Even the big dogs with government contracts are folding
Posted by CARTRUCK22@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 72 comments
Posted by CARTRUCK22@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 72 comments
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
USPS has been working to do away with the road contracts for a few years now. If you're a postal contractor, and all of your revenue comes from hauling mail, NGMI. Looking at you, 10 Roads.
Professional_Realist@reddit
If the postal office ever cared to run an efficient and fluid operations half the volume they have would cease to exist.
I ran some 10 roads freight as an O/O. Had me take a 53' van to Chicago to deliver one pallet and return the empty back to Indy.
$1300 bucks.
Present-Let-4020@reddit
It’s not about how much mail is being sent. The route must be available and there needs to be a way to get a package from point A to point B. Looks like Indianapolis didn’t get much mail tonight. Delay it a day so the truck is full isn’t going to fly. They are legally obligated to have a working mail service. They can’t just decide to not send mail because there isn’t enough bulk.
Professional_Realist@reddit
Not saying the route must stop, but there can be ways to send more freight in combination to create less waste.
Present-Let-4020@reddit
Ok but the truck to Indy leaves at 1:30 or whatever. The route can’t deviate. Time or route. If there’s no mail and they’ve even made sure to get rid of first class, then it is what it is. They already work with FedEx and UPS when shipping. Are they supposed to look up broker loads for last minute additions that also meet the parameters their routes match with?
Professional_Realist@reddit
I mean the load I took was on a load board so, yes? Lol
AaronTuplin@reddit
Exactly, or have the road contract go to two different p&dcs
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
Exactly. Some days that same route might not have anything, and then come the holidays, it's packed.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
This is how contracts work and unfortunately there will be loses incurred to maintain the contractual obligations.
Grizzly__Adam@reddit
When I first started driving for the postal service (non contractor, actual postal cmv) the postal service was cutting back on postal MVS and TTO and completely shifting to road contractors. From what I've heard, it was much cheaper to contract our rates out. I'm curious what's going on shifting away from contractors.
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
Many of those contracted routes run empty. Total milk runs. I was a contractor for 3 years, then TTO for 5. I drive a desk now. 😂
AaronTuplin@reddit
There's a new sheriff in town and the contractors didn't kiss the ring
jadedshibby@reddit
I came reeeally close to taking a 10 roads job and I'm glad I didn't lol
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Bingo! 10 Roads is so big and heavily reliant on USPS this will be an epic fall out felt across the whole industry when that rug gets pulled.
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
FedEx hauls the USPS air mail. USPS hasn't had an air fleet as far back as the 80s I think.
crispy_colonel420@reddit
Not anymore, UPS hauls it now.
Hazorith@reddit
Just a question but I'm assuming because it's to expensive for a air fleet?
wewanttopleaseu@reddit
I believe it's because of the Union contracts. FedEx is considered an airline distribution company with one set of rules and UPS is a ground distribution company with a different set of rules
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
FedEx and UPS both haul air mail. UPS’ airport terminal in Philadelphia was on my truck route while I was at USPS.
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
Yeah the costs were pretty high.
MsMoreCowbell8@reddit
Louis DeJoy is still there!
PhoenixSmasher@reddit
He’s not going anywhere.
Boattailfmj@reddit
The piss bottle is about to hit the fan in the entire industry I think. Too much undercutting and companies breaking even and considering that a profit.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
The rates of equipment loan defaults are as high as they have ever been and that's a sign of this happening, we are in the initial stages of a major event for the industry.
Boattailfmj@reddit
On the upside the used truck market will be flooded and prices of iron will come down
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Yes indeed but the influx of inexperienced driver will drive up the insurance rates across the industry so it's a tough balancing act to be happy about.
Boattailfmj@reddit
I'm in Canada and it is flooded with sketchy trucking companies that are borderline human trafficking south asian drivers. They come here for a better life and end up getting scammed and driving in conditions they have never experienced before come winter. I used to run heavy wrecker and dealt with them a lot. I honestly feel bad for them. They usually work for their countrymen and get taken advantage of. Pretty much every one I winched out told me their boss was going to deduct their pay for my tow bill which is illegal. Their companies often tried to scam us on payment. The companies often wanted to pay with electronic funds transfer instead of a credit card. They would claim they sent it and you'd sit for an hour and it would never get deposited. Then when you tell them you are going to start charging them $265/hr wait time... poof! Etransfer magically appears. I took a guys glad hands off and left once. I had a time call i was supposed to be at. They could have gone to Napa and bought glad hands but they were too dumb.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Same exact thing is happening in America, the car hauling industry is full of Russians/Eastern Europeans who are brough in on travel visa's and tossed keys to often times uninsured non CDL rigs and they run on hope on prayers nothing goes wrong, when something does go wrong Ivan just goes back or opens a new company to do business as usual.
Boattailfmj@reddit
At least they have driven in snow before. I unloaded a car off a car hauler the one time. He put a ramp through the bumper of a civic jacknifing it so I could pick a car off the back of the tractor. There was a dent on the other side of the bumper where he already kissed it. There was a crx on the trailer tied down with the bumper touching the deck. Someone clearly threw him in the truck with no training. Unloaded a 70s trans am a guy shipped here. The shipper subcontracted to another company that put the car and his milling machine in a dry van and then hauled it 2000km with the car not in park and poorly secured. There were actually dents in the trunk where the milling machine had laid over on the car at some point. I have never seen a guy so angry when they opened the doors.
candidly1@reddit
We shipped a V12 Benz roadster down to FLA one time. Nice car, low miles. Supposed to be "no-touch covered transport". It gets down there and it has 200 extra miles on it; shipper swears they didn't touch it. We get it rolling again and it goes into limp mode; blown trans. Shipper says sue me. Thankfully the factory helped us out on the repairs; replacement trans for only $8K. Full price for the new trans was $20K at the time. At least the car wasn't dented...
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
The carrier who had your car obviously took it off the truck somewhere along the way and was joyriding it, it is why I recommend my clients to put an AirTag in the car juuuuust to be safe incase of a not so honest transporter getting their grubby paws on the car in ways that are not approved.
It's not uncommon to have an additional mile or two added on the odometer but 200 is ridiculous, you should have sued the company and they would have no choice but to settle it and if they'd try to fight you would have won as I doubt you authorized the company to put that many miles on it.
candidly1@reddit
I considered it, but given that our loss was limited to eight grand I figured fuckit. The lawyers would have gotten more than that. I had a bill of lading stating exact miles and the guy still told me to go fuck myself. Not worth the aggravation for eight Gs...
Boattailfmj@reddit
Maybe the truck driver took it to the drag strip and won $350 with it. Whoever had custody of it could have ripped on it before the shipper got ahold of it unless they can prove it wasn't them. Maybe some lube tech at a dealer who just got caught smoking meth in the parking lot got fired and came back at 2am took it for a toot looking for hookers and the dealer never noticed. You never know. Anything can happen.
candidly1@reddit
Oh believe me; I understand. And it was a sexy car; those V12s accelerate like rockets. I should have just driven it myself...
Boattailfmj@reddit
You get what you pay for shipping automobiles
candidly1@reddit
In retrospect, I should have taken a few days off and drove it myself. Nice relaxing ride down, business class back, all on the expense account. Stupid decision on my part.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Yes that is just about the only credit you can give them when it comes to being experienced in the snow/ice but often times they never drove an actual truck and 9/10 times do not speak a single word of English plus act like they're back home so when there is an issue they will threaten you with violence.
I can tell you the stories of car hauling you described are an every day occurrence, very little training is given to these drivers and it's the nature of the beast that with being on the road you come across something new all the time, if you don't know what you're doing these are the results..
k20350@reddit
You don't want to buy trucks that were repo's or behind on payments. They are run into the dirt. Boss bought some Pete repo's super cheap in 2008 crash from Paccar. He had to put so much money in them he could have bought better trucks in the first place
marqburns@reddit
Oh cool, even more white daycab auto shifts on the used market 😥
Boattailfmj@reddit
I never thought of it that way 😞
12darrenk@reddit
You know it's getting bad when new truck orders are so far down. There was a 16% decrease in new class 8 trucks sold in the first half of 2024 vs. 2023. Class 8 truck orders declined at the end of the second quarter. Preliminary estimates of orders for new Class 8 trucks in June 2024 totaled 14,800 units, down 12% year-over-year and 37% from May 2024.
teachthisdognewtrick@reddit
The Peterbuilt dealer near me never had more than one or two new trucks on the lot until this spring. Now they are overflowing.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
That's due to business not being as good as it was and the fact you can buy a one or two year old rig from someone trying to get out of the business because they cannot survive on beans and rice.
12darrenk@reddit
The thing is, it's also the big companies that are canceling orders too. The numbers have gotten that tight on the people who can get away with it the best. Knight Swift was only running on a 2.8% profit for Q2 of 2024. They were at 8.2% in Q2 of 2023. They reduced the amount of equipment they will buy this year by $25 million.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Big companies have a lot more jelly to spread around when times get tough but they too have to make math work and when it doesn't add up, that is when the cuts are made.
8th_House_Stellium@reddit
Will the economy pick back up?
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
I think the solution to the problem is we need to unite against the greed and show them the real power is in labor force, when the pandemic was going on we saw the power of the "unskilled" labor shift and correct for a little bit but then these companies used it against us.
I think it's time to rise up and make a coordinated effort to park the rigs for a week to get things back in balance.
azziptac@reddit
Lol Mom told me it was my turn this week to post "lets protest & park the rigs, just to go back to work on Monday" 😆
Every. Single. Week yall complain & complain & complain. Every single time y'all park the rigs, what happens? Nothing lol. The brokers call me to do the work & thow a few more bills in. Then I meet even more brokers to add to my book.
Everybody with at least 1 eye could see this downturn coming years ago. Adapt or die. I'm doing just fine.
moldschlager@reddit
The cockroaches always thrive
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
The reason little progress is made because of shit eaters like you bub.
Boattailfmj@reddit
And turd lapping broker middlemen.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Correct every Tom, Dick and Jane thinks they can get off the road to just collect the cream of the top but the greed runs too deep and they skim too much, drivers cannot run on hopes and dreams these rigs burn diesel and chew through tires which cost money.
Ahwtfohok@reddit
Crop*
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
I was going for the milk analogy where cream rises to the top..
Nozerone@reddit
Right, and it's partly because of people like you that nothing will ever change. I mean, why fight to be making more money all year round when you can take advantage of a situation and make a little more money for a week.
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
Self centered selfishness. Clowns like this guy cannot look past their own nose and care about another human being, that's not to say we all do what we have to do to get by but when one takes this kind of stance... no respect from me.
Toomuchhorntalk69@reddit
All we have to do is vote democrat down the ticket. Get the adults back on it.
Critical-Shift8080@reddit
By
geneticdeadender@reddit
I worked for Pat Salmon and MCA and the PO was always trying to squeeze contractors to get things cheaper. I started in 2004 and was still doing it in 2016 and I was still making the same money. Each contract pays a little different and the contractors bid for those routes, but I had never received a raise in those 12 years. I also got no health care. Instead, I got a few bucks more per hours in lieu of health care and retirement. That money stopped at 40 hours so I actually made less per hour after 40 since i got no overtime pay.
In 2016 there was a rumor that the company wasn't going to bid for the contracts at our PO. They swore up and down that this was untrue or that they knew nothing about it. And then one day we all got a message saying today was our last day. Cuz fuck you drivers.
I wasn't sad to say goodbye to those shitty trucks. Jalopies that were only on the road because the DOT couldn't detain the US Mail. The last 5 years was nothing but shitty trucks because they were going to squeeze every penny out of the routes and invest nothing back in. Fuck Pat Salmon and fat faggot sons.
AaronTuplin@reddit
That health & welfare money ain't shit and every company's health insurance costs exactly the amount of that Health and Welfare money
AaronTuplin@reddit
I worked for MTI for a little while. When I was working for postal carriers, postal contracts felt like a big scam
Beardie15@reddit
I work for the post office, and we were told that they're bringing back the private fleet since contractors were too expensive and unreliable. Our office has already had one carrier quit to go get his CDL and transfer to the private postal fleet.
Artyom_33@reddit
6 hours ago, on the Chicago sub-
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/09/09/johnson-enacts-citywide-hiring-freeze-ahead-of-1b-budget-gap/
DistinctDev@reddit
The USPS is restructuring, aka downsizing.
PacificCastaway@reddit
Right-sizing...hopefully.
avo_cado@reddit
That’ll just be cutting rural service
constrman42@reddit
I'm sure that ass clown DeJoy had something to do with it. He has ruined the USPS.
pm_me_ur_demotape@reddit
Great, and just as I'm moving cross country and looking for a new job
Wandering_Tactician@reddit
It'll go onto the spot market.
Wasatchbl@reddit
This happened to Matheson also. If you are going to base your entire fleet on one customer, be prepared when that customer goes with someone cheaper, or doesn't have as much work. And the postal service is just a service, it is not a for-profit. It will never make money, but it is not supposed to. As long as the federal government uses it for communication (IRS, etc.) And other companies use it for prescription drugs and such, it will be around. Just don't go starting a giant company with them as your only customer
Budget_Foundation747@reddit
Better roll hard and save every dollar you can, boys
CARTRUCK22@reddit (OP)
That's right stuff that piggy bank and hope for the best.