This is not a good thing. Brokers (the middle man) does a lot for truckers and the freight companies.
There are several organizational structures in the industry. There are companies such as USPS, UPS and FedEx that carry the freight brought them directly from the public. These larger companies are often unionized. That is a good thing, because, these companies often hire part time labor during busy times such as Christmas. The unions do have a say in the part time wage, but, they also uphold a strong wage structure for the full time employee. That form of structure is a retention guarantee. In having a good retention structure, there is consistency in the safe handling of freight when it comes to truck drivers and jet pilots.
Then there are the contractor truck drivers. They receive contracts for their services. These are the folks that sometimes deliver giant cranes to construction sites or they work with companies like UPS during those busy times of year. If one ever passes a UPS hub there is always a possibility there are contract truckers at the bays to be loaded. These drivers are taking freight a distance and are not local drivers.
Then are the independents. They own their rigs, at least one rig and often more than one. They have no company looking over their shoulders and work with brokers to move freight, frequently EXEMPT freight. This is where the brokers come in. If independents become dependent on computers there will be independents going out of business.
Brokers front for a lot of money. If the broker is interested in moving melons out of Medina, California to New York's produce market, it costs money. An independent can walk into a broker's office and receive cash as an advance on the transportation. The reason is obvious. The cash pays for fuel and whatever might be driver(s) salaries. It is also an incentive to work with a broker. The independents have a percentage of the income available for repairs and the unexpected, but, it also provides for timely payments if the truck(s) are financed. Brokers of freight are very good things and perhaps under appreciated. Yes, they get a piece of the action for handing the freight transaction.
If computer apps are used instead of a human being to move freight there are independents that will go out of business because invoicing companies has a turn around time of up to 3 months or more. Independents will find themselves needing a bookkeeper that is also an accounts receivable clerk. Independents don't have common ground with other independents in recovering freight costs to companies. Brokers are significant entities in the movement of freight and deal with reputable companies. For an independent that learning curve will find themselves facing a bankruptcy court.
I don't like Uber. I don't believe it is a good thing. Uber is a Wall Street dream of finding a marginal profit of American and European infrastructure and squeezing every penny out of it. It looks empowering to Americans with a lower income, but, think about that. Someone that needs another job to make ends meet probably have lower quality cars as well as a significant stress in making ends meet. That is the beauty of poverty and the working poor, they die early from the financial stress in their lives. You know, the white guys that die earlier in a study released recently. When Americans die early there is a bump of SSI savings. There is a lot of reason to build stress into the American society.
The point is Americans are fine, especially truck drivers. Working with a broker is a far better idea than working with Uber that will increase the death rate of truck drivers. Let's hope that increased stress and death rate doesn't result in truck accidents where mom and her kids get caught up in it and might not make it to the emergency room in time to save their lives.
Uber is a plague and needs to end. The people who thunk it up need to realize the socially responsible move is for them to close their doors. Uber is like a paycheck lender. It simply is not at all a good idea.
February 23, 2016
By Russ Banham
Now several mobile applications (click here) are looking to alter this paradigm for the better. By replacing the traditional middleman linking truckers to shippers and vice versa, the apps are shaping up to be as disruptive to the trucking industry as Uber was for the taxi business.
One of these new apps is Cargomatic, the brainchild of a tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley and a logistics expert from Los Angeles, which launched in 2014. Another is Convoy, a Seattle-based startup launched in September 2015.
Not surprisingly, both companies leverage the similarities of their apps to Uber in their marketing materials. The comparisons are obvious, although the apps transport freight and not people. Like Uber, both companies have created algorithms that address the transportation needs between two parties, with all the financial logistics, such as billing and payment, handled by the app....
There are several organizational structures in the industry. There are companies such as USPS, UPS and FedEx that carry the freight brought them directly from the public. These larger companies are often unionized. That is a good thing, because, these companies often hire part time labor during busy times such as Christmas. The unions do have a say in the part time wage, but, they also uphold a strong wage structure for the full time employee. That form of structure is a retention guarantee. In having a good retention structure, there is consistency in the safe handling of freight when it comes to truck drivers and jet pilots.
Then there are the contractor truck drivers. They receive contracts for their services. These are the folks that sometimes deliver giant cranes to construction sites or they work with companies like UPS during those busy times of year. If one ever passes a UPS hub there is always a possibility there are contract truckers at the bays to be loaded. These drivers are taking freight a distance and are not local drivers.
Then are the independents. They own their rigs, at least one rig and often more than one. They have no company looking over their shoulders and work with brokers to move freight, frequently EXEMPT freight. This is where the brokers come in. If independents become dependent on computers there will be independents going out of business.
Brokers front for a lot of money. If the broker is interested in moving melons out of Medina, California to New York's produce market, it costs money. An independent can walk into a broker's office and receive cash as an advance on the transportation. The reason is obvious. The cash pays for fuel and whatever might be driver(s) salaries. It is also an incentive to work with a broker. The independents have a percentage of the income available for repairs and the unexpected, but, it also provides for timely payments if the truck(s) are financed. Brokers of freight are very good things and perhaps under appreciated. Yes, they get a piece of the action for handing the freight transaction.
If computer apps are used instead of a human being to move freight there are independents that will go out of business because invoicing companies has a turn around time of up to 3 months or more. Independents will find themselves needing a bookkeeper that is also an accounts receivable clerk. Independents don't have common ground with other independents in recovering freight costs to companies. Brokers are significant entities in the movement of freight and deal with reputable companies. For an independent that learning curve will find themselves facing a bankruptcy court.
I don't like Uber. I don't believe it is a good thing. Uber is a Wall Street dream of finding a marginal profit of American and European infrastructure and squeezing every penny out of it. It looks empowering to Americans with a lower income, but, think about that. Someone that needs another job to make ends meet probably have lower quality cars as well as a significant stress in making ends meet. That is the beauty of poverty and the working poor, they die early from the financial stress in their lives. You know, the white guys that die earlier in a study released recently. When Americans die early there is a bump of SSI savings. There is a lot of reason to build stress into the American society.
The point is Americans are fine, especially truck drivers. Working with a broker is a far better idea than working with Uber that will increase the death rate of truck drivers. Let's hope that increased stress and death rate doesn't result in truck accidents where mom and her kids get caught up in it and might not make it to the emergency room in time to save their lives.
Uber is a plague and needs to end. The people who thunk it up need to realize the socially responsible move is for them to close their doors. Uber is like a paycheck lender. It simply is not at all a good idea.
February 23, 2016
By Russ Banham
Now several mobile applications (click here) are looking to alter this paradigm for the better. By replacing the traditional middleman linking truckers to shippers and vice versa, the apps are shaping up to be as disruptive to the trucking industry as Uber was for the taxi business.
One of these new apps is Cargomatic, the brainchild of a tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley and a logistics expert from Los Angeles, which launched in 2014. Another is Convoy, a Seattle-based startup launched in September 2015.
Not surprisingly, both companies leverage the similarities of their apps to Uber in their marketing materials. The comparisons are obvious, although the apps transport freight and not people. Like Uber, both companies have created algorithms that address the transportation needs between two parties, with all the financial logistics, such as billing and payment, handled by the app....
