Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

When I was poking around for a truck a few years back I had a dealer tell me that there was grant money for single O/O's but you had to be in business for 2 years and prove it with docs and you had to have a non compliant truck and you had to turn it in when you bought the new truck and and you still had to come in with some money down, it broke my heart to see classic 359's CUT IN HALF then loaded on to flat and shipped in to Mexico. Oh and I didnt qualify was because I was a start up Blah Blah Blah Looking back i shouldve bought an old DT 466 2 axle and I wouldve had it made. Hind sight is always 20/20 isnt it? Now all the grant money is long gone and alot of the guys around here work the ports in Long Beach and you should see that circus, BRAND NEW Freightliners BEAT into ground half the clowns dont speak any english let alone know how to drive a truck, they back into each other side swipe each other race to the next loading area. Our company ran a pilot program to see if it was cost effective to bring it in house and our own trucks into port.....thanks but no thanks, and now if you dont have a 2008 or newer the port wont even let you in you get turned away, so that's one way they are getting compliance they going after the shipper. Ive had my CA# for years now and all I need is my MCP# form filled out and ready to go and insurance and I can run.Oh yeah I need to #### or get off the pot and buy that truck LOL

One point that you made that I didn't consider was a credit card for repairs, and fuel card.
I think at this point if the right deal comes along I just may jump at it and run till they wont let me run any longer, like you hopefully 3 years from now maybe more grant money will come along and they(CARB) will get the final push to try to get everyone compliant and they will have to grant those funds to businesses located within the state. Keeping my fingers crossed....

 

Talking about automated trucks. I talked to a SNI driver. His truck makes noises at him when he get to close to they white line. It brakes for him when he is to close. The ones I didn't know is the cruise control automatically adjusts to the speed limits. The GPS knows when there are hills. That's now what happens in 5 years?

 

Sixty minutes did a show 2 or 3 weeks ago about automated cars. BMW and google both had cars that are independent that the show focused on. Ex-nasa engineer was working on it. It sucks, but its a matter of time till we are out.

The article you listed about trucks killing us, where they cite the Tracy Morgan accident. That was a driver making poor decisions and not being rested at the start of his shift, yet its the whole industry that is at fault. An all electric port is very crazy, less people needed for work more poverty???

 

As a shipper, can't wait to get automated trucks. Take it to the state highway, and wave goodbye.

Off course, I'd like to see it throw chains to get across the Blues in winter.....

 

That's where the low paid babysitter comes in. Tarp strap and chain then recheck every 150 miles other than that go in the bunk and watch tv and the load will get cross country in a couple days

 

I remember reading an article about Swift's deal with the LA ports. Some kind of way the ports had granted Swift $7milion bucks to purchase 'green' trucks and run 75% of the time at the ports or have to pay the money back. Evidently Swift went out and bought $2 million worth of green trucks (you'll recognized them with the green Swift logos and such) and pocketed the other $5million. Couple few years later ports did an audit and found Swift only ran the trucks like 35% of the time at the ports so demanded the money back. Swift settled for $2milion with them so basically got $5 milion for free.

 

automated trucks need to be on HOS?

Fort Collins Bud only 2 humans in the warehouse second and third shift. one guy uo on third floor sitting at a console looks like air traffic control tower
robot forklifts loading 20 trailers at once stop as they pass each other weigh and shrinkwrap each pallet

 

But those two guys are probably getting their $15 an hour. Best part is the robot loaders are usually slower than the people they replace.

Kind of amusing that all the port nonsense has the geniuses trying to work out robot trucks when there's perfectly good trains already doing that.