Why The Trucking Industry Is So Fragmented And Chaotic

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Trucking is an especially fragmented industry, which makes it susceptible to continuous boom and bust cycles. While the pandemic wreaked havoc on several industries, trucking is no exception: the industry as a whole is experiencing a shortage of drivers, high turnover rates, and order delays, among a slew of other problems. With 40% of the global economy dependent on freight and logistics, the industry’s issues resonate across supply chains and through other dependent industries.

Trucking is an $800 billion dollar industry that has proven too tough for one company to dominate.

Low barriers to entry make it easy for aspirants to start companies, and competition is fierce. There are thousands of trucking companies in the United States, and the fragmentation of the market produces huge boom-and-bust cycles.

Some companies have tried to consolidate or roll up smaller operations, but the industry is resistant to it.

New technological developments, such as self-driving trucks, could spur consolidation by removing one factor that keeps the industry so competitive: drivers. That will not be easy — companies are still perfecting the technology, and the regulatory landscape would need to be changed to accommodate these vehicles.

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Why The Trucking Industry Is So Fragmented And Chaotic

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46 COMMENTS

  1. IEDs and snipers could completely shut the trucking industry down in about 3 days. Drivers need to realize this and leave the industry while they can. I retired. Have fun working for nothing if you're foolish enough to stay in the game. If you don't put at least $2k in your pocket each week after taxes you are part of the problem.

  2. They are the backbone of America, seeing prices on essentials who is making the money ?? Truck drivers are not getting paid what they should . No family life big sacrifice being on the roads . Bring in illegals to replace the hard working American truck drivers.

  3. Some points (from a guy with 34 years in the trucking industry). 1: in the 90's Bill Clinton mandated that ALL truckers have a high school diploma. 2: a drivers hours are based on DRIVING hours, total hours are considered also but DRIVING hours is the biggest component. Although nicely polished, this "expose" could have been more circumspect.

  4. "Eliminates life styles issues"…. like what? Being alive? Don't try to spin making 3.5 million people unemployed sound like it's for their benefit.

  5. 50 cents a mile, times 100k miles equals $50k/yr. Who, in their right mind, would take that kind of job? It’ll cost at least $10k/yr. just to live on the road. After taxes, insurance,food and clothing, supplies . . . .
    you’re not left with much, that’s for sure. It’s no wonder the divorce rate for drivers is equally as high as driver turnover.

  6. Saying that truck driving is exploring the United States is so misleading. Who has time to explore?!?! Clearly, that woman is out of touch with what really goes on in the cab of a truck.

  7. Instead of paying us truck drivers, what we deserve, they would rather have autonomous machines do the job saving their money because they don’t want to pay us

  8. Lots of drivers are professional, courteous, and safe but a majority are not paid well or recognized for their efforts. Its really a job for people with really thick skin, skill, and courage especially when driving in certain weather conditions or geographical areas. Unfortunately our society doesn't care much for truckers, if there was ever a day without truckers society would grind to a halt, and yet truckers are treated like trash. Trucking is literally one of the most valuable occupations but they get treated the worst.

  9. This documentary is not 100^ accurate it's not as easy as they make it seem to get into trucking not to mention how dangerous it is and you get screwed by every one from mechanic, freight broker. over over over price parts, the warehouse Treat youlike they don't care how long you been waiting to be off loaded ,charge an outrageous off loaded fee , you pay high taxes and highway patrol treats you like dirt etc…………

  10. It goes a little higher than trucking. Democrats don't have a clue how to run a country… Vote Republican and trucking will flourish. And the price of everything will go back down. I guarantee that and that's a true fact

  11. I'll start this off addressing the Knight / Swift buyout. Swift was a very big company with a ton of problems. First was the complete lack of respect for the Drivers. Second was all the lawsuits against the company. Third was and still is the "Driving School". Kevin Knight fixed a few problems with the company, but in doing so, he also took on the problems ass his own with Knight. Any company that large that doesn't respect the people making the company money to begin with is going to fail or have bad problems. Now….Driver shortages is bs. The problem isn't shortages, it's keeping them in the business. This isn't a line of work most are cut out for….period. I've been doing this for almost 40 years now and can tell you that most people just can't deal with being away from home like this OTR side of the job really requires. Companies will try to tell people about being home on the weekend, or only out for 3 weeks and it's all a crock. There isn't any money in driving local and regional is almost as bad. If anyone is driving a truck for $.50 cpm, they need their head examined. That's about 2/3s the industry standard for someone with 6 months or better experience and definitely not in anything specialized , like Over Sized, HAZMAT or Flatbed. One of the biggest problems in this Industry right now is Brokers. To be a Broker requires nothing basically, but they seem to feel they deserve the Lions share of the Line Haul and even a part of the FSC. At current prices for fuel, maintenance, insurance, IFTA, USDOT, etc., a load shouldn't be moving for less than $3.50 a mile. But the load boards are full of freight being moved for as cheap as $90 cpm. Drivers, Owner Operators, small Company Owners need to let that cheap freight with the and rot. You don't go to the store and tell the store what you're willing to pay for something. They set the price and you either pay it, or you do without. Trucking is no different.

  12. Try looking at the traitor in chief Joe Biden he is the con artist who created this mess i am a true truck driver who will not follow the commie inchief Pedo Joe Biden 2016 him and china stopped cargo shios off the coast we truck drivers see the economy first hand when there are loads you will definitely see more truckers and mega companies bidding for those loads on that board the best bid wins since freight is atba all time low its harder on owner operators they say we are low on drivers that is a lie we are short on experienced drivers in mega carriers bring out more inexperienced drivers for each new student carriers gets 25,000 dollars per student myself i make 2.00 to 5.00 a mile for my truck and trailer since i am a independent driver majority of what these non experts are lues to con American people we do get incentives called perdiem, then there is when we are at a dock we get layover pay when swift took over a refrigerated company in west saltlake utah they lost customers with their rumored crashes and unsafe drivers which is the rumor caused by dusgruntled drivers fired by said company all mega carriers face this werner swift knight crst etc as for that srlf driving trucks i would not trust them as far as i can throw it is a technology tried in cars once emimented they will fire truck drivers there will be mire accidents those trucks will be operated by a non experienced driver behind the wheel we are the ones who can tell how dangerous the road is by being there in the cab we feel and can pick up how slippery that road is we are the ones who put snow chains on the tires we know how to deal with severe weather like tornadoes hurricanes blizzards etc. Lets see thise driverless trucks escape those situations

  13. I HOPE ALL DRIVERS STOP WORKING SHOW THIS INDUSTRY WERE ALL DONE WITH THERE MORE HRS AND LESS PAY WELFARE NO LIFE SHUT DOWN THIS COUNTRY CANADA UNTIL WE ARE PAYED RITE WE'VE BEEN OVER WORKED AN UNDERPAYED FOR YEEAARRS STOP WORKING TODAY

  14. this women is also part of the problem. her and other drivers drive a truck for 2 to 3 years and want to start their own company and go out and tempt to buy 3 or 4 trucks. she and the others will go under to.

  15. Because of the company’s that fixing rate confs and scamming it’s drivers, I personally know the company Genius trucking LLC from Louisiana that stole 1.7mil in ppp and keep scamming its drivers doing well, not in jail… next time I’ll do the same….

Comments are closed.