Comments By Banks

She likes the job, but doesn't like some of the management there. There was no training and they threw everybody out there, sink or swim. Since everybody was new, nobody knew what they were doing. It was kind of crazy and stressful.

It's really slow, but they do some bonehead things. In my opinion, it's keeping corporate from trusting them with more freight. To show the level of inexperience in the management level, one supervisor was changing clock in times to control hours and sent out an email saying she was going to do that. Somebody had to tell her that's illegal and she can't do that.

Since they opened, they've fired a bunch of dock workers and a few office people.

I know 2 drivers there. They work 3-4 nights a week, averaging 4-5 hundred miles a day. They're not happy about dispatch procedures and constantly going to "butthole NJ", but they're happy to get the miles they weren't getting at FedEx.

I think a lot of this stuff is growing pains, but I also think they should be further along than what they are.

I see bears all spring and summer. I've had some close calls driving my car. Bears and deer everywhere. I hear most of them are suicidal and I tend to believe it.

I ran over a deer carcass last year. It ripped out my wheel well cover, skid plate and broke a clip on my bumper.

FedEx has them in California. The ones I've seen pictures of are in the San Bernardino building. I'm curious about them too.

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.