Deregulation Pt.2

[RostyC]

I was reading another thread in the new drivers section and it got me to thinking. (uh-oh) When trucking was regulated and guys say they were getting 1.50 mile back then it all sounds good, but didn't most trucks have to deadhead back due to only being able to run certain lanes and pull certain customers freight? If so you really got .75 a mile. Or were you able to trip lease off of other companies to get your truck back?
It seems to me that regulation was not as efficient as what we have now. Maybe some of you "more experienced" () guys can give some info on what it was like from an efficiency point of view compared to what we have today.

Also, was there a lot of corruption under regulation?



Happy Memorial Day everybody.

[Orangetxguy]

I was reading another thread in the new drivers section and it got me to thinking. (uh-oh) When trucking was regulated and guys say they were getting 1.50 mile back then it all sounds good, but didn't most trucks have to deadhead back due to only being able to run certain lanes and pull certain customers freight? If so you really got .75 a mile. Or were you able to trip lease off of other companies to get your truck back?
It seems to me that regulation was not as efficient as what we have now. Maybe some of you "more experienced" () guys can give some info on what it was like from an efficiency point of view compared to what we have today.

Also, was there a lot of corruption under regulation?



Happy Memorial Day everybody.

That right there...the highlited sentence....that is where the term "Backhaul" originated. The trucks were allowed to backhaul freight for those same customers. It was always done at reduced rates, because of the outbound rate being so good...back then.

Now....a truck gets shafted on both the headhaul rate and the return load, because of how it was done 40 years ago.

[allan5oh]

Wow I never thought of that. Government regulation screwing us decades after that regulation no longer exists!

Thanks for the history lesson.

[wildkat]

That's one of the main reason freight rates are so screwed up...especially to places like Vancouver...it's the end of the road, so everything coming out is backhaul...1/2 rate, end of story, doesn't matter what you take out. That's one of the reasons carriers make the trip out there at the rates they do...to help cover the screwing they get coming back.

[Fredog]

I heard my ex-boss tell a customer one time, "there is no such thing as a back-haul, there is a load going one way and another load going the other way"

[wildkat]

I heard my ex-boss tell a customer one time, "there is no such thing as a back-haul, there is a load going one way and another load going the other way"

Too bad all companies don't think that way!

[Fredog]

Too bad all companies don't think that way!

maybe that's why he started as a mechanic and now owns 150 trucks and is worth a few million, it just takes a a little business sense

[RostyC]

I don't want to start an argument here but there seems to be much confussion about what a backhaul was and so called de-regulation. There is so much to this and it is a very interesting subject but I will try to do a short version of the way it was. The term backhaul didn't mean cheap freight it just meant a load back, in some cases you might make more on the back haul then you did on your headhaul. To haul regulated freight you had to trip lease or be leased on to a regulated carrier. freight rates were published and established. The more off the beaten path the better the rate. The trucking industry was protected, great for us but not the consumer. Contract carriers were few and auth. was hard for them to obtain( You had to go to D.C. with the intended cust. and a lawyer and prove they needed your services and common carriers had lawyers trying to prove they didn't) Also manufacturers or non-trucking companies were only allowed to haul thier own goods and that meant out loaded and back empty unless they picked up something going back to one of thier facilities to be used by them. This is for the most part where the term backhaul started taking on a different meaning. This is where we got beat up most on dereg., now shippers started getting more of thier own equipment and the general attitude was any money coming back that at least paid the fuel would be good. Now we started competing with trucks that are not supported by the freigt rate. The backhaul is extra. Don't forget they(shipper) already cut us out by delivering thier own goods to begin with. If there is anything we could change in this industry to help it, it would be to make it again so that we don't have to compete with shippers for commercial freight. Before dereg. thats all every O.O. hoped for and we got it and it"s been down hill ever since. If you were an independant you ran what was called exempt products and or trip leased from time to time. One other thing I did as an independant was hauled what was termed hot freight. That was non-exempt goods without auth. In many ways it was exciting and looking back maybe even fun. I"ve been an O.O for 35 years and lived this. I have to stop here and appoligize for running on.

Moe, I hope you don't mind but I copied and pasted this for you. I thought it was an interesting post.

[Orangetxguy]

This part of Moe's statement;

Also manufacturers or non-trucking companies were only allowed to haul thier own goods and that meant out loaded and back empty unless they picked up something going back to one of thier facilities to be used by them. This is for the most part where the term backhaul started taking on a different meaning

, was what I was getting at. The "Private Fleets" are what started the "half rate" trend, after de-regulation. The shipper's that were used to paying private fleets half the rate, took on the rest of the industry and forced "Backhaul" rates. A lot of less than knowledgable new "Truck Operators", not knowing better, jumped on that wagon and started a mean trend.

Now "Backhaul Rates" are an accepted business practice by many many "major" and "small" carriers.

I like Fredog's "exboss". He has the right idea.

[comanche3000]

to bad we cant all start a new trend..... i was looking today on the mercer load board. and i was very interested since our load board says the origin the destination, milage and the pay to truck for every load posted i started searching from here to there etc.... going to canada pays awsome coming out pays crap. going to cali and out of cali seems to pay crap all the way around. unless its going from cali to like portland or somthing and then pays crap coming back into cali. but it seems the best paying freight is 500 miles to 800 miles in the southeast and midwest other than that the rest of the country's rates are FAIL. unless you wait around for that (cherry load) wich hardly never comes. so i really dont know what to think about it all i know we need better rates. i can not even concive how ppl can accept a load paying 1.00 a mile to 1.35 a mile that is just insane but you will be suprised how often i am offered that. im now with a company that knows better than to offer that to me so that makes it easyer on my nerves.

[GMAN]

Shorter runs typically pay more than those with more miles. Lately, many of those rates have not been doing very well, either. It was the manufacturers with their own trucks who started the backhaul trend. I remember some produce haulers back in the 1960's and 1970's who would take a load to California or Florida and from there they would buy their own produce and haul it back rather than take something cheap. Some of them did very well for themselves.

[moe]

Thanks RostyC I'll try to be more careful where I point that thing. Anyway in the 70's I hauled potatoes out of Maine with a reefer(40 foot long) We would try to get loads to other hot produce area's and do really well both ways. But truck rates on produce were based on supply and demand, so when the taters were at thier peak, if you loaded heavy and stayed in the area before the rate drop off you could go back empty and still do the equivilent of $1.50 pm for the round. As I recall the rate stalled around D.C. I used to go to Hunts Point Market in the Bronx and right back up. There wasn't much freight going back to Maine but if you did get a load up there Ironicly it also paid well.