On Trucking

#1

Post by snowypine » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 4:48 AM UTC

On Trucking
snowingpine.com

Re: On Trucking

#2

Post by readthenotes1 » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:02 AM UTC

Pet peeve: every time I get on the interstate I think they should have driven 90% of the 18-wheelers on to a train.

Or at least have tracking software that fines them heavily for leaving the slow lanem

Re: On Trucking

#3

Post by yafbum » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:10 AM UTC

Great rundown. "Factoring" sounds a bit like a euphemism for payday loans!

Re: On Trucking

#4

Post by coderintherye » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:27 AM UTC

Awesome write-up.

Would be really curious for insight into why truck purchase loans run 8-10% APR with 20% down. If anything, I'd expect them to be lower risk and easier to re-posses?

Re: On Trucking

#5

Post by melling » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:28 AM UTC

readthenotes1 wrote: post #2

Pet peeve: every time I get on the interstate I think they should have driven 90% of the 18-wheelers on to a train. Or at least have tracking software that fines them heavily for leaving the slow lanem

While much more efficient, I believe freight trains are close to 100% capacity.

Re: On Trucking

#6

Post by mjevans » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 7:28 AM UTC

"90% of owner operators fail in their first year - trucking is incredibly cutthroat."

Maybe the disruption this market needs is a set of unions rather than just trucking companies.

It would be nice if unions were limited such that... E.G. they could not grow to larger than 15% of the workforce for a sector in any single union. Contracts would need to be approved by... some number, lets say 2/3rds of all workers across all unions. With the 15% number that would require at least 5 unions and over 66% of workers to approve of contracts.

Re: On Trucking

#7

Post by jborichevskiy » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 8:00 AM UTC

Wonderful writeup. Thanks for sharing!

Re: On Trucking

#8

Post by simonbarker87 » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 8:35 AM UTC

yafbum wrote: post #3

Great rundown. "Factoring" sounds a bit like a euphemism for payday loans!

Factoring is very common across sectors with long payment durations. It’s amazing for manufacturing businesses for example who may not get paid for 30, 60 or 90 days after shipping product. The great thing (and where it is nothing like payday loans when done correctly) is that the responsibility and risk of collecting payment falls to the factoring company and not you. We happily factored for years just to offload payment chasing for a tricky customer, well worth the 2%.

Re: On Trucking

#9

Post by barry-cotter » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #6

"90% of owner operators fail in their first year - trucking is incredibly cutthroat." Maybe the disruption this market needs is a set of unions rather than just trucking companies. It would be nice if unions were limited such that... E.G. they could not grow to larger than 15% of the workforce for a sector in any single union. Contracts would need to be approved by... some number, lets say 2/3rds of all workers acros…

You have reinvented cartelisation or the trusts in anti-trust. Congratulations on your economic acumen[1].

[1] Sincere praise, not sarcasm.

Re: On Trucking

#10

Post by cesnja » Sat, Jan 14, 2023, 9:00 AM UTC

melling wrote: post #5

readthenotes1 wrote: post #2

Pet peeve: every time I get on the interstate I think they should have driven 90% of the 18-wheelers on to a train. Or at least have tracking software that fines them heavily for leaving the slow lanem

While much more efficient, I believe freight trains are close to 100% capacity.

Then just add another lane, right?