How much do you think CH robinsons profit margin is?
#21
04-23-2008, 01:51 AM
The data doesn't lie. While I'll grant you that happiness is subjective and hard to quantify, education and health are not. Those are easy areas to measure and studies have for years shown that the U.S. trails much of Western Europe and select SE Asian countries in those areas. Perennial top performers are the Scandinavian countries who are further toward the socialist end of the scale than most.
#22
04-23-2008, 09:15 AM
Do you want your freight rates capped or do you want the ability to make as much as you can.....
What does putting a cap on fuel prices have to do with putting a cap on rates?
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#23
04-23-2008, 09:23 AM
Originally Posted by GMAN
There are times when I have a problem with some brokers profiteering or taking advantage of a situation in a particular part of the country. However, it is my choice as to whether I will take the cheap load that broker offers or find something which is profitable. I refuse to take a load that isn't profitable. If an owner operator isn't getting the rate he needs to be profitable then he needs to look at how he is running his business, not how much the broker is making. You don't have to take a cheap load. You can find the better paying loads, but it can sometimes take a lot of work. It may require you to either sit for a day or so or deadhead out of a bad area. Some of these cheaper freight areas are finding it more difficult to find trucks to haul their freight. I know because I am getting calls from them and they are offering higher rates. If you are one of those people who can't sit long enough to find a good paying load and think that you need to keep the wheels rolling in order to make a profit, then you may be in the wrong of the business. Perhaps you would do better as a company driver rather than an owner operator or independent. If you take the cheap loads and then complain about it, then you have no reason to complain about the cheap rates. You made a choice. When we make choices, then we should be willing to accept responsibility for the decisions we make. No one forces you to take cheap loads, just as they don't force you to take good paying loads. It is your decision and responsibility. So don't complain when you lose money when you are the one who decided to take the unprofitable load.
In business we learn to adapt to changes in the marketplace if we are to be successful. Mike,I know what you mean. I have also been getting phone calls from some reformed cheap brokers looking for trucks in south TX such as Mcallen or Laredo where rates normally are in the toilet. :lol: I have even been getting phone calls from brokers looking for trucks in FL. :shock: I don't know what legitimate reason a donkeybrain would have to take a load for .80cpm. or 1.20pm. It is all a call and wait game with a lot of brokers right now. The funny thing is that they cover the loads cheap during the week and the same brokers start calling me on a weekend when some of those carriers backed out at the last minute. :lol:
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#24
04-23-2008, 12:51 PM
I was in a fairly nice area today.....north of Poughkeepsie...I guess that's considered the Catskills? Lot's of nice cars and beautiful people. It was a nice change from what I normally see. It seems there is a wider separation between haves and have nots in the US than Canada. It seems all of Canada is middle class.
#25
04-23-2008, 01:13 PM
Originally Posted by no_worries
The data doesn't lie. While I'll grant you that happiness is subjective and hard to quantify, education and health are not. Those are easy areas to measure and studies have for years shown that the U.S. trails much of Western Europe and select SE Asian countries in those areas. Perennial top performers are the Scandinavian countries who are further toward the socialist end of the scale than most.
We have had a steady decline in our public school system since about the 1970's. It started when we began busing children out of their neighborhoods close to home and forcing them into schools on the other side of town. It made it more difficult for many parents to get to the school for meetings, pta, etc., and to keep an eye on what was going on in the schools which gave control over to the government. I don't know that the total healthcare we receive is lower than other parts of the world. We seem to have people clamoring to get into the country for their healthcare. Thousands of Canadians cross the border to get their healthcare in the U.S. The more government gets involved in our healthcare system the lower the quality and more expensive it will become. Additional paper trail costs and testing to protect themselves from lawsuits and compliance with government over regulation may have reduced total care to some segments of the populace. On the other hand, I still believe we have the best healthcare system in the world. Having to deal with unnecessary lawsuits and an over abundance of government mandated paperwork has driven costs through the roof for many people. I think it is the cost rather than the quality of healthcare that has changed. Lawsuits have driven many good doctors out of their specialties, such as in Florida and OBGYN's.
#26
04-23-2008, 01:42 PM
>Thousands of Canadians cross the border to get their healthcare in the U.S.
Yes, Gman. You'll notice I stopped short of praising our system. The Canucks that can afford to be treated in the US tend to pay for their cancer treatments out of their own pocket rather than wait forever to use the "funded" system at home. The Ontario Govt has capped what a doctor can earn so doctors stop taking patients or the doctors just move south. Fewer doctors = longer wait times in Canada. But it still means only the rich can afford US healthcare.
#27
04-23-2008, 03:15 PM
At the top end, yes, our system may very well be the best in the world. But in the role of serving society as a whole, our system is nothing to brag about. In the simplest measures of the health of a population, life expectancy and infant mortality, we are no better than middle of the road and trail most of the rest of the industrialized world. As far as education, I don't know what you're using for your metrics. Kids in today's school system generally score higher on standardized testing than in the past. Kids have more access to tougher curricula than in the past. The students that work to get an education can get a better one today than what was available 30 years ago. I'm not saying that there isn't a huge problem but the blame lies at home more than it does in the schools. Parents don't get involved in their kids' schools because they can't or don't want to take the time. We haven't fallen behind in education because we've gotten worse. The rest of the world has just gotten better faster.
#28
04-23-2008, 11:56 PM
There has been a decline in recent years in the level of our educational system since introducing socialism into the mix. Many schools and colleges force students to work in groups for their grades and the grade of the individual is dependent on the efforts of the group as a whole. Members of the group can lower the grade of an individual for nothing more than a personality conflict. Unproductive members can receive the same grade as those who put in the work. Individual effort is discouraged. New college students are often not ready for the college experience and must complete remedial courses to get them up to the minimum college standards. Socialism doesn't work. Innovation rarely comes from a group effort. True innovation usually comes from an individual.
#29
04-24-2008, 03:03 AM
GMAN, maybe those are some experiments being tried in TN, I don't know. But I have dozens of friends working in education in various parts of the country and I'm not that far removed from my own college experience. None of the things you've cited sounds the least bit familiar. And once again, the data doesn't lie. A student heading off to college this fall will have been exposed to a broader curriculum and more advanced studies than the same student 30 years ago...and the kid from Singapore will be further ahead than ours.
#30
04-24-2008, 04:02 AM
Originally Posted by DD60
What does putting a cap on fuel prices have to do with putting a cap on rates?
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