Who’s in and who’s out?

Does he need to make more? Yes.
He's going to make 50% less this year, but he says nothing has changed for him at the same time...

 

He didn’t say nothing has changed. He said the job is the same and gave his rate per mile. I didn’t see anywhere that he said his miles. Maybe he only ran 20k miles and averaged 2.50? Nobody knows and nobody deserves to know.

 

But everyone’s definition of bad or negative is different. Those folks who can ride the downtimes are the ones who survive long term. Whether you believe it or not one’s level of service and or skill set can definitely effects ones business revenue in certain situations.

 

I should clarify, I see how that could be misunderstood. I never said nothing had changed, I said it's generally the same. Year over year I've seen no big change in rate per mile, but year over year I have made different money because of how much I worked.

This year I'll gross a lot less not because of the market but because I've taken tons of time off working on a piece of land I bought, building a barn, clearing Helene damage, etc. I also fell off a 20' ladder in that same barn and broke 10 bones. That cost me about 6 weeks off the road.

Don't be confused, I never said nothing has changed, I've said the changes haven't affected me much big picture wise.

As an example, I've heard truck drivers throw around the term '2 bucks a mile' since the 70's. Seems like it never really changes much off that mark for the vast majority of trucks moving general freight, no matter who is actually making it company or driver.

I am curious why you think I need to make more, unless you are meaning that we all deserve more.

 

I don’t think it’s ever gonna get better. The illegal’s are here to stay. The low pay is here to stay. If companies struggle to stay afloat raises are not gonna happen. Get rid of the old hands that need more pay for the ones who don’t. Everyone wants stuff for cheap and free shipping. I believe in another decade you will see Amazon team up and start killing mega’s.
The b.s. tech in new truck’s will put a base truck at 300k and only last 3 years before it melts down. They will be unrepairable for the small guy. Foreigners will just run something made out of plywood and tape. As long as 4 of them big cylinders make some power they will run that dollar freight.
Then you have the gubment that will start heavily regulating and coming down hard because all the “accident’s” that are taking place from the crap drivers out there. Insurance will be astronomical and a profit killer. You will have to operate without it. Illegal’s wont care then because they don’t care now.

 

My mom’s dad was a union man and SeaBee in WW2. Owned a small water well drilling company until he sold out and retired in the 70’s. I remember him always saying that union truck drivers had the only secure job in the country. That trucking was the only job that could not be upped and moved or outsourced to foreign enemies. WELL here we are. They came over and invaded instead. Took the jobs, work cheaper, and brought trucking down to be the lowest entry job in the country. The foreigner’s and illegal’s are not gonna stop. This is all they can do to make money other than just go on crime sprees. Trucking is the new gateway to lower class living.

 

Why are you going off about foreigners? You can't blame a man for wanting a better life. Blame your politicians who allowed everyone to come in freely and take your job

 

I am still at the same place as I was before, running three trucks. Only paid off equipment and years of experience allow me to survive this nonsense that is going on right now. We only work 4 days per week, sometimes even 3, because just there is no freight out there worth hauling at the end of the week.

All my buddies who grew their fleets during and right after Covid are slowly reducing their trucks count due to mechanical failures. When their 700k miles trucks need more than $10k in repairs, those trucks just gets dumped for parts. It just does not have any economical sense to keep a driver in the seat right now doing spot market freight, so no new equipment is getting bought to replace those worn of trucks.

I have also seen a few one truck o/o who could not afford repairs and got rid of their trucks, but they all went to be company drivers somewhere else. So even though it seems like a lot of people are quitting, they are not really leaving the industry, so it does not seem like capacity is really shrinking.

 

Grinding it out leased to a mega tanker outfit. I'm comfortable upper middle class, and can afford to take 2 weeks off if needed.

An in-frame or transmission replacement would hurt me a bit, cause me to have to work like 5 weeks straight to make it up.

I'm not getting rich, but I ain't broke.

The Taxman thinks I'm broke, so I got that going for me.

 

Sorry about your fall, I hope you fully recover.

I don't understand how you don't see a change in the rate per mile, the average is so low right now.

I doubt you would take so much time off if the year was 2021. You're just not motivated to work.

Yes, you deserve much more, not less than $3 for all miles, everything is so expensive today.

And last, the old company drivers at my current company only had to enroll in 401K back then to be millionaires today, nothing else. And all of them make 100K+ annually.