WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH RATES IN CALI????

I was curious though... wouldn’t that be illegal to have 3 guys in a truck? Maybe not as long as two are buckled at all times and 1 in the sleeper? I have heard about these new 3 bunk trucks but this was an old rig.

 

It probably is. When I started in '05, there were trainers that took two students at once.

But running an altered emissions engine is illegal too right? Breaking HOS rules?

In for a penny, in for pound.

 

Run 8 hour shifts. One guy in the drivers seat. One in the passenger seat, one in bunk.

The passenger seat is fine for dozing in, or playing with a laptop or smartphone after your bunk sleep shift is done.

 

What I frequently see and I had conversation with some of those guys who own few trucks . They don’t have a choice than to haul anything for any amount , because they don’t want to loose their drivers. So their reasoning is as long as I make money to pay the driver , they are ok .
Unfortunately , they are resolving their problem for a short period of time , but in the long run they are screwing themselves and to this industry..
It is my opinion .

 

In the short term, they are providing a living to their drivers.

Things change when it isn't just you in your own truck. The business model shifts dramatically when you have employees that you want to keep. Those employees expect regular work and pay, or they will become ex-employees. Then you get to try to pay for your company expenses with no drivers.

If company drivers take low paying loads, that likely means that the market has a saturation of outgoing trucks. The shippers are not stupid. They can watch the load boards too, or simply monitor the speed that their loads are accepted when they put them out.

If a shipper puts a load out at 2.00 per mile and it gets snapped up in 43 seconds, you can bet they will offer less the next time around.

 

Good point!

 

It has to do with the inbound/outbound load ratios in CA. These past weeks the inbound has been high and the outbound low based on DAT loadboard info.

The images below show current inbound/outbound load ratios for reefer and (dry) van. Numbers are showing low in the images because it’s a weekend. The numbers are usually in the hundreds, and sometimes over a thousand.

 

Who do you hear it from? Where is at least one authoritative source of your claim? Who are the old hands? A shaggy man parked next to you who you strike conversation with while waiting to be loaded?

While it is true that they send part of their money overseas or plan to cash their networth and retire on it back home, but to claim they receive free money from the government to start up businesses is very frivolous.


Eastern Europeans, this day and age, are not always destitute folks coming here with nothing. They don't always start with nothing.

If they do, they are living thrift lives for years, live in basements, don't live off credit cards, don't buy shiet they don't need and patiently grow wealth, often their well educated wives are cleaning houses of lazy, spoiled middle class household families whose lazy housewives don't even cook and feed their kids properly.
I can attest that I, a son of Poland, and a proud American by choice and law, never received any business aid from the government and never heard of such programs. I also personally know people who built fleets from one truck to over 100, or construction companies, or restaurants from the very ZERO with their own effort and sweat.
The attempt to discredit that by saying that they are secretly funded by the government is a witch hunt that helps to vent a frustration of those who can't make it as good. It is insulting too.

I also heard about stories that some Chicago based Eastern European companies were accused for money laundering of their back-home companies/ or corrupted governments but that is utterly criminal and they are isolated cases. Not enough for the local rates fluctuation even, Nothing to do with regular folks making a living.

The American society is becoming more destitute. The income distribution is too much off balance. What can low qualification skills needed in trucking industry do to help? Nothing. This is not where you can find solution. More people will be drawn to it to make at least that 60K a year. I suggest you people, desperately in need to find a scapegoat, educate yourself some more and find the real enemies.

 

I thanked his post but I gotta say well said on your post. It’s good to get another perspective no matter what the subject at hand.

Maybe the frustration would be better directed at illegals coming in and gaming the welfare and healthcare system. Not people coming in legally and busting butt to make it.

 

That's true but I would be careful overestimating the impact of the illegals on the wealth level of average people as opposed the the overall structural income distribution and the lack of quality, well paid occupational jobs. I dare to claim that even if all the illegals were deported tomorrow, the improvement of American Middle or even Working class would be minimal at best.

What gets me here specifically is the unsubstantiated claim that the government provides some financial help to build business. This may create a situation in which a bum owner op at a truck stop will come up to me one day and tell me that what I have is not mine. I am afraid that I might respond in fury.