RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it.

Collarspace Discussion Forums

Home Login Search

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it.

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it.

Page: << < prev 1 [2]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it. - 4/4/2008 12:29:18 AM

GMRTGS

Posts: 47
Joined: 8/29/2005
Status: offline

I do not see the sky is falling yet but it is in serious need of some support. I have no problem with a vacation day or two, however if it did happen, I am sure many owner operators would find that their contracts they had would suddenly disappear. For instance Walmart only uses their own drivers, why to avoid this among other costs and such.I personally know of five trucking companies that are about to go under because they raised their prices to reflect their true costs and have been punished for it by a few large players in the industry. The profit margins and the costs to run are making it extremely difficult to keep up.Owner operators have been eating costs to avoid losing their livelihood. It is not critical yet, but soon will be as finance cost as are rising on their rigs as well as cost of compliance with new regulatory issues security is one of them.Independents are slowly dying a slow death. Most owner operators are in a contract with a particular trucking company they still bear the brunt of the costs.I had a contract while back that had clause that allowed the company to sue me to recover costs associated with what they termed anti compliance behavior. My point is if you want to eat you sign.

(in reply to azropedntied)

Profile

Post #: 21

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it. - 4/4/2008 12:46:36 AM

azropedntied

Posts: 1829
Joined: 7/25/2005
From: Phx AZ
Status: offline

A- i would not shop in a walmart even if they said everything was a penny
B-i would never sign ,there are far too many choices to eat with out giving up your rights , heck i would tear up the back yard and start growing my own food way before i was forced to comply . but thats just me , others shall do what fits them best .
c- i so agree the sky is in desperate need of some structural support .
Those that are trucker s have way more insight on the job and industry , maybe i just remember the powers of old called the teamsters , and unions ." it is not critical yet " well isn't that the time for repair VS waiting until its too late ?

(in reply to GMRTGS)

Profile

Post #: 22

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it. - 4/4/2008 1:45:09 AM

GMRTGS

Posts: 47
Joined: 8/29/2005
Status: offline

I agree with you and we do grow our on food and I make my own fuel now. We live on a small farm and one reason why I was using my truck for commercial back then was the high cost for meds and health . walmart has by itself made for these who do not live in a metro are choices harder they have used their big foot to kill off most of the small competition ,especially in the more smaller rural areas.I loathe them yet we still have to use them when we can not find what we need. I go to this small hardware store down the road it is out of my way but I know the old folks very well , I also know their inventory inside out. I was there just last Friday and his wife told me that by June they will most likely have to close down. The reason was not due to health which I was surprised, any how was due to the cost of inventory and insurance. It appears that their insurance refused to renew their policy because it was no longer profitable for the them, retail insurance is based on volume in calculating your premiums. The county said that if they do not keep liability they cannot be open.just another nail in the coffin

(in reply to azropedntied)

Profile

Post #: 23

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it. - 4/4/2008 3:07:20 AM

LadyEllen

Posts: 10931
Joined: 6/30/2006
From: Stourport-England
Status: offline

And here is the view from Europe, which relies almost exclusively on road transport to convey the goods traded between EU members.

The lead article on this week’s International Freighting Weekly, the UK trade paper was that trucking companies all over the continent were being refused fuel surcharges. Fuel has risen enormously over the past twelve months or so and hauliers have attempted, like so many times before to pass this on to customers, and like so many times before the customers have refused it. Interesting though, that at retail the increase of price of goods is being blamed on fuel cost increases, which the retailers are not actually paying….

Rates here are already dirt cheap. In fact I did an analysis not long back that indicated that a majority of trucking companies were losing money on almost every km they run, always chasing that one lucrative job each month (by lucrative, we mean paid at the proper rate) that makes up the losses. To calculate this, we looked into the costs of operating a truck in Poland, Czech and Romania – the source countries for haulage upon which Europe relies. The cost in each case translated to around Euro 1-00/km, whilst revenues come to around Euro 0-95/km.

And the problem is compounded for we in the UK – not that we run trucks any more. We were first to be knocked out of the international market, by the French, Germans and Dutch. Then they faced the same blow when the east Europeans joined the EU. But we have to buy haulage from the source countries in east Europe, and the majority of their costs being in Euro and our revenues being in Pounds, we now have to pay 12% more than previously for the hauliers to be interested – that 12% is most of our margin. And again, if we try to increase prices to cover it, or seek to switch to Euro charging, we lose the customer altogether.

And why can we not pass these cost increases on like the deep sea shipping sector and the airfreight sector does? Simply because our sector is too fractured – far too many operators and others are involved to ever get consensus and some fool always breaks rank for short term market share gain. And whilst the sea and air sector operates via cartels based outside the EU, any attempt on our part to even so much as discuss the matter of operating costs with one another, is a breach of EU price fixing laws.

And on top of that, there is one born every minute who thinks he will be the one to make his fortune in trucking. There’s only one way to make a million Pounds in international trucking – start with a billion. Every one of these dreamers enters the sector, and finds that despite all his bluff, the only way to gain business is to undercut someone else. So we have a constant downward pressure on prices, whilst there is constant upward pressure on costs. Price for London to Milano in 1998 GBP 1350-00; price today GBP 650-00.

And then there are the customers – the big multi-nationals in particular. They run online tender auctions for their routes. We no longer participate in this particular form of Dutch auction, for that is what it is – they come to the exercise with expected prices which are very low, and you have to beat those prices to win the business. We don’t take part, but we do watch as the next fool enters a lower price than the previous fool, over and over again.

And then there’s the credit period, which is the normal way of business in the sector, even with new customers one might have won. Hauliers have to pay their fuel, ferry costs, toll costs, finance etc every month, so they need payment every month – except that most customers insist on 60 day credit periods as a minimum. Don’t like it? Tough, go find another customer. In the meantime one has to finance that truck for at least two months before one penny will be received in income.

We’re going to the first UK transport services exhibition later this month, with the aim to gain a lot of business. It doesn’t matter too much that we have 99% On Time In Full performance scores. It doesn’t matter too much that we’re the only company in our sector to offer carbon emission offset contributions on every km, and neither is it very consequential that we have a host of other added value aspects to what we do – these are tipping factors to sway customers, but unless we’re offering a cheaper alternative than our competitors who offer minimum standard only, we don’t have a hope. We live in a regulated sector which makes our service a commodity, which means in turn that we’re in no better place than an African coffee farmer who’s told by the mega corp what price he will get without any reference to the costs of production.

And we could never organise a Europe wide strike – too many involved and someone (likely many) would break rank to seize customers, and it would be prosecuted to the fullest extent as an attempt at price fixing. And a truck costs money whether its running or parked up.

E

_____________________________

In a test against the leading brand, 9 out of 10 participants couldnt tell the difference. Dumbasses.

(in reply to GMRTGS)

Profile

Post #: 24

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it. - 4/4/2008 7:56:47 AM

DomKen

Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

Was it really all the way back in '74? You're right, the violence became the story on the last strike.

It was 1974. My father was a teamsters driver at the time and had some trouble in Jersey with some independents.

(in reply to TheHeretic)

Profile

Post #: 25

RE: If you bought it, a truck brought it. - 4/5/2008 11:09:01 AM

Termyn8or

Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline

LE, over time I have gleaned that you are involved in the transportation business and found that you seem to be quite knowledgable about it. You are in a different country though. However it seems things are pretty much the same all over when it comes to certain things.

What is not different is the times. Taxation of all forms, government and otherwise are pushing it to the limit. It seems the big boys want to charge us to do something for them, rather than being able to even make a modest profit. They care not for you or your's, only for themselves and their's. Mine mine mine, I want it all.

I understand greed, it is a disease, and it is an epidemic. Greed is the only disease that usually does not kill the afflicted, but at times it kills others.

What is different ? Greed. It take no more energy to drive a truck a mile, harvest a bushel of grain, or a barrel of oil than it did twenty years ago.

It costs no more to drive a truck. The guy when he is lucky just has to hold the wheel and listen to the radio, or get on the CB or cellphone these days. Of course the PITA comes when they get to metropolitan areas and have to deal with four wheelers darting in and out of lanes, not realizing that a semi cannot stop on a dime, who value a few seconds of their precious time as more valuable than the lives of all the drivers around them. Some of them literally are waiting for something to be delivered on that truck they would not let into the lane as they get to work five seconds earlier.

LE, I know you work in the industry, but you should try actually driving a truck in the US. You would not believe the aggravation quotient involved. These guys actually enjoy hemmoroids compared to dealing with the assholes on the road.

And really, some of them were making fifty grand a year, yet were homeless. Stay in motels all the time, no family nor much chance of building one. But they put up with it when the money was good and many enjoyed the freedom, and the change of pace, or more aptly put, place.

I know such people, and none of them drive a truck anymore.

But here is the problem. We all have debt and/or live pay to pay. Years ago people saved up, for example to buy a new car or whatever, now everything is on credit. The old phrase "Set me back" as referring to a financial downturn meant that the new car would have to wait a bit longer, nowadays it means your debt load is going to increase.

Market forces are at work though, and they can only work against us for so long. In my industry for example, in this, sorta descript geographical area we had 200 competitors twenty years ago. By attrition ony the strongest survived. Now we are in a position to refuse service to customers who are troublesome.

I think such is the way the trucking industry will go. Unfortunately as I say, you have to be willing to lose if you want to win, that applies more today than ever. There is no reserve, no savings, and this is true on the corporate level as well as the personal. We are slaves because we are addicted to the money.

But the thing is, We The People have no solidarity. And in the case of corporations, solidarity might be illegal, while the PTB enjoy a great deal of solidarity.

I'll tell you what, let's organise a worldwide trucker's strike, for one month. I'll live on canned goods during that time, and that will be my personal sacrifice. But it pales in comparison to what they have to do, some will lose their homes, their contracts, their livelyhood. But as I said is you want to win you have to be willing to lose. That is the definition of risk.

To each individual the risk can be very great, or even grave. If all truckers just stopped at high noon on a given day, you have to realize that it might be carrying your heart medication, or insulin or something that you need to live.

There are also no food reserves. People have no money reserves anyway.

Actually we are not slaves, we would be better off than being what we are, which is serfs. Big money has us all tied up and until we somehow gain the upper hand, nothing will change.

But big money doesn't understand a few things, and that is very apparent. They are facilitating their own demise. It will take death to make them see. Possibly not you or me, but the deaths of a few companies. And I know what will happen, smaller carriers will go out of business, and trucking will be hard to find and prices will go up. At that point big money will move in, buy the spare trucks and facilities and move the product themselves.

Then we will have big money bitching at big money over fuel costs. Fancy that.

But death is inevitable, the death of many, actually most small companies that big money does not realize are important. Even if you own a railroad you need trucks.

And now we are to the point where one industry seems to dominate, the oil companies. Granted, their product is essential. OK, well where are the anti-trust laws now ? Oh, they made enough money to buy their way out of it.

But understand this, there is a foundry, the castings are put on a truck to go to the machine shop. Once there they are ground and machined to tolerance. Then they get on another truck to a company that will install the bearings and gearset. Then this heavier item gets put on another truck to go to the final user which installs this assembly into their product, for a good example, the transmission for a new car. Well then that product is put on yet another truck to the dealership, or whoever sells the finished product.

So doing a little math, a 10% increase in fuel prices now adds up to what ? It took three hits on the bottom line.

The true definition of tax is burden. There are too many people getting rich off those who actually produce something or perform a valuable service. And once they figure out how to do this, they want more and more each day. THAT is the problem.

And the little guy gets crushed in the process.

Welcome to Earth, third rock from the Sun.

It's not just trucking, it is everything. But as I said market forces, REAL market forces are about ready to speak, and when they do it will be a huge shit sandwich, and this time around, the elites will have to take a bite.

Just watch the world, you and Ican do nothing, but just watch. They are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and really folks, it is just about dead. You see pictures of Africa with people carrying big sacks of stuff ? Well we might have to go back to that. Anyone own a horse and carriage ?

The fact is they are going to take more and more until there is no more. Soon it will be our turn.

T

(in reply to DomKen)

Profile

Post #: 26