Will new rules change the trucking industry

[Marcel67]

I'm wondering if in this cut throw business small companies and owner operators survive? Many old timers told me that they quit end 2017 driving due to new rules.

[RowdyRebel]

I'm weighing my options...currently, I have 4 possibilities: 1) I need to either cut my runs down to 8 or less per month which either go beyond the 100 air-mile radius or exceed the 12th hour; 2) trade in my '01 for a '99 or older truck; 3) find a clean title and a driver's door with VIN to match to register my truck as that '99 or older rig; or 4) hang up the keys and find something else to do.

 

I'll lose a lot more running elogs than I would cutting 2-3 runs per month from my schedule...because it never fails I run into delays getting my backhaul loaded on those longer hauls...which means in order to ensure 100% compliance 100% of the time, backhauls will have to be eliminated or else I'd have to start buying motel rooms, which makes the backhaul even less worthwhile.

 

If the speed limiter passes and applies to older trucks, I'm hanging it up. Don't know if I'll sell the Mack or if I'll graft another cab behind mine (making it a quad-cab) and pull a drive axle out from under it and just use it as a toy hauler to pull the gooseneck horse trailer around as a private individual in a non-commercial setting where the FMCSA regs simply won't apply.

 

ELD + speed limiters = I'm out.

[Marcel67]

I feel the same way. It looks like with the new rules coming  and crappy rates and equipment that  cost more I'm out as well.  It seems that the ones proud owner operators are going to disappear.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Marcel67

[theakerstwo]

That is what the big companys want is for you to get out so the illegals will have a job when they get here.

[Underdog]

I am putting together my '85 MH and giving up my current company job, hopefully before the boss goes to E-LOGS. Like Rowdy says, gonna lose 1-2 loads per week, or work 6 days to make 5 days' pay. My only concern is that the EPA will then say " THAT TRUCK IS TOO OLD AND SMOKES TOO MUCH" and regulate my MH off the road.

[BillyT]

.I've been hearing this kind of talk since the first increment of deregulation in 1979! You probably don't have to worry about the illegals getting trucking jobs,the insurance companies won't let the carriers hire them! If you are an owner operator you can't compete with the big carriers because they have "economy of scale" they get everything cheaper than you do! Fuel,insurance,equipment,etc. So you need to avoid mainstream freight,dry van reefer,and so on.I've been out of the industry for eight yrs now  and a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same! I think the hot setup is "niche" freight".hotshot,car hauling,drop deck,plastic tanks and so on. The main thing about most of this freight is it requires specialized skills.But it's not brain surgery! They are giving away used tractors,mainly because so many guys are losing their shirts by trying to compete by hauling mainstream freight. Most of this freight is light and pays more than dry van freight.That means it's easier on equipment! Just one example.I see guy's with "decked out" dually pickups and those little three car trailers.A new "decked out" pickup is pushing 70k! So what's that give you? Beside a big payment? Comfort,and maybe 15 mg loaded.It's a combination vehicle so you need a cdl even though it's light! You can get a used 3 car trailer for 5g. They are selling a whole fleet of ex Saia single axle Volvo day cabs fleet maintained,for 3300.each Everything on a class 8 truck lasts 3 or more times longer than a pickup that Volvo if it's in serviceable condition would last year's hauling 3 cars the truck has brakes rated around 33000lb .that trailer can be easily converted to 4 cars mechanically or hydraulically.So you'd be in business for 15k cash! No brainer!

[BillyT]

What I forgot to mention in my earlier rant was a lot of components on a class 8 truck are cheaper than a 1ton pickup. Brake linings for instance. How long would the tires last when you're grossing less than30k!

[Marcel67]

I tought maybe to go back in hauling aviation equipment or engines. Yes correct I see the reefers biz going to hell in a hand basket and that's why I sold everything. To many big companies taking it cheap and expect you to do it for even less. Back in the day I was ok in the aviation biz hauling  engines and support equipment and got good paid loads.  Heck with. Oversized engine you couldn't run at night so you go your sleep.  

Edited September 26, 2016 by Marcel67

[BillyT]

Marcel 67, I remember hearing good things about hauling jet engines from my hotshot days! I didn't  have airride so I couldn't haul them.That is just one kind of specialty freight that the big carriers don't usually mess with because there is too much liability,to let their preferred inexperienced low wage drivers haul.Plastic tanks and sheet foam insulation is another.

[BC Mack]

8 hours ago, BillyT said:

Marcel 67, I remember hearing good things about hauling jet engines from my hotshot days! I didn't  have airride so I couldn't haul them.That is just one kind of specialty freight that the big carriers don't usually mess with because there is too much liability,to let their preferred inexperienced low wage drivers haul.Plastic tanks and sheet foam insulation is another.

when I worked for an airline many moons ago we contracted out our local trucking after moving our own for years.. some accountant said it would be 'cost effective'..

well, one of the 'wraparound stetsons' got to move a GE CF6-80 (Boeing 767) on a shop stand from the hangar to the satellite shop about 10 miles away... it's mostly freeway except for the tunnel....

you guessed it.... he used the wrong height trailer, the shop stand made it 18" higher than a shipping stand and he creamed the top 12" off the fan case and top blades... over $250,000 for the repair to the engine and fours hours getting it freed from the tunnel... in rush hour.... the local constabulary were none too pleased with him.

I do remember the regular truckers moving engines around north america always appeared to me to be the cream of the crop, knew what they were doing and the prices we paid were high... we once paid for a double team to take an AOG engine from Vancouver to Los Angeles to load on a 747-400F nose freighter of Northwest Airlines, it was heading for China where we had a plane grounded... I saw the trucking invoice after, wow.

been out of that game for years so not sure if it is still as lucrative.... I would assume it still carries a premium.

BC Mack

[RowdyRebel]

The ATA pushes for elogs and speed limiters to "level the playing field", forcing independents and other smaller carriers to abide by the same bad business decisions the ATA carriers CHOSE to make placing them at a competitive disadvantage in certain aspects. So, in the interest of fairness, I propose we "level the playing field" by requiring EVERYBODY to pay full retail price for fuel, tires, trucks, parts, and everything else. None of these bulk discounts available only to the largest of the large carriers (cost MINUS in some cases...with the operating loss of those transactions passed on to EVERYBODY ELSE who may not be as big or have as many trucks on the road)...everybody pays the same, to "level the playing field".

 

The ATA has no problem increasing MY costs, both my money with the ELD and then my time with the speed limiters (time IS money)...so let's "level the playing field" by increasing their costs as well. It's only fair...

[keg1]

If everyone would just park them for a week it might put a stop to everything they keep trying to pass. I know it will never happen though. They used to go on strike but I don't ever see it happening now.

[BillyT]

Once again you're all correct! One of the few positive things about growing old is you you see the same crap over and over again! The 1st so called "shutdown " I remember  was in 1974 it never really panned out! The problem is of course the o/o can't afford to shut down and the ATA and their cronies the major carriers know it!

[keg1]

I think it would only take one week if everyone parked them. No food, gas or anything else moving I don't think it would take long to get their attention. But it will never happen.

[gearhead204]

if you ever figure out a truck strike.......maybe you could give me some pointers on starting a farm strike!  .......that doesn't include going broke!!!!

[TeamsterGrrrl]

Similar business model in both trucking and farming- Heavy capital investment, low profits, and hundreds of thousands of "independent" enterprises that can be played against each other= The big shippers and food processors play us against each other and make most of the $$$. In both cases, the best remedy is to know your costs and refuse to truck or farm at a loss and join with other independents in groups like OOIDA, the Teamsters, and Farmer's Union to increase our bargaining power.

[BillyT]

Once again I wish you guys and gals were running the country!! Keg 1 I'm not so sure a week would do it,the majority of mainstream dry and reefer freight is hauled by non union carriers, Swift,Jb, Schneider,ad nauseam.Their clueless,minimum experience drivers would lose their jobs if they participated in a shutdown. You can't blame them really,everybody has to eat! One of the major reasons nobody will strike or shutdown today is unlike when Hoffa Sr. Was in charge there weren't any social programs to fall back on! The carriers,steel companies,coal mines,textile companies had the workers by " the short hairs" If you struck and were fortunate enough to not get beaten to death by the "company goons" you had no money to live on! I've been wrongfully fired twice and collected unemployment both Times!Teamster Grrrl as usual you nailed it line by line! When I was an o/o on more than one occasion I was offered some pos 80.cent a mile load the agent would say "it'll pay for fuel!" What the hell is this my hobby!! Like you said no matter what your occupation you can't afford to "break even" or worse! As long as you are willing to " work for nothing " they will pay you nothing!

[grayhair]

6 hours ago, TeamsterGrrrl said:

In both cases, the best remedy is to know your costs and refuse to truck or farm at a loss and join with other independents in groups like OOIDA, the Teamsters, and Farmer's Union to increase our bargaining power.

Unsolicited advice from this geezer...

1.  Try to avoid working too cheap.  You can't recover the lost time.

2.  If circumstances cause you to work at a low-paying job, make a plan for yourself with self-imposed deadlines to improve your situation.

3.   Ask for a raise, or change employers, or industries, or get more education if you must, to get employment you enjoy and pays enough to make you smile.

4.  Refer to #2 above, no procrastinating.

----------------------------------------------------------

In retrospect, I am very glad I couldn't get a job at the GM engine plant, Xerox, or Kodak, though I tried very hard to do so back in the '60s.  Those jobs wouldn't have trained my for anything and most likely I would have had mid-life financial struggles.

And sometimes things that seem bad at the time are actually very good but you just don't know it yet.

Personal experience about changing paths, although forced upon me, not planned:

Dean says, "Son, you might be an electrical engineer some day, but not from our university."   Smartass Grayhair says, "Cool, I'm going to the beach."

I would probably have been miserable working as an engineer.  But I didn't know it at the time.

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Sorry to ramble on.  If there's a nugget here helpful to someone, then good.

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by grayhair

[BillyT]

Grayhair, I was doomed (or blessed) to be in some facet of the trucking industry,I just didn't know it! When I was 6 yrs old I  could identify every make of motor truck that drove past my old mans salvage yard, Reo Diamond T,Federal, Sterling, etc. There was a steel supplier in Washington Pa that had a fleet  of chain drive Mack straight trucks that went past the house every morning on their way to Pgh.You could hear their chains ringing a mile away! They were obsolete even in the fifties! The old man had  a 201 Diamond T wrecker with a Manley hand  winch! My school bus was a Federal! My fate was inescapable!

[BillyT]

Gray hair,I was living In E.Washington Pa when gov.shapp gave Volkswagen some tax concessions to put an assembly plant in New Stanton pa,I was laid off,so I applied at vw,never got hired but they had a lot of  labor problems and closed a few years later! So "same ol same ol!

[blackdog2]

Unfortunate they have a few empty pages in the back of rule book were they can fill in as needed or make fit !!!!!!!!!

[BillyT]

Blackdog 2 haven't you heard about the child labor laws?lol

[blackdog2]

Candy sugary drinks &bag of chips  & locker room talk

[david wild]

This all just part of the plan to make the US not able to compete in the world market by making it more expensive to compete, another words helping us get closer to being a third world crap whole like the rest.