91–100 of 113 posts
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?
It can be difficult to locate a tractor when the operator who is in default on the loan/lease has all of the lower 48 to make it disappear.
I work for a startup in the trucking space so it's nice to see such an in depth analysis of the industry. I can agree that most of the article is accurate based on what I've seen in my 4 years in the industry. There is so much more innovation going on in the trucking industry that a lot of people don't know about. My company, Platform Science, is building a configurable open platform that connects a lot of the differ…
Platform Science looks pretty cool - seems like a TMS with specific improvements against legacy systems. Building a TMS is a pretty good business - massive fixed cost but once you've built the system, it's fairly hard for competitors to dislodge you.
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Truck drivers do a lot more than just sit in the cab and drive. Sure I guess there are operating models where you don't need one driver paired all the time with one truck but definitely can't just replace drivers IMHO
The fact that truck drivers do more than just drive isn't a necessity though. There is no reason why truck drivers also needs to be an unpaid loaders/unloaders and any other roles currently taking on by them. It's just a matter of "we've always done it like that". Businesses will reorganize themselves if it means a substantial reduction in transport costs.
There's no reason, but then it also proportionally reduces the cap of $65k to some lower amount, that doesn't include those extra responsibilities.
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That's a lot of extra weight for maybe 9-10kWHr of energy at most (assuming a full day of perfect summertime conditions)... One gallon of diesel fuel contains about 35kWHr of energy.
Also would not really work for many truck types: tankers, flatbeds, intermodal containers. And many trucks drive at night because traffic is lighter.
It doesnt have to be moving to charge. Provided its parked outside ofcourse.
But whether it pays to have to move around the extra weight for the energy produced is an important point.
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I’m Irish. Having studied Economics does not make me an American. Economic surplus can either go to consumers in the form of lower prices, the firm’s owners in profits or current workers in wages. As > representative of labour for negotiations in your words they try to get as much of the economic surplus for themselves as possible. They can do this with a long time horizon like German unions where there’s s considera…
> I’m Irish. Having studied Economics does not make me an American. Economic surplus can either go to consumers in the form of lower prices, the firm’s owners in profits or current workers in wages. Don’t worry I studied economics too. You are confusing value added and economic surplus. That doesn’t bode well for the rest of your argument. A change in labour costs is a shift in the equilibrium point. It doesn’t come…
Great writeup. I sent this to a friend who has been in the trucking business for decades. There's enough meat here that even he will learn something.
Good analysis of the nooks and crannies of potential for trucking. I work in this space and there's still a lot to learn here.
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Importantly with aircraft the time you have to correct an error that requires human pilot intervention before you crash is far greater than in a car. This is basic critical thinking... But so many people say we have autopilot why not driverless cars? Well obviously driverless cars are orders of magnitude more sensitive to error conditions on open roads than a plan flying in empty space.
I wasn't comparing autopilot in an aircraft to autopilot in a car. I was comparing remote piloting of an aircraft to remote operation of a vehicle.
The article mentions that a lot of the trucking spot market takes place on load boards (DAT, Truckstop, etc...) How did the spot market work before the internet/the proliferation of technological devices? Where did the "pool" of owner operators hang out before the internet? Or was trucking completely unlike it is today?
DAT's full name is "Dial a truck". They used to have these large screens in truck stops showing loads and encouraging drivers to call for loads. So I guess these drivers mostly hung out at truck stops (they still do today), just that most truck stops aren't as clean/nice as before.
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If they were using telephones, then there were people operating call-in centers for this pool of owner operators? If this was pre-90s, probably not even cell phones but, pay phones/physical phones? And if personal/professional connections, then there were meetings where owner operators get together? How would they schedule time for all of this, or coordinate it? I'm having a hard time picturing either of these method…
Yes that’s correct. If you were owner operator you might be aligned with a particular firm (their name on your truck) and their dispatch would find you loads or you would also know people. You could have a dry van and look for generic loads but lots of guys I knew had specialised equipment (flatbed, tanker, etc) and over time you locked in good lanes and repeat customers. I met a tanker driver once who started in Flo…
Sounds a lot more human too. Interesting!