The Port Strike Could Destroy Trucking - 9/18/2024

At least in New Jersey it seems like a lot are owner ops. I don't refer to a union strike but the trucker shut down everybody yells about every now and then to try and change the industry.

 

Needed one heck of a cushion for toilet rates for a couple years followed now no rates at all for port drivers.

 

Sometimes it's not the fall itself but the view from the cliff that makes people take action. Mostly just wishful thinking.

 

If they own the truck and are leased to a carrier I’m sure their lease would simply be cancelled. And I doubt the company they’re leased to would be real eager to pay them more when it will cost them money when their end of the contract with the port isn’t fulfilled. If they’re not happy with what they make why don’t they simply take their truck to a different company? I doubt anyone held a gun to their head and made them sign the lease agreement.

When you get into the world of contracts with large corporations they tend to not play around. For example a friend was hauling anhydrous for Koch. The company he was leased to had a contract that stated deliveries 7 days a week with a minimum of 35 loads onto a certain location. There were 7 trucks doing it and they’d get the 35 loads Monday to Friday. After the 4th week they got a letter saying they were in breach of contract because they weren’t delivering all 7 days even though they were delivering the minimum loads.

I guess that’s a long way of saying without union backing a truck stoppage won’t be of much benefit. The drivers will be replaced. And/or the company they work for or are leased to will be put under from legal costs associated with their trucks not working.

 

This is what you need to understand. They are not gonna give the union their demands. They are going to break them and replace them. And it’s gonna be ugly and it’s gonna be ugly for a long time.

 

That's the beauty of a union. You got to replace everybody.

 

I honestly don’t know the exact details enough to give my opinion of who’s right or wrong here. They’re asking a 77% waging increase over three years or something like that? Whatever fallout comes from this is gonna last for a while. Another blow to the trucking industry. A blow I don’t think it could handle. Not right now.

 

Perfect time to send in all the machines

 

That's fine if you want the port shut down to be a couple years long.

 

Seems like union willing to sit out forever, they just turned down 50% pay increase and restrictions on robots.