Switching to intermodal

OP, don't listen to these guys that haven't driven in 30 years or have never pulled a can. Don't take my word for it. You can see first hand what it's like by simply searching about it online. YouTube has plenty of videos about how bad the ports are.

Better yet, sit near the entrance of your closest port. Watch the trucks coming in and out. See how long the line is. How slow it moves. Pay attention to the drivers and equipment condition. See how long it takes for a truck to enter and leave. You'll quickly see the reality of the process. It's deplorable.

I leased on to 3 different companies in about one year. All of the pulled from Seagirt. There's no money in it as an OO. If you can find a company willing to pay you hourly with OT over 40 driving their equipment you can make an OK local job out of it but I assure you the other trucks, the union and the local DOT will ruin it for you (and your record).

 

How would " The Union " ruin an intermodal job ?

 

I've been in intermodel since 2016 at the Jacksonville Fl port. Then it was awesome. Work here, work there, money money everywhere. Not the same anymore. Most Jacksonville trucking companies don't deal Blount Island anymore. Last 18 months or so, most shippers are using the Savannah port. It's a BIG busy port. Not a good place to be a newbie at.
Your best bet is either down south or Savannah GA ports.

 

The unions control the ports and they're ALWAYS causing issues throughout the day. Work slowdowns to punish management so they technically aren't on strike because they can't strike according to the contract. Dropping containers on the wrong chassis or loading them backwards.

All of those scenarios require a near complete repeat of the extremely long process you went through to get it in the first place. Plenty more to list. They're literally strangling the entire port system like a giant snake.

 

Perhaps my view of intermodal freight is skewed; mostly I saw those old bangers and clunkers that ran containers in and out of the New Jersey waterfront. You know the type....guys who do ALL their braking with the trolley bar to save their tractor brakes, chassis that have seen better days, trucks and trailer being put out-of-service at every scale-house east of the Mississippi, etc. From what I've seen, intermodal freight is where you go when nobody else will hire you...

 

See, that's the "problem" with this site, and America, I suppose, nobody can agree on anything. No wonder we're in such a mess, everybody is stupid except me. I think your ideas of junk trucks pulling RR trailers is a bit flawed, and out of date. I had my truck leased to a power only outfit in Green Bay. We didn't have all white in color Volvos either, we had some really nice trucks, mine included. I still say, if you trash the rail biz, they must have taken some load away from you, and like it or not, last year, intermodal experienced a whopping 8.7% increase, you tell me. They promised 3-4 days from Chicago to either coast, eliminates the OTR hassles, AND, removes dangerous drivers that would normally pull those loads cross country in poor weather, hence the pileups too. Walmart, Pumpkin, JB and many others are switching to intermodal. Years ago, the yards were terrible, most of the fly by night container yards( open at 8am) are gone, and you could easily get a "steady Freddie". I knew a guy that all he did lived off I-43,, was pull a loaded container from Ft. Howard in Green Bay, to Chicago, grabbed an empty, and was home by supper( breakfast). Up to you, I guess.

 

What year did you do this? Tell me about the rates you were getting?

 

I bought my truck in fall of '88 to summer '93, and I was green as could be, and not too savvy about rates, but I usually ran for about $1-$1.10/mile, keeping in mind, fuel was .75/gallon. I did do some .90/mile as a favor to the dispatch, and some were almost $1.30/mile, and I did all my own work on the truck, and saved money there. I read, current intermodal rates are $3.44/per mile, which I think is more than current road rates( $3.19/mile) and given the current situation in trucking, I tell ya', that's what I'd do again.

 

Your experience is outdated and even for if adjusted for 2025 it was still underpaid. Also, 3 something per mile on a 10 mile run is slave wages. Not to mention, the steamship lines do not allow the carriers to use the containers for outside loads so you have to bring the can back to the port empty. 3 something per mile now becomes 1.59ish per mile.

The rates gave always been garbage. That will never change. It does not matter how much there is to haul if it's cheap. Most people buy trucks and start businesses to be profitable, not to run a charity by subsidizing other businesses operating expenses.

There's a reason 99 percent of can hauling carriers are all OO because they aren't profitable enough to be able to properly pay for their own trucks and drivers. Instead, they prey on ignorant (or desperate) lease ops to keep them afloat in an industry segment built on rate cutting.

 

I owned my truck in 97. It was an old Crete truck, a 92 Volvo/WhiteGMC. 11.1 Detroit, 9 speed. Rates were $1.15 a mile for loaded, and I think .90 for empty. Ran IL, IN. WI OH, and MI. Home every other night. Home weekends. Fuel was between $1.20-$1.50.

Money was OK, probably brought home $1100.00-$1400.00 a week after expenses. Some better, some worse.Decent money for the time.Reloaded many an empty can, and returned to the railyard. Never wen't back empty.
Company started screwing with me, wanting me to run farther out, Canada, etc. And the 11.1Detroit, at 350HP, was seriously underpowered. Finally, got tired of the whole situation, sold the truck, and went back to a private carrier.