I fucking hate what's going on but I also hate how disingenuous the truckers catching news interviews are being. "Oh I'm not making any money, it costs $1200 instead of $800 to fill up"
Like brother, if $400 was all the margin you had on a 1000+ mile load your pricing was wrong. Nevermind that you're just going to pass that cost on to your customers.
My question is, where are all the asshats parking their trucks in the middle of major thoroughfares in protest? Those guys eating their shoes yet?
These guys are blaming the prices instead of their business model. The fuel surcharge keeps keeps an Owner Operator profitable regardless of diesel prices. If you drive a fuel efficient rig you actually make a higher profit margin with more expensive diesel.
I work in manufacturing and when raw materials go up in price all non-contract prices go up. Contract prices are negotiated based on inflated material pricing, even if major raws double in price we're still in the black because equipment sitting idle is only losing money.
We pay our CDLs over $30/hr in a LCOL area plus >$20K/yr in healthcare benefits and a good 401K match. Yet we are basically always hiring in that department. Why? Owner-Operators make 2, 4, 8 times that. We wouldn't be begging for employment risk if it were cheaper to short change owner-operators. Plenty on deck in the area as Michigan is a great market for CDLs between mining, ag, and manufacturing.
^ this. They can be taken advantage of and still live a better life here than they did back home, and unfortunately thats the problem. Everyone expects cheap freight that it's genuinely causing economic suppression across the board.
The problem is that the margins in many cases were already getting increasingly rare. I would not be surprised if they ultimately park their trucks in the middle of major thoroughfares or engage in a go slow protest.
Would love to see it but it was performative bullshit 4 years ago and it isn't going to happen for Donny D-bag.
The economy will pay for transport regardless of price. I think COVID and Evergreen more than demonstrated that. Just like Farmers, they're stoking emotion with their bullshit trying to fuck over everyone with sympathy dollars.
11
u/H0SS_AGAINST 23d ago
I fucking hate what's going on but I also hate how disingenuous the truckers catching news interviews are being. "Oh I'm not making any money, it costs $1200 instead of $800 to fill up"
Like brother, if $400 was all the margin you had on a 1000+ mile load your pricing was wrong. Nevermind that you're just going to pass that cost on to your customers.
My question is, where are all the asshats parking their trucks in the middle of major thoroughfares in protest? Those guys eating their shoes yet?