Detention discussion

Really? You article says the top 13 do $42 B ... My article says the market is $700 B ... sounds like the megas control less tha 10% of the market ... http://www.joc.com/trucking-logisti...nue-tops-700-billion-first-time_20150511.html

 

OK buddy were playing gotcha again?

First of all remember the $700B is the ATA's number; like they are an unbiased source. According to them the industry is still short 25000 drivers and due a million by the end of the decade. Right?

Remember were talking truckload detention specifically. Nothing to do with parcel, ltl, or specialized. To represent truckload for hire share of that $700B, take 30% of that $700B and you get $210B. So divide the $42B/$210B = 20% of the market is owned by only 13 companies. Considering 90% of the trucking industry as a whole is small companies, 13 companies owning 20% of the market is a huge influence.

 

So went from "most of the freight" to 20%.

now let's list off the megas shall we:
prime
swift
cre
Werner
Schneider

laughably I have seen TMC listed before. I know for a fact 1 of those fights for driver detention and is the largest reefer puller in the US. they also have flatbed and tanker trailers that get paid detention.

seems like the argument you make is crumbling more and more. If you are an oo or indie then don't go places that screw you so badly. If your a Co driver, go somewhere else. Either way you have the power to change it, and change is not throwing a tantrum on the internet. Change is not blaming trucking companies for the actions of shady shippers.

 

Intresting you bring up ltls, who are paid by the hour. I have been in very long lines before and have seen shippers pull ltl guys from the line to be serviced. Hmm...Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact these folks are hourly?

On instance stands out; a new Menards store not yet open in minneapolis. Get there at noon and it's 19 trucks deep. Several ltls pulled as they show up. I make it in the gate by 1900, and they tell all the other trucks to come back in the am. Line still about 19 deep

 

Most as in terms of market force. My argument was based on economic market force. If you can't understand that 13 out of nearly 200,000 companies hold 20% of the market is a huge force in a market I can't help you.

They shouldn't have to "fight for it" if they advertise it as pay benefit they should pay it. The contract the truckload company with the driver is not dependent on the terms of the customer. This is flat dishonesty and wage theft. "Oh sorry we tried to get you detention but the customer wouldn't pay." BS, stand up and manage your customer like all other businesses have to.

Apparently you don't understand it. If you do work for a company you should get paid for it. It is that simple.

Duh, but you have to compete against market giants that can readily reduce their cost by screwing drivers.

Better yet trucking companies can fairly and honestly compete in the same job market for workers as every other business. They can manage their customers like every other business has to. They can be obligated to pay what they promised.

And the best way to change it is to eliminate the subsidy given to trucking companies that allow them to cheat their workers.

No tantrum. Simple easy to read statement. Although some failed at that.

Oh please, the poor innocent trucking companies. Someone really laid a pity party on you and your still sucking it up. Don't hate the player hate the game. Who do you think lobbied for the laws that allowed trucking companies to run this shady piece work scheme?

Shippers are taking advantage of a freebee given to by trucking companies. Trucking companies are taking an advantage of a subsidy lobbied for years ago. The cost of that subsidy comes out of drivers wallets. They are both just a couple of welfare queens. When detention time is paid for like any other work it will end, until then it will prosper. What do you think all that driver shortage crap is all about?

 

The mega companies pay the drivers 40 cents per mile to drive 2500 miles a week while making $2.00+ per mile.
Driver goes home with a $800 a week paycheck, and the company makes $5000+.
Doesn't seem fair to me.

 

I'm sitting here right now at Costco in New Jersey. Load picked up at Coca Cola in Paw Paw, MI. on Sunday afternoon. I think it took me as long to sweep the trailer out as it did for them to load me. Very good. Told office I had no problem getting this back to the yard by Monday night for the local guys to deliver it. Load had an AM appointment today and they want me to do it. Fine I said. If I have to come back on Tuesday morning at 6AM to go do battle with that zoo I'm going to be on the clock for hourly pay. No charity work. You just have to do what you can to make it hurt somebody and not get left being a charity chump. If you're an owner-op it's a little different. You can just not go there again if you didn't like the treatment you got, or show me enough money up front and I won't feel so about it. Trying to chase brokers down for money after the fact is a fools errand.

 

I watched my travel agent work at her desk. She had a list of drivers on her board. On every driver, there was a list of every load. On every load, there was a box to check whether that load was delivered on time or late. Each dispatcher had 40-50 drivers and they keep stats like that on each driver. Every load that you ever pulled with that company. That's a whole bunch of stats, isn't it?

I heard the same thing, first empty first loaded. There are, however loads that I didn't see, never knew about, customers that I couldn't go to, until I made a name for myself. There's a much bigger freight base for the guys on top than the guys on the bottom, even at the same company.

For example, a bottom end flatbedder may run between Indiana, Ohio, to Laredo back and forth. Occasionally you may get a load to a different place and either take a load of lumber or some other cheap load back to your freight lane. But make a good name for yourself and suddenly, you find money in places like Kansas and Oklahoma and North Dakota, even Florida.

Is it fair?

Had a friend of mine get empty in Athens, Georgia. I was on my way to Griffin Georgia to deliver when they called me and offered me a load from Atlanta airport to Memphis for $5500. I took it. My buddy had called me wanting to meet up at the Petro in ATL to have lunch. I told him that I couldn't go. Told him about the load...I didn't know that he was empty. He was mad that they didn't offer him the load. The load was valued at over $20mil. He was a newer driver. He wasn't seeing those type loads. I had already pulled $60million loads. His argument was how did they know that he couldn't pull it off. Their argument was that they knew for a certainty that I could.

Fair? No. Smart? Absolutely. In the big game, you hand the ball to the guys that has proven all season that they never drop the ball.