Getting Really Frustrated At My Job - Not Enough Work To Keep Me Happy

Interesting. What do you haul again and where? I remember you being at Prime but I can’t remember if you still work there

I'm with Barr-Nunn now doing a NE regional gig. I do a lot of Home Depot, Walmart e-commerce, and Amazon E-commerce loads. In addition to bringing loads to places like FedEx, Ups, and Lasership.

I msg'd my FM asking if it might be better if I rearranged my days off in order to be available on days that most of our regional drivers (including me) have off. I don't want to work on a weekend day and I love my schedule, but I figured it would be advantageous to be available when I'm most needed for now.

Unfortunately, it's breaking the paradigm of performance determined pay. But I think companies are only in the beginning stages of figuring out how to respond to the economy getting destroyed. As time goes on and they see that there's not a quick end to this, economics will dictate that they reduce their number of drivers and trucks to match the lower freight volumes.

When that happens, I'm guessing that those of us that are premium drivers will be left standing. I also think that as they shed capacity both rates and our pay will increase for a while then slowly it will become over saturated again.

It's frustrating seeing guys at my terminal that have hit stuff in our own yard still getting work, ones that refuse to run in CA, the northeast and the mountains still get work, while I hustle but I do believe that eventually they will be weeded out as they just cost too much.

Elections have consequences. My advice is to hold fast because it's going to get worse all over.

There’s a recent article on yahoo news regarding the freight market. Companies like JB Hunt and even OOIDA are sounding the alarm that unless freight numbers start ramping up by Memorial Day weekend, it’ll get very difficult for many companies to continue doing business. I was surprised when a YouTube channel I follow ( I Allegedly) referenced the article. He is a venture capitalist who dabbles in a lot of different things and due to that, has friends and associates in all types of business and industry. For several weeks now he’s talked about commercial real estate and construction. Many of the newer buildings and manufacturing facilities he’s involved in will be sitting empty with no new projects scheduled because they can’t fill current facilities. Pinch your pennies, invest in tangible items and get ready for one helluva ride.

Freight demand is tracking about where it was in 2018. That was actually a good year for the industry. The problem is that in the last five years the number of tractors available for hire has increased by 29% (1,450,000 to 1,870,000). This means you could park 420,000 trucks for the year and still be able to haul all the freight! The other problem is that demand is falling so there will be a lot more idle trucks.

Freight demand is tracking about where it was in 2018. That was actually a good year for the industry. The problem is that in the last five years the number of tractors available for hire has increased by 29% (1,450,000 to 1,870,000). This means you could park 420,000 trucks for the year and still be able to haul all the freight! The other problem is that demand is falling so there will be a lot more idle trucks.

Over capacity. By a Longshot. It needs to be thinned out drastically. I think if it happens for a couple of years, it could potentially reset the industry Into more profitable market but only if the capacity is kept lower than demand. I think that would take a long time. I would personally love to see the industry more difficult to get into and much more closed so that it resembled pre-deregulation, but once the genie is out of the bottle, I don't think it's possible to put it back. The box store and 3PL is here to stay.

I would personally love to see the industry more difficult to get into and much more closed so that it resembled pre-deregulation,

I'm curious why you'd like to see that.

The way it stands now, the free market determines how many trucks are on the road, and this allows companies that drive innovation and efficiencies to outperform the rest. It certainly creates periods of boom and bust, but it's better to let the free market drive pricing and competition instead of a handful of bureaucrats in an office somewhere.

The "handful of bureaucrats" method is what we use for our currency, with The Fed dictating money supply and interest rates. Look how that's going. The booms and busts are getting bigger each cycle, our debt is unmanageable, our money supply is out of control, inflation is wildly out of control, the banking sector is collapsing, corruption is rampant, and the only way they can think of to fix their screwups is to wipe out the middle class and crush the economy. If they had let the free market determine the interest rates and money supply, you would still have booms and busts, but the economy would self-regulate far better than it does with a handful of corrupt bureaucrats trying to figure it all out on their own.

...but the economy would self-regulate far better than it does with a handful of corrupt bureaucrats trying to figure it all out on their own.

with the help of some well paid K Street lobbyists

I would personally love to see the industry more difficult to get into and much more closed so that it resembled pre-deregulation,

I'm curious why you'd like to see that.

It probably appears odd. What I mean by it is a theroy:

There's a boom bust cycle of high demand, then over capacity. But capacity is kept artificially high, even in bust cycles. If it was an organic free market, the carriers would shed capacity rapidly. But they don't.

Another issue is that in virtually every other marketplace, the service and or goods provider set their prices, then the market determines price/value point. Here, our customers set the prices. Part of the reasons they are able to do that is because there is such a surplus of drivers.

If the bar to become a driver was raised as it used to be through a process of apprentice, journeyman and master, the quality of the drivers would increase, the number of drivers would be reduced, both making the position much more valuable and expensive.

The other element would be to increase standards to get an authority and link it to knowledge and performance by having to posses a master CDL in order to be granted authority as well as a test.

The few trades such as electrical and plumbing that require formal apprenticeship, journeyman and master levels have kept their rates higher as a result.

The existing regulations allow for unfettered entrance to the industry relatively speaking and then like a snare, an ongoing source of potential violations that result in increased revenue to the government. If the issues were systemically prevented upon entering the industry it would benefit the industry but obviously not the government.

I certainly don't desire the regulations that prevented us from conducting business, but the result of a much smaller and more valued craft is something that I look at.

Carters deregulation though did benefit the consumer but at the cost of the driver.

This is probably going to hurt a lot of people. It's slow everywhere, it seems. My miles are at an all time low, yet, I worked nearly 66 hours in 5 days. LOL

Usually my loads are stacked back to back. Now, I'm seldom assigned a load until I've delivered the one I'm hauling. Then, it's a wait and see game.

Now is as good a time as ever to accept any load (I always do anyway) and take the short diatance but long in time scenic routes unless the load is 🔥!

Otherwise, it's time to start working on that social media influencer status. 🤣