What is it going to take to get rates up? What can truckers do to make it happen?

Tonight I talked to a driver for a well known carrier. He told me he used to make 41cpm, now only 34cpm. I've read here on the forum about the drastic rate-cutting that's affecting O/Os. What can drivers do for themselves to get rates up?

 

I haven't hauled anything in the last couple of months that paid less than $2.00 a mile.
It's not always easy but the short answer is...

Always turn down cheap freight!

 

If a company driver want to make more money,..Maybe they should give consideration to a Teamsters organizing drive at their company,....

 

Oh yeah....I can see it now!

CR England, Covenant, US Express, JB Hunt, TMC, Maverick, Swift, Trans Am, Werner and all of the rest of them with a union workforce...For about two seconds until they shut the doors and open next week under another name without the union workforce...Unions are all but over whether you like it or not.

I still have a withdrawl card from local 287 in California from when I was pulling for a carrier that required that you carry a card even if you were an O/O in order to haul out of certain customers.
That was a long time ago when unions still had a little clout...Now they have almost none.

 

You got that right...Swift has a whole bunch of those "green" day cabs parked in the Mira Loma yard...you can see em from the 60 as you drive by...he thought he was getting a great deal at the Long Beach Port...till the Union found out he wouldn't pay overtime, and didn't have to pay the union rate through his "Agriculture holdings"....

 

We needed the union card to haul in and out of the San Francisco piers during the Viet Nam thing...I was brand new and just caught the end of it.

We hauled ordinance in to be shipped off to fight the commies!
Hippies used to stand in front of our trucks and we'd get out and beat the crap out of a few until the rest backed off and stayed out of the way...The cops just looked the other way and "didn't see nothin happen".


Ahhhhhhhhh....The good old days!

 

GOOD MOURNING MY FRIEND: now rates have been a problem sinch forever and they continue to be and if anything it has gotten worse which with this econamy is ecpected and sadly will be that way for awhile.

now if your a company driver not much you can do about it sinch the company controls what you make and if your an owner operator and leased to a company its about the same your just a glorafied company driver the company controls the freight and the price and there is nothing wrong with that if thats the way you want to truck thats why they call it trrucking however if your an independent , meaning if you have your own trailer and tractor and AUTHORITY you control the rate , if its to cheap the answer is simple don't haul it after all it is your equipment you control it and what you put on it, how ever i must admit a lot dont seem to realise that they seem to think that they have to go now most want to go home now and consaquently most that operate like that don't last long BUT and independewnt owner operator controls the rate and his own destiney it's amazing how the price of freight goes up when you can't get anyone to haul it but we as a whole have forgotten how to say no and it's really easy to do and when you do the next day if it takes that long the price goes up. TRUCK DRIVERS DO IT TO THEMSELVES but thats trucking and in spite of the problems i love it and wouldnt do anything else.

take care my friend and stay safe. southernpride

 

Driver pay as southernpride said is hard to control because the company dictates what to pay you has far as o/o pay it will never go to high because theres allways some ahole that will haul it for nothing and think there making money just because theres a load on the truck in that said i dont haul cheap freight and i dont use brokers plain and simple.

 

From my observation point, on the outside looking in, it would seem to me that the guy that will undercut just to get the load is going to have trouble staying in business. I don't think "part of something is better than all of nothing" works in every scenario. At some point the undercutting is bound to show up in the form of OOSs because of deferred maintenance on equipment, taxes not being paid as required, need for loans for working capital, etc.

Another question: Who is it that is doing the undercutting? Is it solid companies in search of "survival" revenue to weather the storm or is it desperate OOs fighting to keep their heads above water or is it.......?

 

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