Trucking companies closing their doors. 2019 was a bad year.

Anti Trump? hehehehe . No men. I am not anti Trump person. If something is gray, I will say it is gray. I voted for him and I was waiting for better performance. Moving to political section ? no , I better stop posting...

 

How can you be stranded if you have control of the truck a couple bucks in fuel a bobtail can go along ways

 

If immigrants are so bad then why are Americans working for them.

 

Bottom feeders work for anybody they can American or not

 

I think we both remember when an aspiring carrier had to prove there was a need and it was not being served before a new authority was issued (ICC). It was not easy to get authority in those days, in some places next to impossible, but we worked around it somehow (exempt hauling & trip leasing). There was like a 4 page or more application process that had to include at least one established customer company that supported the need for the applicants new authority, and also that no other established carriers objected to it either, yeah, good luck with that ...

Everybody howled and cried foul, hence de-regulation came about, but the pendulum then swung way too far the other way, where it is now. I agree, it's too easy to get authority, it needs to come back to somewhere in the middle ground....

 

I remember deregulation. In the 70's it hurt us so bad. But we came back from it by hook or crook. Among a few other things that needed to be set by the way side. Bingo cards for one. And so on.

One of my family relatives was nose deep in trucking both in the Red Ball and later in gasoline until the late 50's after he had a run away on Big Savage. He quit and went home by train from Cumberland leaving the burning truck where it was. He did not say anything about the load or empty status on that one, it did not matter. He wanted out and he got out. Later before deregulation we would go to truck dealers until he found one that he liked. that was very late in his life. To hold a Class A at that age and pickup a pretty nice truck for the job at hand related to Aberdeen Base where they test weapons and other things on the Proving Grounds there. One day it got stolen in the night loaded and all. that was unfortuantely a government load and a VERY big mess. Ultimately the family in that time knew who did it and the Govt got back their freight in timely manner. But they have passed on before the thief (Who probably has passed on as well) was caught formally. It did end his trucking like a slammed door. Deregulation came along not long after. Then cancer showed up put him into bed unable to do anything but roll in pain for several months 24/7 killed him hard. We had to stop visiting because it was too hard on us children.

What does all that have to do? Well, Deregulation meant that if you wanted to buy a truck and hire a driver to run A to B before deregulation, you had to prove to ICC that there is freight for A to B and for that truck is a need to benefit the Nation. And so you were allowed to run A to B but not to C or D without permission with truck number two. And so on. After deregulation any one with a wallet full of cash can throw a truck and trailer tags on, grab whatever going wherever at any time and just go. Rates fell fast. Finally relationships between A and B and C and D and so on collapsed into a vicious infighting one of them will make a dollar today, the others will not. Unless they can get a tractor trailer at .40 a mile. (Severely undercut the competition to make the shipper or whoever pays the truck bill to haul it A to B a offer they cannot refuse)

Its a race to the bottom. And we are going to continue to fall towards the bottom for a while. Trucking is feast and famine. Those who have been ants quietly putting away a whole store of food and goods to get through a hard 6 month winter while the grasshopper partied and played all the day and danced the night away in excess and debauchery. Winter shows up and Mr Grasshopper is forced to ask Mr Ant for a plate of food and in bad health from starving. And there is the lesson.

Some companies will survive and might even thrive on the wreckage left behind by those who failed. And so it goes. Certian freight like Pharmacy Medicines will only improve and go well for another 30+ years until our Aging Population finally dies enough off and the average age of our People gets to be very young again about the mid 30's for a while. Certain of those top drug companies will go out of business. The Sackler Family is one example with the Oxycontin Scandal. They do not possess enough money to pay off the thousands of lawsuits against them and continue to stay in business. They brought that on themselves. And are eliminated from business.

As will bad trucking companies. In some cases they will be eliminated.

Eventually we will see human drivers reduced to a minimum wage yard jockey fetching trucks from the curb and docking them after a 9 hour wait. These Robot Trucks will eliminate the cost of professional human truckers. AND THAT will keep many companies in business a little while longer. I see automation as a way of eliminating humans wholesale from trucking.

And the freight? if you want to go looking for problems, take a look at Amazon warehouses where people drop on their feet or pee into bottles at the sorting station because they get docked too much money to dare to to the regular bathroom. Warehouses keep ambulances on site ready to go for the next worker that drops. And since everyone has a illusion of 40 dollar a hour in Amazon job they will continue to line up. I for one wont. Even today when I bought a book or something on Amazon because it's not availible anywhere else at all I hate the experience knowing that there are many workers being driven like slaves in sweatshop conditions to hurry up and get that book out of there. Its NOT THAT important, its a freaking book. It will get to my door when it gets there.

As far as the Politics, I refuse to be tempted. Between that and death topics Its best I don't get into it at all. People do not understand my position and it's better that they don't hear a #### thing about anything so divisive and unpopular anyway.

Its so easy to lose good friends and divide family permanently with politics and death etc (Religion would be another) so why bother getting into it? what is the reward or attraction rather.

 

That would lead me to tell Mr Cali up above what I really think of him and his opinions..

thus probably getting me banned..

I’m done with it.