Quote:
Originally Posted by GMAN
I don't expect enough to stick together in this industry to have an impact on anything. It hasn't happened since around 1980. But the Teamsters were strong back then. The only thing that I see that will have some impact is when enough owner operators and carrier who hauling the cheap freight finally run out of credit and money. At that point we should start to see a turnaround in our rates and availability of freight.
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I am already seeing some carriers that where working on very thin margins going out of business.
They could make it in good times because they could run on their lines of credit.
There is a water plant in town where all of the water is exported to one of the big chains. They don't even pay enough to run 48,000 lbs of product to cover the fuel from here to destination.
What they count on, is someone who is empty and just wants any amount of money to offset some of the cost between here and there.
One of the local companies that went out of business, was a main hauler for this company.
Who is the culprit here.
The water bottling company for low-balling the carriers?
The carriers for hauling the freight?
The superstore for trying to sell a bottle of water for $1.79 as opposed to $1.89?
Nope, none of them.
The real culprit is the consumer who will not pay what it takes to keep our industries alive and profitable.
Recently, all of the highways between Cranbrook and the coast where closed for about five days. I went into the local grocery store to get a few things just as the roads opened. There where many, many displays of the produce department that had nothing in them.
I wanted to stand on top of the orange boxes and yell, "See, this is what happens when trucks don't move!" I didn't, but i did tell the produce manager, who I know, that it did my heart good to see it.
I am buying a couple of chairs and a table for my deck, Adirondacks to be precise. I see them down at the local hardware store for about $400. I am going to get them from a guy in Calgary and the total cost is over $700. Almost twice as much. But they are made locally by locals.
We need to shop as local as we can and stop worrying about the pennies we save. All that is doing is exporting jobs.