also had Fortune 500 and other corporations that were perfectly happy paying a premium, so long as they got the service. If they wanted a truck at 9am Monday morning to load an expensive product to a customer, and deliver when required, they would pay. All it takes is one bad deregulated experience with some hobo truck shows up around noon, with bald tires, no habla, no tarps, etc.,etc. and they would be calling their preferred carrier back next time. Every company I was leased to back then had strict requirements, we sold service, and were proud of that, our record, and our equipment.
This was all done without cell phones, computers, internet, gps, etc. Your computer was the little black book of agents and phone numbers you carried in your shirt pocket, of all your connections that had freight, and where they were at. And when your agent had a good load, he had it. It wasn't being swapped around on the internet by a bunch of w hores, everyone shaving a little piece of it off for doing nothing.
When I leased on to CF special commodities in 1980, our absolute minimum truckload charge was 1.40 per mile. That was just a gauge for the agents. But we didn't want that garbage, it was usually trip leased out. We wanted the truckload class rated shipments with ltl pay. We ran a board system back then, first in, first out. I ran steel and machinery cross country ltl on a drop deck for decades, that's where the money was then. I was based out of the Baltimore area, good industrial base back in the 70's and 80's. Get with the right company, the right agent, making money was like shooting fish in a barrel. Didn't get it all the time but sometimes once a year or so, sometimes longer you would get a shipment that paid 10k truck money, cross country, when everything lined up right. Legal loads, didn't want the od stuff, just 3, sometimes 4 good paying shipments on.
Enough about rates,because I realize it's the internet, and someone will always say I'm full of it, you old bistards didn't really make that kind of money back then.........but we did, and with Teamster benefits.
Interlining. Yeah, that was pita, but it didn't happen often. I was leased to PIE Allstates in the 70's, loaded a nice big machine out of Tracy Ca once, going to GR Michigan. Had to stop at Ryder Rangers office in Gary, In. and cut an interline lease because we didn't have authority to move a food machine into Michigan. Sometimes you had to do things like this, no big deal.
As Clausland said regulations by most states were much more relaxed then. Would not fill a log out for days, sometimes weeks, and then it was just to get paid. If you had a light out or something similar at a scale, it was usually "hey driver, get that fixed next time you stop for coffee". Not some ridiculous oos thing, or big fine for some chicken shot item.
Jeezus, enough ranting, you old fart.

 

I remember working a my first dispatch job and this older man in a suit came in and started chatting with the boss. Looked like a salesman...turned out it was the local DOT guy!

doing up the trip leases, after the fact, adding up the guy's recaps and making off duty logs to include carbons with the trip leases making it look like he WAS under 70....looked so good, I probably could have endorsed their checks....

 

I would be embarrassed when dot asked for my log book 30 years ago , well officer I’ll need to find it then I couldn’t remember where I had been! I’d just put off duty 7 days then start on my latest run.

 

Somewhere back around '83, I was heading back to the barn M/T in central NY on a nice Spring Saturday morning. Somehow State route 145 stands out. Anyway, I just took a bite out of an apple when I came upon a DOT spot check. The usual questions were asked, along with, "Are you current on your logbook?" No sir, I replied. "Why not", he asked. Well, I says, it's Saturday morning and I wasn't expecting you boys out here today. He replies, "I really don't want to be out here today either, how far behind are you?" I last drew a line last night. "Well, get it caught up while I look over your rig", he says. A short while later, I was down the road.

I used to run wood chip loads (3-4 loads a day) from the sawmills to the pulp mill, one road in, one road out. Anyway, scale boys would set up on that road, easy pickens all day long, but, after they weighed you and gave you an OW ticket (almost all those loads were 85-105k), they'd tell you to make a copy of it and keep it in the truck, as it was good for a month.

Those two stories would never happen in this day & age....

 

Well, a dollar in the Crysler New Yorker, a mid 60's model at the local Mobil in Joppa was a little bit around 5 gallons gas. Aberdeen and Baltimore was in range of that town for the weekend if no other trips were made and ready for a run to work in Baltimore monday morning.

Average wage in 74 or so was about 4.01 a hour so 5 gallons gas... not a problem. That also happened to be the year of the Arab Embargo. My father's datsun needed only 5.00 to full tanks I think at .40 a gallon which was really high compared to .28 or so when filling the dollar into the big car. (30 gallon tank... which I think at 8 per gallon would be a decent range for the time) My tahoe's 25 gallon tank which was filled last night with 8 gallons used through the last 4 months town driving for errands probably gave me 10 miles to gallon. It would be closer to 70 to 80 dollars premium gas to fill it full up. And wages today is a minimum 10.00 a hour.

You can see in gasoline terms how our economy has turned over from 1968 to 2020. If I wanted to have a car that will provide a commute 30 miles to work earning say 60.00 for the day or so after withholding the vehicle has to do the 60 mile trip for less than 20 dollars in gas at most. Leaving 40 useable for the house bills.

Thats not much. Trucking at 1000+ net per week for good weeks and zero commuting costs for same works out well. I had that situation up until 2002 when based out of little rock. In those days I could care less what vehicle I had in terms of gasoline burn. I still don't. Particualrly as older vehicles prove to be easier and cheaper to maintain than today's overly demanding flaw filled computer and emissions crap.

Explained in a different view based on first hand memory in Baltimore Harbor, it was a working harbor until about the 1980's if you stood pierside you saw shipyards, pepsi bottling, mccormick spices, warehouses, cold storage, dominos and god knows what else. A pure working harbor.

Fast forward to today, its mainly condos for the retired and boat docks for those who can afford them combined with what we call harbor place and a couple of our tourist stuff; a boost to the city economy meaning money goes to City hall annually by revenue locally. Instead of the working harbor supporting and raising families in a meaningful way as it was since it's founding 300 years ago.