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Truck, Trucker, Trucking Thread (merged) Pt.2

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General interest discussions, not necessarily related to depletion.

THE Truck, Trucker, Trucking Thread (merged)

Unread postby frankthetank » Thu 17 Dec 2009, 20:20:29

Rail is the future. For every ton of cargo a train can move it 500 miles vs just over a 100 miles for a truck, depending on the source you read... A ship is even better...

some interesting stuff here:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Grain/ ... mption.htm

Rail needs to replace long haul trucking for almost everything at some point down the road. I could see trains moving more and more food long distances, like what these guys are doing:
http://www.railexusa.com/

We used Roadway at a warehouse i use to work at about 9 years ago. I remember they were cheap vs UPS so we always shipped heavy orders with them. I'm not sure why we were using UPS, but maybe they were faster... My boss was worse then Bill Lundberg from "Office Space"...
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby timmac » Thu 17 Dec 2009, 21:41:13

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', '
')I don't think people will see shortages of anything being transported anytime soon, because trucking is in such a glut of overcapacity. The loss of one major player will certainly help the bottom line of all the little carriers who pick up business once YRC has gone under. (Hopefully that means I can get work soon)??



You just hit the nail on the head Repent, exactly, so many other trucking companies with idle trucks will fill the spot fast when other big trucking companies goes south, there will be no shortages because a lack of truckers, [sorry doomers & mos6507] I also think if a company has to much debt than it should file for BK protection and reorganize.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Thu 17 Dec 2009, 23:38:21

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'R')ail is the future. For every ton of cargo a train can move it 500 miles vs just over a 100 miles for a truck, depending on the source you read... A ship is even better...

some interesting stuff here:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Grain/ ... mption.htm

Rail needs to replace long haul trucking for almost everything at some point down the road. I could see trains moving more and more food long distances, like what these guys are doing:
http://www.railexusa.com/

We used Roadway at a warehouse i use to work at about 9 years ago. I remember they were cheap vs UPS so we always shipped heavy orders with them. I'm not sure why we were using UPS, but maybe they were faster... My boss was worse then Bill Lundberg from "Office Space"...


and from your sources..

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')1.The metered tractor-trailer truck averaged 186.6 gross ton-miles per gallon and 90.5 net ton-miles per gallon when loaded 50 percent of total miles. The truck averaged 249.6 gross ton-miles per gallon when loaded and 108.8 gross ton-miles per gallon when empty. The 90.5 net ton-miles per gallon is 41.4 percent higher than the 64 net ton-mile estimate from a 1977 study of 25-ton trucks with 50 percent loaded miles.


Please note the following points that each and every study ignores...

Only 40 percent of all grain is hauled in grain belly dump trailers, the other 60 percent is hauled in end dump trailers.

The average belly dump grain trailer in the western states is equipped with a replaceable floor capable of converting that trailer to a usable flat bed or box trailer for low profile loads. So unlike the railroad which does have 50 percent empty mile average, those trucking companys might have a 35 percent or less empty mileage, and the end dumps do even better. OAKLEY Transport estimated their entire fleet average for end dumps of all kinds at 80 percent loaded miles.

So the numbers start out skewed. That is before you look at displacement.. ( Load to destination). Explanation of displacement as used here.

The average ;load does not start in a rail yard nor in a trucking company yard, BUT the rail yard has to be fed by trucks hauling the grain from farm to grain elevator, while the truck can haul from farm to any elevator in any direction including those not served by rail.

At this point a small historical lesson is apropos.. In the 19th century the rail lines were extended to most of rural America but land grant. For each mile of rail laid, the railroad was given 1 square mile of land. These grant s were alternated along the roadway, for an east west line the square miles were alternated north side then south side of the tracks. The revenue from sale or lease or use of that land was recompense for the expense of the layage of the line. In the late 70s when trucking was deregulated, some of the rural lines began to show losses, and in the 80s and 90s thousands of miles of track was abandoned to become national bike trails, hiking trails or simply abandoned ROW leaving many smaller communities with no rail service possibility even though those communities were in fact the result of rail road sale of land they had been given as payment for laying the original rail.

Trucking deregulation and later passenger bus deregulation denied even more of those rural communities of regular freight service. None of these losses have been overcome other than by the irregular route independent or small fleet trucker who singlehandedly and at great cost preserved those communities by providing service where no large company was interested in providing it. The abandonment of the fly over territories by the government and later by the corporate conglomerations that were created by the largess of the government of the assets of all American citizens ( specifically land and public funds) is a harbinger of the true value of GOVERNMENT intervention in " the public good" and the result after it is filtered by the government corrupted greed of those elites and their sycophants that use government power to achieve their personal enrichment.

Number doctoring and collective pressuring of dissenting opinions of research is becoming common knowledge long after it became the public tactic of those interest groups determined to promote the agenda feeding their pack of sycophants and politicians.

Count the number of transcontinental rail lines east west, and give me again the service numbers for transport by rail including dis;location of rail from need.. Then you might begin to have a glimmer of integrity to your arguments. Failing that agenda agenda agenda .......

BTW when you carry further into pretending the rail pollutes less lets compare emissions of 2007 or better yet 2010 diesel and bunker fuel burning locomotives...
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Thu 17 Dec 2009, 23:45:17

When you leave specialized cargo such as grain the numbers skew differently.
Containers are displaced from railyards to destination, many times returing empty before being drug empty to loading points where as irregular route carriers make diminished empty mile running an art to enhance revenue. As an example, I ran 1200 miles loaded this last week, then 280 miles empty, then 1050 miles loaded, I have booked a load 48 miles from here that has 1020 loaded miles, then I will run empty 136 miles to pick up a load that goes 2120 miles... No where near 50 percent empty miles.

My ton mile would be awful tho because my product shipped is light weight, the real comparison the railroad doesn't even begoin to want to discuss is cube of used freight space in dealing with goods such as I move.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 00:05:37

The saga continues.....

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')ec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- YRC Worldwide Inc. bonds fell after the trucking company trying to avoid bankruptcy said it needed to extend the deadline for a debt exchange in order to convince enough bondholders to tender the securities.

YRC, the biggest U.S. trucker by sales, is extending the exchange offer deadline to Dec. 23, after investors holding 75 percent of its debt initially agreed to the exchange, below the 95 percent required by bank lenders. As of 5 p.m. in New York yesterday, participation fell to 57 percent, the Overland Park, Kansas-based company said in a statement. The company said it believes some bondholders have withdrawn because they want to tender their notes only on the expiration date.

“This moves the company backwards in its efforts to restructure out of court and again increases the probability of a bankruptcy filing in the near-term,” David Ross, a Baltimore- based analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., wrote in a note today. Ross has a “sell” rating on the stock.

YRC’s $150 million of 8.5 percent notes due in April fell 2.5 cents on the dollar to 58.5 cents as of 12 p.m. in New York, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

The company’s shares fell 7 cents, or 6.8 percent, to 94 cents, after earlier rising as much as 15 percent, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 00:30:25

In the last 12 months......

YRC sold almost all it's real estate holdings including its' world headquarters to another trucking company and is now renting that real estate it is using from a competitor.
It has demanded and gotten 2 separate wage concessions including an 18 month hiatus from contractual contributions to retirement funds for union employees The wage concessions were 10 and then 5 percent.

It has unilaterally lowered non union wages.

It has sold its' distribution contract carrier service to a competitor.

Some aspects of YRC that were missed in an earlier post by someone.
They do not any longer have any direct competition from JB HUNT having sold the distribution sector off. SO their principal LTL service is picking up a truck load of something then delivering that to multiple locations, and cross dock one box or 1/2 a trailer load pick up and delivery.

The former was the sector that they tried to corner the market on when they invested in a large Chinese trucking company, a couple of Chinese airlines and Chinese banks. They were poised to control the LTL direct shipment from china trade.

J B Hunt which started as a local carrier is now again only a regional carrier, but scattered all over the USA. They laid off in the last year all their over the road drivers, and offer only rail feed and distribution contract services.

Owned VS leased

YRC has several companies that lease tractors to carry their trailers. Mostly however their union and their non union parts are comp-any drivers by a large percentage.

J B Hunt on the other hand only owns company trucks to the extent that they cannot get enough contractors who own their own tractors. In fact their nothing down your good ( two weeks on the job or more) work record with us is your credit truck sales are booming as unemployed drivers from all sectors are pressured to lease purchase to get a job anywhere. Single drivers ( as opposed to team drivers) have few opportunities in the trucking industry at this point as even 200 truck fleets are starting to go bankrupt although not to the extent the small fleets have been for the last 2 years.

In the last 2 years the number of trucks on the road has been reduced by almost 20% and this winter will see a huge increase in that percentage I bet. There is still even at this greatly reduced fleet size a surplus of trucks, shortages however due to closings of manufacturing and supply systems are beginning in some areas and growing. Just as buffets and hotels are closing and even more people are being forced into unemployment by a shrinking entertainment and tourism industry is becoming visible even in those areas where such shrinkages have been hidden for the last year, Disjointed transportation schedules are beginning to scramble the carefully laid out system of supply known as JIT distribution. Walmart and other retailers who use distribution contract fleets are finding the number of fleets offering them service and the discounted prices their competition has engendered disappearing as mega fleets begin to struggle with the effects of systemic losses that can no longer be disguised using ever shortening depreciation schedules and used equipment sales that are also disappearing.

YRC is worth watching because they no only have lost tremendous market share due to massive discounting competitors have engaged in to try to pry their customer base away, but also for the tremendous shock that will pass through the retirement funds of the teamsters union if YRC should go under.

LTV steel will be a pimple compared to a mountain....
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby frankthetank » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 01:08:32

A train still is more efficient then carrying a ton of goods per gallon fuel..i'm sorry..the figures don't lie!

I realize a train can't go everywhere, fully loaded, the same is true for a truck... The same is true for a ship.

And too add... If this wasn't the case, then why do the TRAINS that go right past my house seem to be LOADED with UPS trailers the past few years? Obviously it is more efficient to ship them back to Chicago then it is to drive them back. I'm pretty sure the calculators at UPS are a heck of a lot smarter then me on this issue.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby frankthetank » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 01:59:13

The future isn't rail/ship or truck anyways. A 100 years from now its pony and wagon...or bicycle and cart. If you can't get it locally, you aren't getting it...
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby Cloud9 » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 07:56:02

Coal will be with us a while. Wood will be with us even longer. We had trains long before oil became the dominant fuel.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby jdmartin » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 09:57:29

The thing that always seems curious to me on here is the "thinning of the herd is a good thing" mentality. Yes, there's too many truckers and trucking outfits, because there's not enough product being moved. That means that prices stay depressed (good for consumers at least in the short term) and lots of people keep working, even at cut hours or reduced pay, and there's plenty of excess capacity to keep JIT shipping going. Thinning the herd means more security for the people that's left, higher prices on shipping, and lots of people without jobs. This is a good thing? Yeah, it's good for the people that are left, but what about the people tossed out on the street? Now in a perfect world, if all these people were no longer on the planet, it might be good, but they're still here and they still need to eat, heat their homes, feed their families and so on. The economy is already reeling from trying to absorb all these out of work people. More of them without work is not really what we need.

All that waste is always someone else's job.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby Novus » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 17:21:23

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jdmartin', 'A')ll that waste is always someone else's job.


Didn't we have this discussion 5 years ago when the cornucopians said we could solve PO by cutting waste? But where waste = someones job it can not and will end well.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby Homesteader » Fri 18 Dec 2009, 18:12:03

Yeah, its not like going to be a choice.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby evilgenius » Sun 20 Dec 2009, 12:00:55

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'W')ell if just in time delivery breaks down because the truckers went bankrupt it could be a bigger black swan than the Pay Masters on Wall Street bargained for.

Got 6 months supply of beans, rice, and oats ready?


Or it could just mean that YRC's business model has failed in the face of UPS's reform and heightened efficiency.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Mon 21 Dec 2009, 03:56:19

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'W')ell if just in time delivery breaks down because the truckers went bankrupt it could be a bigger black swan than the Pay Masters on Wall Street bargained for.

Got 6 months supply of beans, rice, and oats ready?


Or it could just mean that YRC's business model has failed in the face of UPS's reform and heightened efficiency.


Yrc and UPS are in two differing segments of the trucking industry....

But the saga continues... here

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')y Carey Gillam

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (Reuters) - The countdown is on for troubled U.S. trucking giant YRC Worldwide Inc.

Industry players doubt it can complete a complicated bond exchange and restructuring, and attention is now turning to how a YRC failure could boost rival trucking companies.

"If YRC makes it into the new year, I'd be very surprised," said industry consultant and analyst Dick Armstrong, of Armstrong and Associates. "I don't think they are going to make it. There will be a lot of shifts in the industry because of that."


Oh and this truck driver has more than 6 months supply all made in the USA or canada....

we in the industry have seen this coming... ABF and conway have been buying equiptment...

As to the present stock holders.. they were gonna be trashed anyway..check out the end of that article..

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he company acquired Roadway Corp in 2003 for $1.07 billion and then bought USF Corp in 2005 for $1.37 billion, adding not only to its debt, but also creating integration challenges.

YRC initially said it thought it could obtain approval from 95 percent of its bondholders on a proposed $536.8 million bond exchange. It said it would issue 42 million shares of common stock and 5 million shares of Class A convertible preferred stock, giving noteholders 95 percent of the company's common stock and effectively wiping out existing equity holders.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby Hawkcreek » Mon 21 Dec 2009, 16:56:32

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')idn't we have this discussion 5 years ago when the cornucopians said we could solve PO by cutting waste? But where waste = someones job it can not and will end well.

I believe it was more like the time for handling PO could be greatly increased by cutting waste - which included things like car-pooling, eliminating unnecessary trips, etc. I don't remember reading that anyone ever said that PO could be solved by cutting waste.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Tue 22 Dec 2009, 18:34:08

Today at 8 am tulsa time, Arrow trucking (1400 trucks) shut off its' fuel cards and stranded 1400 truck drivers some of them clear across country from thier homes. Thier last weeks pay did not get paid, so they are out of fuel, stranded all over the country some loaded with loads now stranded....

Diamler financial is offeering $200 for each truck if the driver will bring it to a dealer, BUT drivers sign for loads when they are loaded and are responsible for that load till it is delivered!

A provate driver Christmas fund at 417 200 4411 is also going to try to help drivers get home!
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby careinke » Tue 22 Dec 2009, 20:00:40

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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby the48thronin » Wed 23 Dec 2009, 17:25:47

For an example of how truck drivers are handling this crisis...
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby careinke » Wed 23 Dec 2009, 19:45:44

I can't believe this did not make the national news. It's a great X-mas news story. Maybe TPTB don't want to distract from our new economic recovery (LOL).

What a terrible way to treat people. It is nice to see fellow truckers stepping up to help out.
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Re: Do I see a black swan for trucking? Maybe tomarrow...?

Unread postby Novus » Wed 23 Dec 2009, 21:21:04

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I') can't believe this did not make the national news. It's a great X-mas news story. Maybe TPTB don't want to distract from our new economic recovery (LOL).


Recovery has almost become a curse word around these parts. I think Kunstler put it best:

"This year, America can look for a nice lump of coal in its Christmas stocking. That lump will be called 'the recovery.' This recovery consists of a massive self-deception, made up of accounting tricks and falsified statistics, with a sugar-coating on top of sheer disbelief that the outcome could be anything but a particular happy ending..."
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