Times They Are A-Changin': Can Owner-Operators Keep Pace?

Could you imagine these grocery warehouses being a "free for all" get here when you get here? I guess it wouldn't be too bad if you got there and were the only one there but if you got there the same time that 5 or 6 days worth of other loads got there! Talk about being held up then.

 

That would be like the Ports on a "good" day.....

 

Well I wouldn't know about them ports.

 

And believe me...you don't.....
Even with the new scanning equipment...it's still one big cluster....

BTW...I can make more money hauling in empty containers than the port drivers make hauling loaded....and yet those drivers run like bats out of Hell up the 47, the 110, and the 710......they are the epitome of "Bottom-feeders".......

 

Actually before they started this just in time freight mess, we never had any appointment's. You got there when you got there

 

I agree with the rest of the panel, "panel" lol: I was enjoying the writing until they start trying to make a stew about the rail thing again, which is a joke.

but the article raises a point about "respond, change and adapt" in the Army they called good old Army flexibility: which when you heard you knew you were in for a bending:

but let's think back to "why" many of us (not all) become owner operators; it was because the freight was plentiful and it made good sense, and we did profit; but times do change, it's not always going to make good sense to fight a battle with only the ability to move forward: another way---Muhammad Ali use to say "when you're hurt, don't be a fool and keep charging in".

Victory is not always to the one that's willing to take a beating and tout the virtues of standing tall and strong, but to the one that's able to stick and move, push forward and fall back, what does all this mean?

Something very basic: if by virtue of foresight you see you can not make a decent living off the freight you were finding on your own; accept the fact that there are still plenty of companies out there that have freight to run, even if you have to park your trailer "for a time"; you can shake free of cargo insurance, drop back for a time and find someone that's going to pay you a rate that's going to make this thing worth your while: and when things look up get back out there and capitalize. I believe that's the way you weather the storm and live to fight another day "Good Old Army Flexibility".......but that's just me.......Jo Bernard

 

I agree. There are rail loads that go directly from CA to Chi, whole train loads every week and the mail runs from LA to CHI in 48 hrs on the BNSF. Bet you cant catch it in a truck. That train came out to Hereford TX headed for Amarillo doing 130 MPH. Railroads just dont have enough capacity to handle it all and never will because they have no plans to expand to 4 tracks each way whidh is what theyd need and then theyd have to keep track of it. I hauled lumber and cars would get sidetracked between OR and NM for 5 weeks and we got charged for it.