Just picked up a new '16 2500HD Crew 4x4 6.0 Gas

[KARNUT]

I don't doubt some ( or all the major) guys restrict their trucks. The highways I travel I 20, 10, 55, 65,95, 45, there must be lots of owner operators I see very few doing 65. Most of my working life was spent on the road. First hauling my own stuff, later doing demos, shows and training after sale of my equipment. The only time I see them grouped together is after weigh stations. After a few miles they spread out. If they all went 65 they would never separate.

[revrnd]

When I used to Ontario frequently, we called th OPP the "Ontario Party Poopers"

Same here.

 

Any particular cities you hauled to?

[revrnd]

65 on the freeway in the southern U.S will get you run off the freeway. I go 2 MPH over and hardly pass anyone. I think 70 is about right. I hated the double nickle days.

Kind of funny running the speeds you guys have down in the States. All Lower 48 states and the other 9 provinces in Canada could be posting 75 mph on the freeways & Ontario would be stuck @ 100 kph (62 mph) for 'highway safety purposes'. Proponents of a nanny state would love it here.

[KARNUT]

Kind of funny running the speeds you guys have down in the States. All Lower 48 states and the other 9 provinces in Canada could be posting 75 mph on the freeways & Ontario would be stuck @ 100 kph (62 mph) for 'highway safety purposes'. Proponents of a nanny state would love it here.

Its gotten crazy in the south, I set the cruise at 72 I hardly pass anyone there're flying by me.

 

 

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[revrnd]

 

 

Hunt Brothers? Try JB Hunt, Schneider, Knight, Swift, Prime, CFI, US Xpress, Crete/Schaeffer/Hunt transportation (these 3 the same company), and the list goes on and on. You are talking about a wanna be compared to these major players. Most of the LTL and air freight guys like Fed Ex, UPS, Yellow/Roadway, Conway, etc are in the same 65 mph or less game. I deal with all the major carriers everyday. We have a common term for when these guys try to pass each other.... it is called a "turtle race".

Elephant racing in Ontario where the 401 & 402 freeways are 2 lanes each way. When 1 truck tries to pass another it'll take miles & there's usually a line of faster vehicles stuck behind the passing vehicle.

[revrnd]

Funny you say that, cowpie. That's the trip I took. Ontario, Canada.

 

Max speed there was 100khm? Whatever. My buddy explained, troopers won't start writing tickets till 120+. So I cruised back at 118.

 

100khm is our 65mph. Khm, kpm. Idk?????

100 kph = 62 mph. That's the max speed on the limited access freeways. 80 kph (50 mph) on typical 2 lane highways. When I was growing up in the 60s & 70s, the 2 lane highway speed limit was 60 mph. I'm guessing the freeway (2 lanes each way in those days) speed was 70 mph.

 

Then the energy crisis & our switch to metric & the gov't dropped the limits. People have complained but to no avail. The 'know it alls' can't see past the end of their nose. They can't grasp the concept that a 2017 car like a today's Impala is a much safer vehicle than a '71 Impala.

 

Mind you considering the low quality of today's drivers, maybe higher speed limits aren't a good idea. W/ all the high tech in cars, they figure they can drive on 6" of snow at the same speed as in July.

[Cowpie]

Same here.

 

Any particular cities you hauled to?

 

 

A heck of a lot of hauling into the Oshawa GM plant. Lost track of the various towns along the 401 I went in and out of, I had to have hit just about everyone along the 401 at one time or another. Would haul bumpers near London to the old St. Paul Ford plant for the Ranger pickups, and glass out of.. I think near Guelph, to various auto plants in the upper midwest. A lot of stuff that I would take all the way to the Rio Grande for the MX auto plants. Also a lot of PQ, specifically a lot of appliances to Laval and a lot of tires out of... darn... can't remember the town... but it was up by Quebec City or Trois-Rivieres. I haven't crossed over since 2002. Great people up in Canada. I really had a fondness for the folks in YT when I lived in Alaska. I have gone into every province except NWT and the far eastern Atlantic Provinces.

 

If I was setting up a land mass with a couple of countries, I would pick Canada to be a neighbor. They really saved a bunch of our people back during the Iran hostage crisis in '80, and I will never forget it. They snuck them out claiming they were Canadian citizens so the radicals ignored them.

[Cowpie]

I don't doubt some ( or all the major) guys restrict their trucks. The highways I travel I 20, 10, 55, 65,95, 45, there must be lots of owner operators I see very few doing 65. Most of my working life was spent on the road. First hauling my own stuff, later doing demos, shows and training after sale of my equipment. The only time I see them grouped together is after weigh stations. After a few miles they spread out. If they all went 65 they would never separate.

 

 

Doubt all you want. Like I said, call them. You can get a large, long list of the major carriers from the American Trucking Association and Truckload Carriers Association. I counter your doubt..... prove me wrong. You can't. I am in this business and know who does what. That is part of running a profitable business.... knowing your competition and what they are up to. Sure, there are quite a few smaller carriers that play fast and loose with speeds, log books, regulations, etc. But they are being whittled away. The big crunch will be this coming December. All, and I repeat... ALL... carriers who now are required to keep driver HOS logs will be required to have electronic logs on board the trucks. Only trucks built prior to MY 2000 will be exempt at this point, but those are not all the common anymore and that exemption could change. They are already screaming bloody murder. And the Trump thing can't do a darn thing to stop it. The mandate was required by Congressional legislation MAP-21 and regulation was put in place in December 2015, with full enforcement effective Dec 2017.

[Cowpie]

Elephant racing in Ontario where the 401 & 402 freeways are 2 lanes each way. When 1 truck tries to pass another it'll take miles & there's usually a line of faster vehicles stuck behind the passing vehicle.

 

Yeah, elephant race also. Not as common a term but I have heard it from time to time. All the same thing and you pegged it dead on the problem that it causes. Two idiots in trucks... one on right will not slow down a couple mph to let the other guy around, and the one on the left is governed and cannot go any faster, but he is going to pass because his truck will go .002 mph faster than the one he is passing. Why he even tried to pass, given what would happen, is always confusing to me. Those guys with governed trucks will stick their foot into the firewall and they are not going to let up no matter what the effect on others is. The world of the modern truck driver.

 

And glad you reminded me of Ontario. They and PQ have a mandatory governed truck law in place. ALL commercial trucks, irregardless of company, O/O, etc are required to be speed limited to 105 KPH / 65 MPH. Most of those trucks cross back and forth and run the entire U.S as well. And companies will not allow their drivers to change the speed limiter settings on the trucks, so they are speed limited here also. And ALL the major carriers send trucks in and out of Canada, and since it varies which trucks go in, all of their fleet is speed limited.

[sdeeter19555]

Once Texas changed to the 75 and 85mph limits, I avoided Texas...especially with some of the clapped out and lifted junk you see on the road there...

 

A lot of the state's are changing speed limits, I was amazed when Ohio jacked their's up, and some of them have dropped that idiotic truck/car/trailer speed limits...I have a trailer that weighs 300 pounds and I'm limited to 50mph for what reason?

 

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[KARNUT]

 

 

Doubt all you want. Like I said, call them. You can get a large, long list of the major carriers from the American Trucking Association and Truckload Carriers Association. I counter your doubt..... prove me wrong. You can't. I am in this business and know who does what. That is part of running a profitable business.... knowing your competition and what they are up to. Sure, there are quite a few smaller carriers that play fast and loose with speeds, log books, regulations, etc. But they are being whittled away. The big crunch will be this coming December. All, and I repeat... ALL... carriers who now are required to keep driver HOS logs will be required to have electronic logs on board the trucks. Only trucks built prior to MY 2000 will be exempt at this point, but those are not all the common anymore and that exemption could change. They are already screaming bloody murder. And the Trump thing can't do a darn thing to stop it. The mandate was required by Congressional legislation MAP-21 and regulation was put in place in December 2015, with full enforcement effective Dec 2017.

I didn't call anyone but I did look it up. 90 percent of the trucking industry is made up of independents (6 trucks or less). I dealt with or hauled with my share of trucks, hauling my equipment. And been on the road with them. I know what I see. So let's throw in a little common sense. You get paid by the load or miles the speed limit is 70mph and you can easily do it, after all the BS a trucker has to deal with daily that slow you down, yes you'll do it. And it's legal do so. Time is money.

 

 

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[Cowpie]

Well, time is money. No.... the load is money, and how much of it you keep, then that is what counts. You use more fuel, eat up tires faster, etc if you run faster. 1 mpg difference in fuel economy is over $8000 a year out the stacks. Time is not money, the load is. Tire wear goes up dramatically above 65 mph, and all the tire manufacturers will confirm that. I typically get 225,000 miles on a set of steer tires, and 445,000 miles on a set of drive tires. Considerably more than the industry average. My truck has averaged 7.93 mpg for the last 660,000 miles. That is roughly 20% better fuel economy than the industry average today. And there would be no need to race around the countryside if one had negotiated a good rate on the load. Just like the old saying "he who dies with the most toys, wins", "he who has the most net profit at the end of the year, wins". Not "he who runs the most loads, wins".

 

And time is money? Well, again if the load and customer are sub tier, you have to try and make that up. Every customer I have, the agreement is that I am paid a per hour detention for every hour my truck sits waiting to load or unload. Hey! Take all the time you want! A while back, in three occurrences, two different customers, I made $1500 cumulative with delays at those. YES! In those cases time is money! Still got a good rate on the load and my net was very good. And I got everywhere on time driving 65 mph or less.

 

With the CSA point system that has been in place, a simple speeding ticket racks up points at Federal level. A seat belt violation is 21 points the 1st year...... 7 points multiplied by 3 the first year, 2 the second year, and the original 7 points the 3rd year. It takes 3 years for it to clear off. You get to 80 points in any category and you are on the Federal Motor Carrier targeted list. You do not correct the pattern, they deem you a safety problem and shut you down..... that can apply to individual drivers and fleets. And the cumulative score for any individual is from both driver and equipment issues. A missing light can mean the same thing as the seat belt violation I just described points. With just those two violations in a year, a driver would have 42 points on the record. Remember, 80 pts is when the FMCSA targets you. And yes, there have been a number of drivers shut down and carrier operations stopped over this by the FMCSA. Just check the trucking rags, they come out all the time with articles of this or that company or driver getting the operation closed over this. Who knows how many along with the one in the article. I know of one... a long time friend of my wife let her know that her husband had been forced to shut down over this point thing. FMCSA shut him down for a minimum of 1 year. He is independent. Now the truck and the his operation are essentially dead. They do not have the resources to live out an entire year and keep the truck. On the other hand..... I have a Zero point CSA and PSP score with the FMCSA. I am in demand and get to command the highest freight rates available for the category of freight I haul. The truly good, well paying customers will not do business with trucking operations that have high CSA scores and are seen as a safety risk.

 

Good example.... the driver who ran into the back end of comedian Tracy Lawrence's limo in NJ a few years back and severely hurt Tracy and killed his friend. The driver is doing time for that, but Walmart, the customer the carrier was hauling for, got nailed for millions. Customers do not like sticking their credentials onto a chopping block and waiting for someone to cut them off. So they are getting truly picky about who hauls their freight. At least the good, well paying customers are. There will always be some goofball company that will get some one to haul their stuff at a sub standard rate. And the trucking operations that play in that sandbox will be constantly on the edge of financial solvency. One thing goes wrong, and their entire game is over.

 

And CSA scores affect a operation's insurance rates along with the customers they get.

 

And think the fine is bad for you if texting or not using cell phone hands free? Try trucking. It is a Federal fine and the amount is over $11,000 per occurrence. Ask Yellow/Roadway trucking, who was the first carrier to get hit with the fine back when it went into effect.

 

Your idea of how to be profitable in trucking is old school and so hollywood. Run with your hair of fire and turn over the miles. That is why you still see those goofy ads for drivers on the back of semi trailers.... "more miles, more money". That pertains to company drivers only who are indeed paid only per mile and have no skin in the game. They are not saddled with the bills. No, the way to truly be profitable is "less miles, more money". Revenue is good, but the the net after that is more critical. To that end, many carriers have governed their trucks because the idiots they hire and put behind the wheel could give a rip about per mile costs to operate the truck, only "turning more miles", and they will drive as fast as they can to achieve that. The driver pay structure is in such dire need of reform to cause the driver to operate the truck in the most efficient way and make more money doing it.

 

Many of these issues is why I will not get more trucks and hire more drivers. The market is there for it, but the downsides and pitfalls along with the regulatory nightmare are not worth it. But I applaud the "renegades" in the trucking industry for what they do. They selectively eliminate themselves from my competition and I get the better customers and better rates.

 

During the height of this last recession in trucking, transportation was losing trucks to financial failure at a rate of nearly 80,000 per quarter. Many not able to stay afloat using the same reasoning you express.... run as fast as you can to grab the next load. By closer managing my costs and actually NOT running around like "smokey and the bandit", I never had a negative income balance sheet for any quarter in the last 10 years. And all the while, I was paying myself a good salary, I was home weekly, a minimum of 3 weeks a year off, every holiday off, by the house a couple of times a week, and bought a new semi truck. No, not on some dedicated route thing.... just a core group of excellent customers that pay for quality service and are all within a 500 mile distance of my house in any direction.

[KARNUT]

I guess we live in two different worlds. I live in the Conroe tx area I 45 splits Conroe. This morning for the heck of it I went from Conroe to Huntsville I didn't see any trucks doing 65, on the way back through Conroe there were three together all major carriers doing 70 through town. I know what I see and most big trucks I see in the south do the speed limit or better. Some of the heavy ones slowdown going up hills but they make up for it going downhill usually by going 5 over. Sure there are some drivers who really run the numbers and live by that. Lumping truck drivers as majority running 65 MPH in the south with 70 MPH plus speed limits, I live here travel a lot on the roads mentioned earlier and that's not happening. If your staying 500 miles from you're home your probably not running the southern roads. I think we beat this horse long enough.

[No F-bdy Bs]

Fedex Freight driver here!

[Cowpie]

I guess we live in two different worlds. I live in the Conroe tx area I 45 splits Conroe. This morning for the heck of it I went from Conroe to Huntsville I didn't see any trucks doing 65, on the way back through Conroe there were three together all major carriers doing 70 through town. I know what I see and most big trucks I see in the south do the speed limit or better. Some of the heavy ones slowdown going up hills but they make up for it going downhill usually by going 5 over. Sure there are some drivers who really run the numbers and live by that. Lumping truck drivers as majority running 65 MPH in the south with 70 MPH plus speed limits, I live here travel a lot on the roads mentioned earlier and that's not happening. If your staying 500 miles from you're home your probably not running the southern roads. I think we beat this horse long enough.

 

 

I wasn't aware the Conroe had seceded from the United States! Considering that all I mentioned in my post is controlled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the only way to avoid their control is to not be part of the U.S. Texas state government has voluntarily endorsed and complied with FMCSA guidelines. So that can only mean that Conroe decided to form it's own country. Next step I suggest.... apply for foreign aid from the U.S. You might just get it!