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I get that, that's why I used the example of Swift. LTL charges by weight and dimensions, not by the mile. It's an apples to broccoli comparison.

I've spoken with trucking executives who readily admit they haul freight at a loss sometimes.

It doesn't work that way in LTL because there's no need to "get out of an area". For example a swift drive makes a delivery in Florida, Swift will haul for a loss to get out of Florida because it's better than nothing. In LTL, drivers are domiciled in one location. They're not bouncing around all over the country.

Empty back hauls are common in LTL and it's worked into the price of moving freight. My return trip consists of empty trailers 9/10 times.

If the numbers work, LTL companies will use purchased truck load trailers instead. With the price of PT, they're using it plenty know but that wasn't the case 2 years ago.

One of my newer predictions is that you will soon see the length of auto and car loans get extended. You'll start seeing 8 - 10-year auto financing and 35 - 40-year mortgages

Brett, I am home this week taking care of some farm business. I was talking to my banker 2 days ago. Our conversation steered into auto financing and he said, "One of the next things we are implementing is ten year auto loans." My jaw dropped, and I asked, "What happens to the guy who needs to sell his car in three years?"

His response was that they were going to be in a difficult situation. Most of the money they've paid at that point was applied to interest. They are married to the car and the bank. There's not a good way to get loose from either one of them.

It seems like the plan for those interested in short term ownership will have to lease. It works out for the dealer because the car gets off of their floor plan and they don't have to pay interest on it. Then when the vehicle gets brought back they can sit on it with some asinine price because it's a used vehicle that doesn't cost them anything extra by being on the lot.

Since dealers use programs like Vauto to price cars (price fixing in my opinion), the consumer is at their mercy. If banks are willing to extend loans for 120 months, skys the limit on these vehicle prices.

In Michigan, the automotive manufacturing sector has faced challenges, leading to layoffs at General Motors, which had announced plans to lay off 1,314 workers across two plants through March 25.

GM's Orion Assembly facility laid off almost 1,000 employees, while its Lansing Grand River Assembly/Stamping plant lost almost 400 workers, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices filed with state workforce-development offices.

The Article doesn't address the rest of the cuts going on like engineers and project managers. They're getting mutual separation agreements or severance packages.

I'm expecting it to get worse as car lots fill up with inventory because who has 700-1k to spend on a monthly car payment.

I mentioned before that I think the shippers are going to try to keep this marketplace like this for as long as possible. In turn the large carriers are going to keep this as long as possible in regards to their drivers. It's counterintuitive but they are benefitting from it as well. It's driving the cost of labor down. If they can keep it down, they will. Overall, I see this current state staying for a long time, it's too profitable for the large corporations to let go of.

Interesting that you mention this as I was speaking to management in my building not too long ago about this.

I brought up how FedEx freight's shipments per day dropped from 120k to 90k. He told me he didn't expect it to get back to where it was. He said the focus on customers was qualtity over quantity. They raised shipping prices and were fine letting go of anybody that didn't want to pay the increase.

We saw it with FedEx Express being ok with USPS going to UPS. They're still making a bunch of money, but labor costs have dropped significantly.

During Covid, we saw an increase in employee demand leading to increased wages. It seems like a move to make people desperate and take what they can get leading to wage stagnation.

Another one of these "research project" surveys. My advice is don't hit any blind links. Phishing links are a huge issue.

I'm not sure if that's what this is, but not worth the risk in my opinion.

Copy that.

Is there a DOT standard/reg that supports your position? I’m not gonna argue with your answer (we all hate it when someone asks a question, we provide an answer, then the questioner wants to argue with the answer).

There is no DOT reg that says you have to go to the doctor they choose. That's not the part that matters though.

The part that matters is that there is no law that states they can't. An employer can require you to use their doctor and you can refuse, but they can terminate you for refusing.

Just like your employer requiring you to submit the long form. There is no law that says you have to, but there's no law that says they can't require it as a condition of employment.

If they're not breaking the law, they're in the clear.

What I'm doing is pointing out the fact that not all childhood beliefs make a solid foundation for proper financial planning.

I agree with that, but I believe what somebody has attained has no bearing on my life. If you told me you have a million dollars it doesn't benefit me or harm me in any way. Why would I care?

Good people don't see a fancy boat in the neighbor's driveway and want one for themselves because that would be consumerism and greed.

I think that's freedom of choice. I live in what's now a high tourist area because of the water parks, hiking trails, AirBnBs and other attractions. Every summer I see all these 100k+ cars. When I was younger I'd think "I wish I had one" and now that I'm older I think "that dumb ass spent 120k on what my Toyota does". It's just a material tool. I think it's stupid, but it's their money, their choice. It doesn't benefit me or hurt me in anyway and I have no control over it.

That's how I look at corporate execs. I think they're grossly overpaid, but I understand how they arrived at that number. There's absolutely nothing that I or a union can do about it. It's a decision made by board members and majority share holders. I'll never be either one, so I have no say in it. What I do have control over is who I choose to work for and what I agree to work for. Nobody will ever ask me what I think the CEO should make, just like Knight never asked Old School if the CEO should get a severance package. It's completely out of our control, so I don't lose sleep over it.

My life and even 2023 has been filled with sucker punch after sucker punch. It felt like every time I turned around there was another tragedy or obstacle waiting for me. I don't have the energy to care about how much money somebody else makes or what they have.

If you should be proud of getting less than you deserve, should you be ashamed of fighting for your fair share? If you should be happy having very little, should you be ashamed of achieving prosperity?

I don't think anybody is happy accepting less, I think that's they're only option. I've worked hard to make sure it's not my only option. 50 years ago, you could buy a house working at a steel factory or managing a supermarket. You'd work for 45 years and die 5 years later. That's not how it works today.

People are more concerned with making people believe their well off by flaunting material positions, than actually being well off. Just look at the repo data.

And what about inspiration? Where should that come from?

For me? It comes from success and the success of others. I have no intention of reinventing the wheel, so I just follow the blueprint. More sacrifice and hard work. It wasn't easy to leave the only home I've ever known and move 100 miles west because it was the only option I had for home ownership, but I did it. Lots of other people could've done it too, but they chose not to. Now they complain that rent in NYC is at about 5k a month.

Now I have the opportunity to build on it further so I use tools available to pick the brains of people that have already done it. I can avoid their mistakes and know what to look for. Do you know what I did when I was on furlough? I did grunt work for a guy that flips houses. I cleaned up all of his construction projects and he paid me like 12/hr, but I didn't do it for the money. I did it to get information from him. He explained to me how he finds these cheap properties, how he learned to fix them up, how to contract out work and he hooked me up with his realtor. I could've easily said "I'm not doing that hard work for 12 dollars" like a lot of people would've, but then I'd just be sitting at home doing nothing. And you know what's the craziest part? He was excited to share all of this. I simply asked "how'd you find this place?" And he became a faucet. He wouldn't stop.

That is what inspires me. Not a Benz, not a boat and not a tacky McMansion.

Staying at a single employer for 45 years does not benefit anybody. At one point it did, that time has passed. That's why I believe unions don't really serve a purpose anymore. If a person wants to work for a union employer, more power to them, but I don't care. I want to get paid as much as I can and invest as little of my time as possible. FedEx checks both of those boxes.

That's how I think and the stuff I think about.

My father was in the steelworker's union for 18 years, then the union for Correction Officers for five years after that until his passing.

That's it? An industry that lost it's market share to foreign competitors and a bureaucracy that accepts whatever's put in front of them because in 4 years it's the next politicians problem? That's the basis for "unions will save everybody and make stuff fair"?

I was never in a trucking union.

That's not what Lion men do, Brett. I can't believe you let them take advantage of you. Let's write a skit about what those CEOs were saying about you when you were running hard for them. I guess you didn't care about "the future of everybody's kids" when you were lining your pockets.

My grandfather, the foreman at Bethlehem

Right in my back yard. A company that had horrible working conditions and had to be sued to meet pension responsibilities. Sign me up!

My view on unions regarding trucking is that the old-school unions no longer fit today's business model.

That's interesting because yesterday when I said

Because the unions membership numbers are dwindling

You said

Yap, thanks to guys like you.

Now it's

They were created during a much different era and haven't adapted. They became relegated to one part of the industry, their reputation is tarnished, they don't have the support they used to have, and they don't seem to have a vision for the future. They seem to be riding it out and doing their best while staying within the old paradigm.

So, I was right? Unions have little to no effectiveness in today's workplace.

Glad we hashed this out.

Except that I clearly did know that, and even included a joke about it in the skit, which you missed

Well the skit was poorly written. There weren't many jokes in it, other than the poor attempt at making fun of my childhood and the lessons that I took from it. Lessons that led to some massive growth and led to the person am I today which I'm very proud of.

Not to mention, my girlfriend worked at FedEx for 20 years and laughed about you taking the alert line seriously, so I knew exactly what it was, how it worked, and what I was talking about. So, you're wrong again.

Not really. You nor your girlfriend don't know anything about the success I've had using the alert line. And since you said "worked" past tense, it matters even less.

I also wouldn't put too much stock in her information since you believed FedEx was one big opco not too long ago when freight started their furloughs. You know, how you insisted on how it terrible it was Fedex was laying off during "peak season" and I told you it's not our peak season and you needed to hear how it's not our peak season.

I'm assuming your done with the union talk, since you're not discussing it anymore and we're now discussing who knows more about FedEx and your horrible skits (maybe ask AI to write it next time), I'll leave this alone. If you need more union info, let me know.