Under $2/mile loads with $6/gal diesel.

Good post. I remember what trucking was like before deregulation and you've described it accurately. People who want to see more control over the trucking industry wouldn't like it at all.
A lot of people are going to lose their trucks in this downturn. That's as it should be. They got into a business they knew nothing about on the strength of other people's expectations.

 

For those proposing a “cap” on brokers profits, make sure that you send back any money you make over the “cap” that they think you should be limited to.
Also make sure you send them your operating expenses on that load, so they know you aren’t trying to screw them.
Then we all need to get together and determine what our operating expenses should be set at so we create a “level” playing field.
It shouldn’t matter that I control my costs or negotiate better than everyone else.
It’s not “fair” to them.

 

For the most part, the industry works as you describe you want it to work. You have about 3 weeks of folks learning the baseline information about the equipment and most common procedures then about 3 months supervised in the real world developing critical thinking. Sure some get into the industry in a completely different manner but for the most part they are a small minority I would guess.

I really think detention pay will be law, I couldn't guess how long that will be but the cynical part of me believes there's a few mega carriers who see this as an opportunity to gain market share and have already begun implementing a strategy to front run the implementation of that change.

 

It is not a slogan. It's a proverb.

Of course I could. It depends on how deep you want to dive.
I am glad that you perceive the problem in aggragate terms - industry as a whole system.
Can't you feel intuitively that the efficiency of the systen derives from how the system is balanced?
The proper distribution of profits ensures that balance.
I took arbitrarily 15% - a guess.
But I don't think it would be that difficult to build an econometrical model - encompassing costs. Investments. Risks, also last but not the least, the social utility a carrer, shipper and broker delivers to society - that would suggest more precise a figure.

 

Do you really believe that brokers don't get audited?

I'm 100% sure that all companies get audited.
The IRS also just added many new people, so they can increase audits.
I've been audited many times by Revenue Canada, if the books don't look good, trust me they will catch it. I'm certain a broker with shady accounting department gets busted before long. Do you think that the only person held accountable by the government is truckers? Try running a gravel pit sometime. They will have you dancing all the time, and make trucking look completely unregulated in comparison.
Everyone in the government seems to come by and tell me how I can run my pit.
The trucks are the least regulated by a large margin.

 

I was too young to remember much back when South Dakota was regulated on the intrastate level. But when I was in Hawaii for 4 months in 2018 it was an eye opener. And as heavily regulated as they are it still didn’t stop someone from cutting the rate to get work. All they had to do was adjust the billable hours that a truck had on any given job to make it look like they were charging properly.

 

What if the broker gets capped at 15% and no longer has the available capital to offer fuel advances and quick pay? That will hurt those that can’t wait 30 days and then they’re not on the level playing field anymore.

 

A long time family friend has a gravel pit that washes stone, I’ve been yelled at a time or two for not having a back up alarm, “DOT may not mandate them but anything past the curb is mine” according to msha

 

Such brokers are inefficient - they're failures- and should release their customer accounts or be absorbed by others.

 

We skirted over to the topic of mandatory training. What about the guy that buys a truck and trailer or a few and has no intentions on working for some one else? Any training may be sub standard on how the owner prefers to treat own equipment. I see most out there that have been “trained” backing up to a trailer and slamming the fifth wheel into the apron. No thank you. Most of the experienced guys out there, have no clue. I’m not in favor in these training standards that are out there. Seems like an excuse for the ATA to team guys. Too much regulation already. Leave me alone, government. Your wasting my time and money!