Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Unions and the supply chains

You want to start a shipstorm just go into a union shop and put out more production than they do. They'll let you know quick that you're out of line.
Driverless Trucks make me laugh. Put one on any Dallas Freeway and watch the mayhem. After they wreck the poor thing they'll steal the tires off it and anything else that can be sold.

I hated doing trade shows in California. They were so corrupted by union guys you couldn't even carry a box of catalogs to your booth without paying a union spotter $180 to watch you do it.

Everything was an incredible rip off and you weren't allowed to do anything. You would wait hours to get your sign dropped at the end of the show and it costs over $1000 for a few minutes of a guy in a lift and 3 spotters at 1 hour minimum each for three minutes of work.

If you tried to hurry them they got really passive aggressive and would do you dead last. I want to get out of town pretty bad one time so I slept the lift guy a $100 and he came right down and dropped my sign. Word got out I was tipping and they had me out of there quick. Decided not to do that anymore because if felt like encouraging corruption. The unionization already felt corrupt enough.

Leftist states were always the worst, most corrupt, and most expensive places to do trade shows. Florida and Texas were the best and easiest states to do shows in.

Bb

BIL is a machinist
Left his long time position to take a lucrative offer
at a large shop. 1st week there he was exceeding
the daily piece quota way before lunchtime with no
effort. One of the coworkers came over and suggested
he slow down and kick back and take it easy.
Well that didn't sit well because he's a professional
and highly skilled and old fashioned.
Later on they approached him again and said he
might need to find a job elsewhere or get with the
program and fill the quota like the rest of them were
doing, no more no less. Just the required piece count
and draw your pay and be glad of it
Things gradually got worse as far as threats and he
left and went to work elsewhere because the degree
of sheer laziness he had to look at sickened him

Just one of the many reasons companies go
outside of the US for their manufacturing needs

There is a model in trucking usually referred to as “owner-operator”. A guy owns the truck (well, usually the bank owns it, but they let him take it to work...), but he doesn’t want to deal with the administrative burden of trucking. Things like insurance, safety compliance, record keeping, customer relations, all the office related stuff.

On the other hand, trucking companies aren’t fond of employee drivers, overall. They tend to tear things up more, are less productive, worse on time performance, high turnover, you name it.

The model is that the owner operator “leases on” to the trucking company. The trucking company does all the administrative and compliance stuff and arranges for loads. The truck owner maintains the truck, and does the actual picking up, driving and delivering. The pay can be by the mile, by the load, or a percentage of the revenue. Different companies offer different pay structures.

There are more than 350,000 owner operators in the US, and as a class, their accident rate is 3.7 TIMES less than the employee driver.

The model works really well. The owner ops get to do what they are good at, control where, what and how they run, own their own business, and as a class perform better, safer, more efficient than employee drivers.

Of course, they are a “competitor” to the union, and the unions found a sympathetic ear in the deranged socialist government of California, who passed AB5, which outlaws the owner operator model. It also so happens that a good portion of the drayage trucks serving the ports were owner ops.

Right now, AB5 is in legal limbo, but all the owner ops I know in California have relocated to outside the state out of caution. They aren’t eager to move back.

Dutch,
You mentioned one driver model.
There is another, the dirty scam in the business.
And this part isn't news to you. Will be to some.

The Lease Driver.
Not to be confused with an O/O "leasing on.

The Lease driver goes through a "hiring" process, like an employee.
He gets a credit check to be approved also, usually.

He then has to lease a truck from the company.
From the company, not someone else.

The truck will either be chosen for him, or he will have a couple to
chose from. He will not have free choice, like an O/0 buying a truck.

He will then be dispatched, mostly like a company driver.
Forced dispatch if that's their thing, usually a choice of a few loads.
The company will maintain the truck, at his expense.

If one reads this and thinks "Sounds like a company driver" it is.

What usually happens is,
The driver/truck gets a rate that looks great to a company driver.

Then, the company takes lease fees, fuel, any road taxes, maybe plates,
insurance, maintenance and other fees out. Sending the driver what's left.
On a 1099.

Now, the driver who doesn't have,
health insurance, work comp, vacation...
Has to pay his social security, plus the company portion,
And do his own taxes.

When he is done, he usually has less money than a company driver,
And less than a good O/O.

In return he gets,
To pretend the truck is his,
The liability of "owning the truck",
And all the hassles and headaches of actually owning a truck.

These 1099 scams are a big issue in a bunch of industries, and
a focus of government regulators.
Heck I know construction people
that hire guys, tell them when to be where, haul them to jobs that the company arranged, provide all tools and materials, then haul them back.

And call the guys "Contractors" and work them on a 1099.

These driverless trucks? Who pre-trips and post Trips them? What about flats and air leaks….

The Owner Operators should be able to get around the AB5 by forming there self in an LLC, a federal EIN, The worker comp is probably more draconian there than in my state. I carry a policy with no employees so its rather inexpensive a year. One drawback is filing two tax returns for him or herself and the LLC

Dillon, right you are, of course.

There’s a third, even more egregious model, of the “1099” driver. There the driver doesn’t even “own” the truck, but the company pretends he’s a contractor anyway. Especially new drivers look at the pay rate and think they are making hay, until the IRS comes calling for their pound of flesh. Until they realize there is no work comp, retirement or health.

Misclassification of employees as contractors is a pretty big focus of the IRS, as it should be. But AB5 goes way beyond that, and prohibits legitimate business to business arrangements.

The LLC is enough to mostly pacify the IRS, but not AB5. under AB5, a company is not allowed to hire contractors that perform the primary function of the company. A trucking company cannot hire another trucking company. A plumbing company cannot hire another plumber sub.

It’s nuts.

I said for a long time that Government wants to eliminate small mom & pop type business and California is always the test bed.

Logistics and supply is more than trucks.

And tainted by commie union Fugks from stem to stern.

Durch,
Are your trucks for the fish business, partly or a whole other business?

Private carrier in support of the farms is the primary function. Fish outbound, feed back. We also broker both fish and feed for other farms as the opportunities come up, which has been a pretty good side hustle at times. It also keeps the wheels turning and the drivers earning.......

What I guessed.

Can't imagine anyone trying to run an ag operation, and a common carrier operation at the same time.

There much to be said about ambition,


But that would be insane.

Or an attempt to "get poor fast".

What I don't get is the fact that truck traffic appears to be at an all time high, at least in my neck of the woods. I've made no special effort to try and count the trucks or quantify the traffic, but I sure don't see any of it diminished as a matter of casual observation. That leads to wonder what the hell all these trucks ARE hauling.

May be they should post a help wanted ad here at the CFF.

Lol, I love the trucking part. Actually got a minor in college in transportation. I’m not about to go out there and do what you guys do and run trucks for revenue, however. I’d get my butt handed to me so fast...... at least when I haul our own product, I know I’m getting paid, and where the next load is coming from. And I even get to drive one of them at least occasionally, which is still a thrill after all these years. Coming down Cabbage at 90K in the winter makes you feel ALIVE!

Don't do it anymore.
Work in a factory running a machine.

Used to haul fuel/gas as a fun side gig, on an as needed basis, but
various issues slowed down demand for that company, and I haven't in 6 or 7 years. Been contemplating taking on of the part time jobs I see, but doubt it'll happen.

Miss it though, probably the thing I'm best at.

Sure as hell don't miss long haul.
Letting shippers, receivers, dispatchers determine every aspect of my life.
It's nice to have a boss for 8 hours. Eat dinner at 12, and have 16 hours
for me. Not have a load determine my eat, sleep, shower.....time.