Question:
As Family memebers of carers, you are also the Back Bone of the Back Bone of the Industry and the Nation. Please Fax or E-mail this Brief to your Congresspersons, Senators, or Favorite Initialed Government or Non-Government Agencies as a Favor to me and my Family.
Thanks
Transportation/Logistics Brief 2002
The Dead End Road
In an industry that is driven by the United States Gross National Product’s growth and appetite it has yet to catch up with the 21st century! Scores of men women and machines still try to squeeze out a living with what is left to them from the monstrous caring companies, behemoth grocery chains, department stores goliaths and raw material and finished goods merchants.
If the capitalistic societies with which we live and work within, makes its daily bread and butter from pursuing the growth of this monstrous G.N.P. why does the living wage from the people that move 84% of it, stay so stagnant. Forced to work under unsafe conditions, rely on thieves to determine their worth for a days work, and con artists to determine the distance between two points A and B. These people Americans one and all, want it known that today we have had enough. This brief though slanted looking through eyes from within, will let the Truth be known and the solutions true worth be applied to the people whose job it is to see that this present day situation should have never happened in the first place.
Union Companies
Today’s union shops and work places are not truly drawing their yearly wages from their won backs but from the backs of the non-union labor used to transport goods, merchandise and raw materials a like, between their union factories and the union distributions centers. This cost savings is being divided between Fortune 500 corporations, their management and what is left over is given back to this labor force who impersonated a union work shop. From Bread to Beer, From Beef to Beans, from Steel to Styrofoam this non-union worker bee racing between two points is about to breakdown and catastrophes have already been happening for years. These catastrophes though small in size are great in number. What may be an expectable loss to justify Just In Time freight deliveries means a daughter grows up without a father, or a son losses a mother or entire families are wiped out and have been wiped out just to justify a smaller inventory, and a stock dividend. A car is not part of an assembly line that stretches from Birmingham Alabama to Detroit Michigan and to New York City. It is to move large quantities from Point A to Point B in sufficient numbers to be stored for proper distribution in a safe timely manner. Our job function is not to bridge the gap in an assembly line that has been stretched out over 3 to 6 states in order to keep the cost of labor low in so doing we have lowered the cost and value of the lives of the people that have been affected by these semi-cost effective, life threatening logistical systems and decision making.
A generation of Logistic Engineers has thrown out every safe guard ever developed over decades of mass production in order to justify their own existence and in turn hard lessons learned over scores of distribution networks goes un noticed until these deadly lessons rear their earth shattering ugly heads again and again. Yet these same engineers refuse to accept any responsibility for their actions and the reactions they cause, within the adjoining transportation industries.
Hours Of Service
This really should be called truth in spending. While attempting to rewrite and restructure the H.O.S. rules every initialed government body, as well as initialed non-government bodies have all passed over the true facts that will still cause any solution found to fail. If the solutions to the problem is based on the same flawed information, statistics, input, guidance, unrealistic measurements and industry pressures, it to shall fail, or be equally flawed.
The determining factor in determining hours worked, relies on ultimately the number of miles driven. This Fact has yet to be addressed by any government of non government body. This is the main reason the F.M.C.S.A. does not use mileage but uses power units in their calculation for the Safe Stat Systems. What outside influence cajoles them into doing so, must be massive and financially powerful. Every driver already knows when he leaves the house to go to work he is already 8% to 14 % deficient in his days work. Port to Port while written into the vast majority of contracts is nicely written and looks good in print but is rarely adhered red to. Now while seemingly unassociated these two facts which have been allowed to go unchallenged for 3.5 decades since mileage became a rate of pay, in the equation of a trips value and freight charge. If this equation is ever corrected Billions of Dollars will be a stake of having to be paid to the people it was and still is being stolen from. I.e.: a 1,000 mile trip does not take 1,000 miles it takes between 1,080 miles or as much as 1,140 miles of complete. Now when this corrected equation is calculated into a ridiculous 70 hour 8 day week or a 60 hour 7 day week: well take a minute and do the math, add 8% to 14% to the 70 hour week, X 4 weeks a month, X 12 months a year, X 20 to 30 year career span. 2.8 to 4.9 Years of driving for free, interesting isn’t it. With no compensation for the work or the deductions for traveling and living costs, this dollar number is staggering.
Now add in 4 to 8 hours lost at shippers and receivers every two to three days of this persons work week and add that on top of the already high figure. This is why the H.O.S. rules and revisions shall remain flawed unless this simple mathematical equation is fixed.
While speed limits have been changed all over the country and time savings received by all those who use these interstate highways the ones that would receive the most reward for this change still can not readily use it. Even if a speed limit of 70 or 75 mph. is the law a driver still has to only show 60 or 65 mph. or whatever the D.O.T. and the home office has determined is the correct speed for that company. So again the H.O.S. rules and regs are and will be flawed in the future.
With most initialed government bodies trying to figure out how to move the future and additional G.N.P. more effectively in the future they should be concentrating on how to move this present G.N.P. more safely and effectively first.
I.F.T.A.
Now taking into consideration that every caring Company and Private Fleet that has ever reported their Fuel Taxes for the last 35 years hast short changed their reporting figures by 8 to 14 %, what would be figured over every state in the union. So the Dollar value in Billions is at stake in more places than one This too needs to be a Congressional Bill to protect our citizens and our countries natural and manmade resources.
With G.P.S. systems worldwide this same industry can’t figure out the correct distance between 2 or 3 cities.
Even after contributing Billions, at $.44 for every gallon one gallon at a time for diesel fuel consumed, this short changed reimbursement system still can’t manage to perform is function and use these funds for the shortfall correction of parking spaces. Instead they spend Billions on acoustical barriers instead of on the highways it was intended to be spent on. While surveys show some states with enough spaces and some without it does not address the transportation lanes and the mass movement of freight in these lanes from companies based outside these transportation lanes.
Freight Brokers
Left to their own devices this part of the industry is responsible for a great portion of the movement of freight with no respect, or responsibility for safety, fuel economy or even the prompt of eventual payment of freight invoices. While some companies turn over this job function to these outside contractors they should not be allowed to ignore the need to reduce dead head miles, respect and improve the safe operation of the fleets that provide the ultimate end use service. As well as being held accountable for the contribution they have also made to the short changed mileage over that past 35 years. Several of these fright brokers are actually the shippers and receivers themselves, making a profit from their own shipments.
The large Transportation companies should also not be allowed to become freight brokers for it not only restricts free enterprise it also reduces the amount of profit and income and independent or small transportation company is allowed to make in today’s market place.
If shippers and receivers gave their monies to the carriers and then down to the drivers instead of the Billions to the Brokers, the industry would be safer, more efficient, move the G.N.P. without haste and waste. As well as putting the money in the pockets of the people that actually do the work.
Extremely Large Rate Cutting Companies
While J. B. Hunt , Schneider and Swift , just to name a few companies have managed to squeeze every last dollar and cent out of their suppliers on the cost side of the equation they have done the equal to the rating system. After cutting the freight rates below the average cost for an independent or small company they restrict trade on a massive scale. These suppliers must recoup their profits from the remainder of their customers and industry suppliers. From Tires, to Fuel, from Brakes to Bearing, the entire industry has been affected by this mentality and vigorous raping of the free market system. Schneider has been so vigorous in this rate cutting mentality that the owner sits right next to Allen Greenspan on the Federal Reserve Board. This should also be addressed by a congressional bill.
Lumper Laws
That Don’t Work
A Law is a Law, without exceptions. These exceptions are placed within the law, for the Fortune 500 Companies to benefit from for they truly think that they have become above the law, or are the law themselves. Forcing drivers to unload or pay to unload their own goods creates an enormous amount of fatigue and reverses the process that the law was meant to change in the first place.
Shippers and Receivers
While an extremely important part of the industry, they accept no responsibility for anything that has to do with safety or driver compensation for spending half their career lives picking up and delivering the life blood of the own operations. While wasting 20% of their careers being held in this uncompensated delaying pattern the driver should be compensated with the equal hourl7y wage value for the driver double that for the piece of equipment that is also idle and delayed. This should also be addressed in a congressional bill.
Safety Regulations
While freight is being moved by several modes, air, water, and ground, steamships, cars and planes have been designed to have a significant amount of lighting while rail goes down the tracks in the dark. This should also be address in a Federal Regulation to light up all rail cars to improve their safety performances. This may help balance out the overall advantage this one transportation mode has over the rest as well as improving safety.
While under extremely demanding circumstances the losses that have accrued in the past can not be corrected. Yet, any future losses that may have been corrected as well as prevented must at all cost be directly held accountable by the people and government and non government initialed agencies. A system while allowed to be flawed can no longer go about its business as usual mentality once these issues have been addressed to one and all.
America has 3,536,342 sq. miles of land and 760,000 miles of highways; this has to be the safest land and highways in the world. Nothing short of that will do for the citizens that live here and the ones that make their living moving the G.N.P. and the ones that make their living buying selling and making the G.N.P. as well.
Homeless
Some people get so over committed to their new driving or independent owner operator enterprise that they can’t afford to back up and regroup. Others that have failed still work at it and live in the car. Never being counted as a homeless person, just living day to day, load to load, car stop to car stop. This is a disgrace and should be addressed by the industry at large and by at least one initialed government agency.
Revolving Door Recruiters
Keeping a constant supply of drivers has also been something the industry as well as the government’s failure to supply a safe and adequate one. Millions upon millions have been spent to keep drivers moving from one company to another. Just to find out the one you moved to is no better the one you left. There is no truth in these advertisements as there is little truth to date in the contracts as well. Recruiting by region is predominant and returning the driver back to his home area is the rarity. This practice does nothing but keep drivers out far too long and helps break up already stressed and troubled family lives that are naturally strained in this demanding industry.
Industry magazines abound in articles and advertisements that tell stories of success that not only can not be substantiated but are only advertisements themselves. Its’ not possible to all be a Transport Topic but for Gods sake at least the can come a little closer. These drivers need not stay out for years, months, or even several weeks. If you can’t make a living wage in working 10 consecutive days don’t you think by now someone would have figured out that these may be something wrong? Or, if you have to change jobs three times in three years that maybe there are powers and plans at work to make sure you can not be successful at finding a safe, profitable employer.
While most editors involved in these magazines spend most of their time writing about : why a 17 year old driver should be allowed to drive coast to coast, why in the rain his or her windshields get wet from cars and they can not see, why you should not smoke while fueling up your four wheeler, why people still don’t put the seat down even when they are away from home, why the D.O.T. doesn’t bring back traffic circles, why we should have double 57’ trailers , even though 53’ trailers only get used up to the 48’mark and only a few fortune 500 companies use the entire trailer. All the while acting like industry safety and image advocates they are just part of the revolving door mechanism with their advertisement chronicles.
This brief was written with the sole purpose of expressing my opinion , as I prepare to leave this great industry that I have spent most of my life working and living in.
Transportation Logistics Brief 2002
The Dead End Road
CC:
D.O.T.
F.M.C.S.A.
A.T.A.
I.F.T.A.
O.O.I.D.A.
U.S. House of Rep. Transportation Committee
U.S. Senate Transportation Committee
N.H.T.S.A.
F.H.W.A.
Roadstar
Overdrive
carers News
F.E.D.U.P.

Answer:

Your opinion was well spoken!!!! I agree with it all.

Answer:

I just wish more people would stand up and do something rather than waiting for others to do it for them! But, then again it may just be a way of life in America for Americans to get use to doing it that way. Hope you have a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas!
Thanks

Answer:

It is a shame the toll this industry takes out on the families. The most important part of the whole puzzle and they take it right on the chin. God Bless The carer Families!
Thanks

Answer:

I thought this brief would get more attention than it has. But then again I have been wrong before.
Thanks

Answer:

But just knowing that maybe you all have read it will be enough. Thanks