Some More Advice To Truckers

I guess the big news this week is the "IRS scandal." It displaced the imminent North Korean threat and some trial or other about a murderess. Always something it seems and I have been way too busy to pay attention to any of it. Probably not missing much.

 One thing I have been wrapped up in is the goings on in the trucking industry. I may or may not get back into the education field this next semester but I certainly won't be going back to work in the juvenile corrections "industry." What a sad scam that is.......I might get into that at a later time...At any rate, the transportation industry is always a good fall back. It must be, I have spent a good portion of my adult life working it in one form or other...........

A few years ago I left the trucking industry to work in education (I mentioned I am considering going back) and swore that that would be it for me and hanging around big trucks. Never say never they say..There have been a lot of changes in the short few years that I have been gone and it has been an adjustment sure.
As a transportation "manager" I see some good and some not so good.
One thing that hasn't really changed is shell game that trucking companies all play, ensuring that a driver does not get all the monies deserved for all the work they put in. That only changes on a case by case basis when drivers make threats (and some make good on those threats) to walk and get another position (easy for a good driver to do), leaving the company holding the bag with contractual obligations that can not be met. Often the company will have to relent and have to pony up more money. Something that they do not like to do and will not usually do unless their hand is forced. That hasn't changed and is not likely going to.

Some of the new "hours of service" regulations actually make a good deal of sense and ensure that a driver can not be overworked. Of course that only works when a company uses electronic logs..those still working with paper logs, well, that is a different story. Any halfway intelligent driver can manipulate those legal documents (often with tacit company approval) and still run just about how they want. It probably won't be too long before all trucking companies of any size will be required to run "elogs" and that will eliminate most, but not all, rogue activity. There are some new federal regulations on the horizon (to be implemented shortly) that may be taking things to the extreme. It certainly will change things and might perhaps make it even more difficult, costly, and time consuming to get a can of beans to the grocery (yes people food on the shelves just doesn't magically appear - we haven't learned how to teleport quite yet). These new regs might also cut further into driver pay ensuring more people leave an already extremely short handed industry...We will see.

How does a driver deal with all the new regulation, company shell games, etc. etc. and still make a good income? There are more than a few things that can be done.......

Right now the driver is, well, in the driver seat. Many of them have not come to that realization yet but even the most obtuse is aware that the light bulb is turned on. There is an extreme driver shortage and it is getting more desperate by the day. In the chemical transport industry (of which I am most familiar) there is an extreme shortage of quality drivers and it is beginning to leave shippers scrambling, scratching, and holding the bag. Good. This allows the trucking company to pick and choose freight, enter into favorable contractual arrangements with shippers, and get paid for all work performed. Again however the trucking company is short drivers and are constantly in search of employees.....A big change from the mid nineties when I got involved in this industry. At that time these shippers made huge, often ridiculous and undoable demands, and then balked at paying all portions of the invoice. The worm has turned sure.

Again how can drivers ensure that they reap all the benefits of being a "commodity" that is in short supply......?

One way is to demand fair wages for hours worked. Hard to do in this business but this example might help. One trucking firm with which I am familiar will pay drivers a headhaul percentage (minus the usual scamlike deductions) to move a load from point a to point b. They will then turn around and only pay a "back haul" rate to the driver thereafter even though the company is being paid head haul rates both ways. An example would be to load out of Houston for head haul money, offload in the Chicagoland area, and then receive a load for diminished pay out of there for distant parts. Of course the company gets the full head haul rate out of Chicago and stiffs the driver. Pretty typical.
An easy fix, and I have seen some drivers actually refuse to haul the loads for backhaul pay. Most do under the premise that "something is better than nothing." It would improve every ones chances at decent income if more would just refuse to haul under that arrangement.

There are times when a driver offloads in an area where there is very very little in the way of chemical freight (dry freight runs into this problem also) and the law of supply and demand dictates that the rates out of that particular area are going to be low. In such cases, and only if a load from that area is heading back into the major chemical shipping centers, then something may indeed be better than nothing. If the load is going from one place that has cheap rates to another place that has no freight then that is to be avoided at all cost until the rate is "right." This is something that companies I have been associated with all seem to have trouble with. Of course there are a lot of MBA grads in charge. That explains some of the stupidity I suppose..........

The trucking company should avoid brokered freight at all costs. A driver who is on percentage versus mileage pay especially needs to be vigilant on who the real shipper is before they note on their paystub that they hauled an 800 mile hazmat load for a hundred and fifty bucks. It happens rather frequently. It should be a rare case indeed when a "brokered" load should be taken. There are cases where it might make sense but that rarely. It is often pretty easy for a trucking "manager" to figure out the real shipper in such cases and cut out the middle man by offering a better rate than the broker, and still come out ahead on the deal. I have seen this happen and have more than once been involved in working out the details on such an arrangement. A bit unethical perhaps. Or not. The best thing entirely would be for a company to not haul a CH Robinson, Odyssey Logistics, etc. etc. load. Companies of that stripe are actually aggravating and already precarious driver shortage.  Really the only thing a driver can do in such cases is get a firm amount, in writing if possible, on how much they will really be paid for hauling any particular brokered load. Refusal to haul would be an option also. This does work and for all the gnashing of teeth on the part of trucking "management" it is highly unlikely a good driver will be fired for "refusing dispatch." The driver shortage is that severe.....

A lot of companies have gone to what they call a "lease purchase plan" for drivers who want to "own their own business." A driver should not ever, and I mean ever, fall for this scam. What happens of course is that the driver, being an independent contractor, will be responsible for their own maintenance, usually offered at exorbitant rates, by the trucking company. Often these tractors that are available for "lease purchase" are of the older and therefore problematic variety, and it becomes nothing but a problem, a costly time consuming problem, for the driver to deal with. A win for the company, the cost of maintenance is off their books, but a loss for the driver. Incidentally the independent lease contractor will still be treated as a company hand. It makes no sense for any driver to get involved in any kind of lease purchase arrangement offered by their employer. Ever. If one just has the bug to be an owner operator then they should buy or lease good equipment from a reputable dealer and give is a whirl. Incidentally Yellow Cab in Houston has a very similar "lease/purchase" plan for those in the taxi industry. The cars are nothing but junk and the maintenance is the responsibility of the "owner/operator." (Sadly I once was admittedly stupid enough to fall for this one and I don't even hold an MBA).  Some folk in the cab business buy a brand new or slightly used car (not a washed up cab) of good quality from a reputable dealer and lease on with the cab company and actually do rather well. Trucking is no different. Same concept different equipment......


Time runs short and I will continue the "advice to truckers" series at another time.

By the way, not all truckers are men.
 I think this is the Ice Road trucker woman, but there are many more like her. Some even near as pretty. Trust me on this.

The Ball Is in The Trucker's Court

I have said before that I am neither pro nor anti union. If joining a labor organization resulted in substantially raising my income, well then, sign me up. If not, I'm don't intend to have union dues deducted for nothing. That would be stupid. On the flip side, if I were a business owner/manager and there was a rabble rouser stirring the union pot then they would be out the door. No one is immune from making a job related mistake and at first opportunity the union "organizer" type would be pounding the pavement for other employment.

Does the trucking business need to be organized? A case can certainly be made for some. At this time there is way more freight than there are truckers to haul it. In the chemical trucking industry (which I am most familiar with), it has come to the point where the operations department of major chemical carriers can pick and chose their liquid freight. What a switch from a few short years back. The ball is in the trucking company's court, which is to say that it is in the trucker's court. Most truckers however will sit back and do nothing but bitch when their employer raises the rates on the freight hauled without passing along a pay increase to the guys doing the actual work. They (the company) plays the shell game and tries to keep the rate increase a secret (the word always gets out) and the truckers all get hot under the collar and raise hell, usually to no avail.

I certainly have a few suggestions that I don't have time for right now (perhaps this weekend) for the average trucker (company hand and "lease" operator) to get a bigger slice of the pie.

Stay tuned.

The Bartender Cabbie Immigration Reform Plan - The Time Is Now

The Boston Bombers are now out of business. It ended about as expected although it is somewhat surprising (and beneficial) perhaps that one is still "clinging to life." Possibly some things can be learned from him before his execution. One has to wonder what the nation has learned from yet another act of Mohammedan terror on our soil. Probably nothing. The powers that be in government, "education," and what passes for the media these days, are likely still afraid to call a spade a spade. Hard to fathom.

I have spoken at length on the sure fire way to end (or at least greatly reduce) the problem of illegal "immigration," rampant cross border drug smuggling, and perhaps even religious/political terrorist groups making their way into the United States proper. Namely that would be to close the southern border to all but legitimate business and tourist traffic. Seems like good commons sense and not, as the fruitloops among us say, racist. Or perhaps it is a bit racist and insensitive. Does that really matter?

We should also take a good hard look at some of those here on student visas. Would it make sense to send those that are here from unfriendly regions of the world packing? Probably so. Sales of air freshener may drop on college campuses but that that is a price we will just have to find someway to pay.

Is it "racist" and "intolerant" to point out the obvious? I'm sure of it. Just ask any punk ass liberal arts type college "professor."

Down To Two

The NCAA Basketball tournament is now down to two teams. Louisville will have to play a better game than they did last night to gain the crown and I think they will. It has been a fun and interesting basketball post season.

Incidentally, Louisville has the most successful sports program around of late. The "major" sporting teams are quality programs. The men will play for all the marbles, the women are in the final four, and who can forget the beat down that the Cardinals put on the Gators in the Sugar Bowl.
I predicted the outcome of that one. After watching Florida numerous times during the season I came to the conclusion early on that it was them and not the Cardinals who did not belong in the Sugar.

How Hard Would It Be to Screw Lil Kim?

There is a lot in the news lately concerning the rogue state of North Korea and the obviously psychotic personage that is supposedly leading that sad land. The heated rhetoric that has of late been forthcoming out of Pyongyang is, in all likelihood, more of the same that we have heard for years. Probably nothing to get all excited about. Or is it?

The United States is taking the rhetoric at least somewhat seriously. Guided missile destroyers have deployed (and are deploying) to the waters of the region. Anti missile batteries have reported to have been deployed forward to Guam and there are reports of the same manned and on duty on the Hawaiian Islands and parts of Alaska. Could it be that our "intelligence community" really has very little idea of the real capabilities of North Korean rocket forces? That would not be surprising.

Discounting the unlikely missile launch against the United States or her possessions, what would a modern conventional war on the Korean peninsula look like? Number one, North Korea has a massive amount of artillery and would fairly quickly be able to make Seoul look so much like Stalingrad. We probably would not be able to stop the destruction without the timely use of certain weaponry. There would be a massive human wave offensive southward, which would most likely bog down rather soon as modern arms made short work of the North's command and control structure. Still the North will make progress and the war would have the potential to be very bloody.

In short, the North's meager naval forces would be swept from the seas within hours as with her air assets.  Her ground offensive would be stalled and fall apart within days with hostilities ceasing within a couple of weeks. In the meantime there would be many thousands of people killed and it would be a conflict quite different from the conventional battles with the Iraqi army. The North Korean soldier may (or may not) be inclined to fight to the death in contrast to most (but not all) Iraqi conventional troops who were satisfied with token resistance and surrender. Of course the conflict could drag on for a very long time. It is possible that Red China may even be dragged into the fracas. There are no guarantees in war. A dangerous situation.....

How could the U.S. end the war decisively and quickly with as few friendly casualties as possible? The easy answer would be tactical nuclear weapons to halt the North's offensive in its' tracks. Then selected targets in the North could be degraded in the same fashion with the same weaponry. The political dangers to such action may be too great for the Obama administration to risk however. With a potential enemy just to the north of North Korea and our Japanese allies nearby, (not to mention the whole of South Korea), it might not make political sense to resort to very limited nuclear war on the peninsula. It is a double edged sword and a conundrum and likely one that Lil' Kim is quite aware of.

How easy would it be to limit casualties, end the war quickly, and at the same time screw Lil' Kim? Due to the aforementioned geo political considerations it might not be as easy as one may think. Oh. You were thinking of another Lil' Kim perhaps? I'm pretty sure screwing that one would be rather easy. There may be a line or waiting list of some sort. Personally I can't see why that would be the case..........I guess some people have a strong stomach.

Tournament WInds Down and Heats Up.

Last night the semi Cinderella Wichita State Shockers beat a pretty good Ohio State team and will make an appearance in the Final Four. I guess I will have to root for them. I wish Florida Gulf Coast, a true long shot if there ever was one, had held on and beaten the Gators to advance.

Not that it really matters. The title will go to Louisville this season. Mark it.

And the Tournament Continues

I have watched quite a bit of the NCAA D1 basketball tournament this past week (along with a little CBI and women's tourney) and have come to the conclusion that Louisville is the team to beat. I have not watched Indiana though and some say they are a team that can easily earn the title. Time will tell...

After watching 16th seeded Southern give Gonzaga all they could handle the other day, it was no real surprise that Wichita State "shocked" us all by beating them in round two. Gonzaga is just not all that good.

Memphis and KSU are out. Again not a real surprise. I like both teams but don't think they are near in the same league with Louisville, Duke, Indiana or perhaps the Jayhawks of Kansas. Speaking of the Jayhawks, they have a tough one coming up with NC. Should be a good game.

Miami has not really been talked about so much. I don't know why. Perhaps it is because they are not typically a basketball "power" and are being overlooked? I wouldn't rule them out for an appearance in the final four.

It is a shame that SDSU and this years' Cinderella team; Florida Gulf Coast, have to meet next. I like both but only one of them will move on. My money is on the Aztecs.

There is quite a bit of talk about the "surprise" that is Oregon. They are doing a fine job thus far but no one is really saying much about the other 12th seed that is still in the game. Ole Miss is still there and they may be at their peak at this point. We will see if they can stay alive.

It would be fun if one of the non traditional power teams goes all the way this year.