Will O/O's Go The Way Of The Dinosaur?

[Fiddler]

Has anyone seen this? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23436726/
Is this story overblown?
Say it ain't so! :sad:

[GMAN]

We don't need any more government interference in trucking. That is one of the problems we have today. TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT CONTROL. The main reason so many owner operators are in trouble is that they are running cheap freight. Rates should reflect the cost of doing business with some profit attached. When the cost of fuel or other expenses rise, so should rates. The problem is that there are still those who insist on running their trucks at or below their operating cost. As harsh as it may sound, the best thing for the industry is for those who cannot or will not run at fair rates to go out of business. The strong will survive. The small business owner carries this nation, not big business. There have always been small business owners who have survived the ups and downs of business. Rates will remain low until those who take them refuse to do so. Don't get me wrong. I believe we are headed for some difficult times. Over all I, and others are doing OK. We are doing OK because we refuse to haul for cheap rates. I will sit or deadhead rather than take a cheap load. I just deadheaded from El Paso to Phoenix to get a decent paying load. I found something for over $2/mile. Almost everything I could find around El Paso was $1/mile or just over that figure. It cost me about 50 gallons of fuel to travel over 400 miles. (I wish that I could get that good fuel mileage loaded). I must have had a good tail wind. I was prepared to deadhead over 1,000 miles rather than take one of those cheap loads. It is those who are taking these cheap loads that are the problem. You can blame the high cost of fuel, government, or anything else but it comes down to the owner operators and trucking companies. If the freight doesn't move at $1/mile, then the rate comes up until it does move. I refuse to haul below a certain amount of money. I am rather rigid in what I will accept to move my truck. If owner operators don't value their service, then why should brokers or shippers? And you can't blame the brokers or shippers. They are in business to make a profit. If they can move their freight for $1/mile, then there is no incentive for them to pay $2/mile. Carriers and owner operators control freight rates, not shippers nor brokers. Until they understand that fact, the bankruptcies and failures will continue to rise.

Essentially, we are just in another business cycle. People have been over spending for years. Now is the time for a painful correction. It won't be easy, but we will survive. Trucking cannot survive without the owner operators. So, to answer your question, the owner operator isn't on the way out. I expect the owner operators to prosper when this recession is behind us. All you need do is survive. You survive by treating this as a business. A business operates at a profit. An owner operator cannot make a profit by operating at a loss. That means that you don't take ANY load which isn't profitable.

[pigrider]

GMAN, I been reading your post for months now, and I like the way you think!!

[Marmon man]

And when you lease on to a company and refuse cheap loads..guess what?..you get starved out or flat fired.

[Fozzy]

The "true" owner operator will never go out of business. The "be your own boss" dreamers will be scattered to the winds with bad attitudes because no one "gave them" whatever it was that they thought they were looking for. With any luck, the percentage of O/O's will go back down to where they used to be VS company drivers and things will stabilize. There are going to be a whole lot of those glamorized fleet trucks for sale all over the place before this is all over.

[mike3fan]

And when you lease on to a company and refuse cheap loads..guess what?..you get starved out or flat fired.

Why would you lease to a company that has low rates to begin with?

[mike3fan]

Carriers and owner operators control freight rates, not shippers nor brokers.

Excellent point,if only some would heed this advice.

[Windwalker]

Carriers and owner operators control freight rates, not shippers nor brokers.

Excellent point,if only some would heed this advice.

When you have Werner, J B Hunt, and USX all trying to undercut each otehr, it affects the rates that the O/O get as well. So, you stop hauling that shippers loads. How long before you don't have any shippers to go to?

[Jay B. Swift]

Will O/O's Go The Way Of The Dinosaur?

Yes.

:sad: :shock: :sad:

[crazyfox]

The "true" owner operator will never go out of business. The "be your own boss" dreamers will be scattered to the winds with bad attitudes because no one "gave them" whatever it was that they thought they were looking for. With any luck, the percentage of O/O's will go back down to where they used to be VS company drivers and things will stabilize. There are going to be a whole lot of those glamorized fleet trucks for sale all over the place before this is all over.

:shock: I don't know what planet you live on, but I live on earth. The O/O, AND the small fleet owners, "are on the way OUT." Wait until a gallon of fuel hits, $4.75 or $5.00 a gallon! You and all the other members here might think this will never happen, BUT I am will to bet ANYTHING I have that,"within the next, 2 yrs, the price of a gallon of WILL BE that much!! The goverment wants the, O/O's and the small fleet owners OUT. When everything is over and done with, (by the goverment) and fuel hits $4.75 to $5.00 a gallon, there WILL be, just 2 or 3 large company's left to work for, AND the ONLY ones driving for these company's WILL be, MEXICAN drivers!!! (unless you still want to drive for 15 cents a mile.) Any one want to bet!!!!

[Twilight Flyer]

That's it. I'm investing in the Reynolds company. Tin foil is obviously going to be on the way up.

[Fozzy]

I don't know what planet you live on, but I live on earth.

Not really, you live in America and so far Americans don't realize that there ARE even other places.. this adjustment of fuel prices have given them a slight taste of reality.. and strangely, they don't like it.

The O/O, AND the small fleet owners, "are on the way OUT." Wait until a gallon of fuel hits, $4.75 or $5.00 a gallon! You and all the other members here might think this will never happen, BUT I am will to bet ANYTHING I have that,"within the next, 2 yrs, the price of a gallon of WILL BE that much!!

So?

The goverment wants the, O/O's and the small fleet owners OUT.

Please state the source of this. I haven't seen this to be the case. The Government gave a lot of these people the choice for the CHANCE at competing.. now they cant and it's of course.. the Government's fault?

When everything is over and done with, (by the goverment) and fuel hits $4.75 to $5.00 a gallon, there WILL be, just 2 or 3 large company's left to work for, AND the ONLY ones driving for these company's WILL be, MEXICAN drivers!!! (unless you still want to drive for 15 cents a mile.) Any one want to bet!!!!

AHHHH!!! There's where you were going with all of this hysteria... The fact is that before this deregulation and the instant glut of those wanting to "be their own boss" and demanded that the government step in and destroy the rules that kept this a decent well paying CAREER. The fact is that the supertrucker and deregulation mimics directly what the illegal immigrant situation is today (to the hysterical super trucker that is). The illegals supposedly cut the costs and work for far less than the supposed professionals... the "evil" corporations snap up the cheap labor and diss the "professionals" because they would be stupid to pay more for the same product. The good companies fail because they cannot compete with those who would work for "free"... This describes what happened to trucking after deregulation.. The smart O/O WILL survive. Those who enjoyed watching the good companies fail will soon be working for those few big companies or they will be out of a job.. Sorry! Sucks to be You!!!

[marylandkw]

The O/O, AND the small fleet owners, "are on the way OUT." Wait until a gallon of fuel hits, $4.75 or $5.00 a gallon!

I was around for when fuel went over a buck a gallon, and 2 and 3 and people were spewing this same drivel then. Fuel goes up, rates go up. Can't get your rates up, must be doing something wrong.

Fozzy, thanks for your reply, you saved me some typing.

[GMAN]

There are a number of larger carriers who are currently in trouble. Big companies, regardless of the industry, cannot react to rapidly changing market conditions as quickly as the savvy small business owner. The large carriers would like to think that this country could not survive without them. In reality, it is the smaller fleets and independents who keep the majority of freight moving in this country. It is small business who provides most of the real job growth and pays most of the taxes. There have been small business since there was such a thing as a business. I don't see that changing. As long as people dream and have ambition, there will be small businesses. And that goes for owner operators. If every one of these large carriers went out of business tomorrow, this country could survive. Adjustments would need to be made by both shippers and small carriers, but the job would get done. The best thing would be that rates would likely come up due to taking some of the capacity out of the marketplace.