New belt trailer prices

Maybe this is what you needed to realize your not charging enough. We are in an inflationary period and your rates need to increase to offset the added cost. The old $2 a mile is no where near what you need to charge. Don’t sell yourself short!

Jerry, it's not my intention to criticize your business or tell you how to run it. I'm going to start with this link https://money.com/trucking-worst-job/ I should keep my mouth shut period, but I see the old timers talk about how great it used to be, and talk about how poor the drivers are now. Yep alot of them are poor quality. Do you know what you old timers had that they didn't???? Number one was great pay, taking into account inflation, your pay was nearly double, number 2, the new drivers have nobody willing to train them! You industry vets learned from the best and then refuse to pass it on to the next. Not you specifically Jerry. Kieth literally said in a conversation with you on the forum, that he doesn't give a "f" while bragging about his brother training him how to drive. Wow, imagine if the modern newbie got the same red carpet treatment....or the same pay. I was at my gym a month ago and watched someone make fun of a high school graduate for not knowing how to drive a truck!! Then I watched the kid call this prick out on it by saying"teach me with yours" . Of course the prick refused. Well, I let that kid grind gears on my 18spd all afternoon long that day!!! It's my opinion that the pay in this industry isn't nearly where it should be and the time is the most important thing to me, and to most people. Trucking takes you away from your family, you better be willing to pay for that time. 70k a year at 3000 hours is not a good deal. You old timers also had flexibility in your time. That's gone with an e log which means more nights away from home. Which correlates to pay up, or nobody will show up. Us conservatives brag about being family oriented right?? Well provide a career that gets them home more. I think it is lazy and irresponsible to blame the government stimulus bullshit as the reason that companies can't find drivers. Or to blame youth laziness as the mass reason. I know if I was hiring, those aren't my target people anyway. I'd want a driver that is 30 years old. Work ethic up the wazoo, and I want their family to be their number 1 priority. I wouldn't want a government dependant crackhead. A good person will not show up if the pay and home time don't balance PERDIOD. every other claim for why the good people aren't there are just irresponsible excuses....passing off the blame. I enjoy my job. I love my Peterbilt, I'm satisfied with my home time mostly and I'm satisfied with the pay. But if my pay dropped 1 cent, or my home time dropped by 1 minute per year, that beautiful 379 is gone. I don't mean to sound harsh or anything. I'm just throwing out my opinion. Why isn't the money there to incentivize drivers if there's a shortage, and to those that think 75k a year for 3000 hours is good....we need to go over the current cost of living because you aren't understanding. Good luck Jerry, thanks for your clarification and posts. I think they are educational. Again, as I read this, I can see where it can come off harsh. My goal is not to have a harsh tone.

Trust me, Dale, I feel Art's pain. I still have the spec sheet on a new Trinity Belt, since it was my first idea on getting back into trucking. I could not justify over $87 grand, with the lousy rates I had been studying and seasonal fluctuations.

I actually pay my guys other perks, which increases their weekly income. Maybe I'm selfish about not publicising everything, other than stating their base. I am fully aware of what most feel should be paid to OTR drivers. My fellows are working with me with the knowlege of what I'm trying to do and know they will reap further income as we grow. And they also appreciate the medical plan for they and their families and know what that has cost me, also. Good men, for sure!

Unions took it in the shorts with deregulation, but wouldn't agree with me back in the day when I tried to convince them the Dems really aren't their friends. My former business agent and shop steward and I went round and round over their opinion that, "We expect some less affluent common carriers to go out of business, do to their present balance sheets. However, when our members loose their jobs and find work at some of the upstart companies, they will help bring the union into their companies"

Delusions of grandure was my opinion and told them so. "You can't get drivers to organize when they are out on the roads for a month at a time! Plus, many teamsters are angry because they don't believe the union fought for their jobs enough. And these newer companies will fight tooth and nail." That was the sentiment in Chicago anyway, that I witnessed first hand.

In later years, before Obama Care was even passed, the union eliminated the Cadallac health plan for retired members

So, here we go with the government screwing the American people again. In my opinion, I hate strikes. However, I wouldn't mind seeing a protest against the Biden administration, and Democratic / Socialists through the trucking industry, along with other patriots, regarding the boder situation, our voting rights, the Liberals and Progressives ruining our education system and the discrimination to truckers, period. We're the only industry that must take at least a 30 minute lunch and get charged for that time from our 14 hour clock.

You can only blame the government for prices for things we need to have gone up 300 to 400 percent.

Yes I am very picky about loads we haul and have a bare minimum I won't go below. Or, at least haven't had to so far. We all know what unfortunate things can develope in this industry.

Oh, the White 3000 in the picture represents one of Dad's tractors I cut my teeth on in '63. These youngsters today have it made.

4

When you say we more deregulation could you be more specific? Do you mean we should open the border with Mexico and do away with the need for a license and insurance? Should we do away with the need for authorities, and flood the market with cheap labor from south of the border, and let the shippers bend us over?