Historical Rates

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Activet

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May 28, 2008
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I was doing a little "light" reading last night and came across this. It's an excerpt from a 1980 law suit between various carriers, and Accuride Canada Inc., when Accuride's freight broker (Freight Express )went bankrupt, and they tried to recover from the shipper.

[Para 15] As part of its business Accuride regularly ships goods and in October 1987 it was shipping a quantity of steel coil from Stoney Creek to Accuride's subsidiary in Henderson, Kentucky.
[Para 21] The plaintiffs sent invoices for the shipments to Freight Express in the amount of their claims in each of their actions. The invoices varied between $1,200 and $1,300 per shipment as agreed upon between Freight Express and the individual plaintiffs.
[Para 22] Freight Express then invoiced Accuride their agreed price of $1,450 for each of the 24 shipments.


Now remember, this was in 1987!!! The outbound rate at that time was between $1.72 to $1.86 per mile. What rate would a carrier be able to command today - 22 years later? This history doesn't paint a very optimistic picture for the future of this industry.
 
In 1988 or 89 I drove for Mill Creek and we had to set up our own "IT Bond,s" from Zerox in Miss. to Laredo TX.2000 lbs. F/L so the driver had all the paperwork and I'm 90% sure I read the rate on the paperwork was $1,900.00 cdn.Fuel was cheaper and my 1985 Pete was getting 7.8 mpg. 425hp. mechanical Cat 13 speed 85 mph truck.Once I deadheaded from Laredo to Spartanburg SC. 1250 mt miles for a load of foam for Thomas Bus in Woodstock,dam good fuel mileage on that trip and more pay for me cause that's how we got paid,the better mpg the more cent's per mile.
 
Remember when you didn't have a safer score to worry about? Or driver's hiding behind log books and you could do a Houston turn in about 3 days? What about the cost of insurance -- still the same? Dollar at par in '87 (or maybe it was all CDN funds, which would make this point invaild)

An employee in the manufacturing sector gets an allowance for COLA every year... where's the truckers?

Also, remember today's mentality.... people EXPECT more for less. Hell, they have a big box store with that motto. If I can't make at least $X.XX a day, then I'm staying at home and somehow, money will find a way into my wallet.

---- I think this is more of a misaligned rant than anything productive.... where's my submit button?
 
as long as you have certain people out there doing it at subsidized rates ...and allowed to operate the way they do...it will never get better....
 
I think what people don't take into account is how antiquated and inefficient the transport industry was 20 or so years ago ... and how deregulating it actually did bring a lot of value in.

I remember when I started in the industry in 1990 how things were different ... you had to manually call around to every contact you knew for freight IB and OB, snail-mail your insurance certificates, etc. Running 500 miles empty for a load was done as a ROUTINE!!! Sometimes even more than that. We also had a subfleet working for us that ran with no authority whatsoever and ran the backroads behind the scales ... try that now!!!

Information technology has allowed us better communication and more efficiencies ... you don't see many instances of running hundreds of miles empty for a load until recently ... because there is not enough outbound to support inbound you're going to find increased instances of trucks running empty to the US to serve the inbound freight need. It's just inevitable.

But the bottom line is -- rates haven't gone up in a large part because of the efficiencies that have been gained in the industry. Over the past couple of years, yes, carriers and brokers alike are suffering ... but most people I know whether in transportation or not have felt it.
 
When I dispatched at Brazeau in Sudbury early 80's we got about $1.75/mile on FTL vans or flatbeds, although rates were based on 1.06 cwt on 70,000 lb. loads, if you were creative as we often were you could put two loads of copper on one trailer and run a rack kit so no one would see and double up your revenue. There was only one scale between Sudbury and Montreal and if it was closed you were laughin.
In middle 80's at Brazeau Int'l we got $2.14 / mile hauling Abitibi paper from GTA to everywhere and if we were running a little heavy we paid our o/o hub miles...trucks got $1.00 per mile loaded AND empty. We had a roller fax that no one knew how to use, cell phones weren't for sale yet, and I could easily put $3000 revenue on a truck from Chicago to Toronto with 5 or 6 stops. We also got $1600-$1800 for a FTL to go to New England so it didn't hurt so bad returning for $500 with a load of scrap. I got more back-in-the-day stories but I'll tell'em another time
 
Yup, no question that it was a different world back before deregulation. On one side you had the NFTB (not fair too bad) rates working for you but you also had the Teamsters to deal with who ate up most of your profit.
 
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If we're taking a walk down "memory lane", let's not forget the famous (or infamous) "trip leasing". A few of the larger carriers still around today started off using this procedure as a way to circumvent the regulations in place back then. I believe that was much easier than hiring a transportation lawyer and presenting one of your shippers to support your application before the board.
 
ahh trip leasing, we even "borrowed" photocopies of running authorities from a larger fleet that was operated by some ex Brazeau brass and got away with crossing scales everywhere. Nothin legal but enough documents to choke a chicken. And teamsters ? Ever hear about owner/operator Teamsters ? Independants paying union dues and getting protection. I once had to pay an o/o for a trip he didn't do to CA because we had dispatched a "junior" man...but our load got there on time cause we used the 'right" guy.
 
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