Long Haul Trucking is a Virtual Mountain of Gold Just Waiting to be Mined.
What makes the proverbial mining of gold in the trucking industry so interesting is that the mountain is owned by shipping companies. The more figurative gold trucking entrepreneurs take, the less gold the shipping companies keep. It’s a zero-sum game. And because of that, the elephant in this industry is a creation of the larger shippers to impede the productivity of trucking entrepreneurs to mine gold, so to speak.
Not removing the elephant is a monumental mistake by trucking entrepreneurs. The cost is hundreds of billions of dollars in forfeited wealth, since 1980.
Let’s talk about the elephant.
It’s the reason why larger shippers have carte blanche when it comes to setting the terms of service i.e., unreasonable delays in loading and unloading; the irony of charging penalty fees for not being on-time; and nominal detention pay, at best, or nothing at all.
It’s the reason why the broker population is so prolific and why they almost always kowtow to the larger shippers—manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
It’s the reason why freight prices and rates will never reach the level you want them. It’s the reason why your only real growth comes from M&A, which is extraordinarily risky and expensive, especially now.
And it’s a BIG reason why your driver turnover is so high and retention so low. Let’s be real, IF more than half of your employees quit every year, you have a systemic problem!
But most of all, the elephant is the reason why your net earnings last year was only $400 million and not three times more! I’m not kidding—the elephant is a wealth-eater, and it has got to go!
What is the Elephant? And How Did It Come to Be?
The elephant is an oversaturated market.
That means there are too many for-hire truck owners—about 415,000 too many. They compete for full truckload freight and nothing they do is healthy for LHTDs, other truck owners, or the industry as a whole.
Let’s visit the forgotten history of American trucking to understand why the elephant came to be.
Believe it or not, wealthy global capitalists declared war on trucking companies in 1935. They were heavily invested in the railroad industry and were outraged when the railroad began losing business to trucking companies in the late 1920s. The response was a declaration of war. They paid experts and academics to influence politicians—ensuring Acts of Congress were drafted to their advantage.
These wealthy global capitalists used Acts of Congress as strategic weapons.
The Motor Carrier Act of 1935 outlawed competition, supressed growth, and heavily affected the income of trucking companies while benefiting the railroad companies. The act further constrained truck owners by forcing them to fix prices, in blatant violation of antitrust laws. Having forced trucking companies into operating illegally, the Reed-Bulwinkle Act of 1948 backtracked by simply exempting freight carriers from prosecution while leaving the other constraints intact. Truck owners suffered yet another income blow when the Motor Carrier Act 1980 allowed excessive competition, which achieved the goal of flooding the market [thus forcing a change in market structure from something resembling an Oligopoly to Perfect Competition] with unsophisticated trucking entrepreneurs, lowering the rates of the industry overall to the great financial advantage of the larger shippers.
The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 is still devastating trucking companies in 2021.
It created a highly competitive environment which allowed wealthy capitalists to maneuver into a position where the market would set prices. Whereas the 1935 act gave the power to set prices to the government, the 1980 amendment put the power firmly in the hands of the market—larger shippers. The scheme was so masterfully executed, that trucking companies didn’t even realize that there was an option to take back their only power [to set the price] and once again control their own industry.
Is it Even Possible to Remove the Elephant? What Does “Remove the Elephant” Actually Entail?
Anyone who understands that too many truck owners—the elephant—is the root cause of every complex problem that plagues long haul trucking today, also understands that you cannot turn back the clock. This is true, which explains why no one is talking about the elephant.
But what those same people don’t understand is that the destructive effects of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 can actually be reversed, so much so that the end result would create an industry operating as though the act of 1980 was actually revoked, and every change that followed it: in effect, restored to its original form.
That means a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of truck owners, trucking companies, and brokers too, over a timespan of about 20 years. It also means a forced shift in market structure from where it is today—Perfect Competition—back to something that every trucking company deserves: an Oligopoly.
The larger shippers will begin to panic as they watch the larger trucking companies grow organically as they take-up the freight lost by the smaller departing companies. This will trigger a massive reaction from crony capitalists, who will respond by sending millions of dollars in political contributions to lobby groups who will also join the fight to find ways to stop trucking entrepreneurs from removing the elephant.
It sounds far-fetched or perhaps even impossible. But it’s really not. Not when you consider the fact that all that will transact is the reverse of what happened 40 years earlier i.e., post deregulation. The only difference is that the transformation is being directed by trucking entrepreneurs rather than wealthy global capitalists and corrupt politicians.
What Would Change IF the Elephant was Successfully Removed? Who Stands to Benefit Most?
The face and landscape of the trucking industry would never be the same.
The top trucking companies would each own upwards of 80,000 to 100,000 trucks. Their business models would resemble a highly efficient and productive UPS or FEDEX enterprise. Independent owner-operators would be living the dream and driving for the passion, while those who get out, will do it for the money on the other end. Long haul truck drivers would be highly skilled and seasoned professionals, and embrace the many opportunities to advance during their career. But best of all, they will retire debt free and rich in under 12 years.
You would see conventional trucks, alternative energy trucks, and driverless trucks all fully integrated into a state-of-the-art long haul trucking ecosystem with blockchain and geospatial management technologies all producing profit for every LHTD and trucking company.
You would see the Great Wall of Freight Brokers dismantled and replaced with a revolutionary new infrastructure with charging stations, city and city-limit hubways, new and highly-efficient dedicated lanes, one robust end-to-end logistics solution, fueling centers, healthy eating for LHTDs, interstate transfer plazas that are purpose-built for driverless trucks, medical centers for LHTDs and their friends and family, and certified training centers.
Would you see consumer prices across the board increase? Maybe. Or maybe the vanishing revenue to the massive freight broker machine would absorb the fundamental change.
Those who will stand to benefit most from this change are LHTDs and the top trucking companies.
What Enables Trucking Entrepreneurs to Remove the Elephant? Moreover, What Would Cause the Mass Exodus of Hundreds of Thousands of Truck Owners and Trucking Companies?
If you remember, wealthy capitalists used the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 as their weapon of choice to flood the market with unsophisticated trucking entrepreneurs and force an all-important change in market structure, from something that resembled an Oligopoly to what we have today, which is Perfect Competition.
Today, our weapon of choice is a revolutionary new retirement plan for LHTDs. It will permanently end the driver shortage in 90 days, but more than that, it will force another major shift in market structure from where it is today—Perfect Competition—back to something that every trucking company deserves: an Oligopoly.
The name of this retirement plan is TruckonomicsTM.
As the premier retirement plan, Truckonomics is offering LHTDs the one thing that they want more than anything: the option to get out of their truck… with a passive income that keeps them out of their truck permanently.
Every trucking company, large and small, has a fatal vulnerability that has never been tested. That vulnerability is disloyal drivers. IF your competitor can give your drivers the one thing that they want more than anything else in the world, they will abandon your company in a heartbeat!
Truckonomics was designed to give LHTDs that one thing.
Truckonomics is offering LHTDs the chance to:
- Retire from driving
- Own their own home debt free and clear
- Live debt free
- Earn a passive income [from a fleet on income-producing trucks] that meets their every need
- Have at least six months worth of emergency money, available at any time
- Accumulate six figures in retirement savings
All six achievements to be realized in under 12 years.
As a virtual weapon, Truckonomics will be used to force trucking companies out of business and into bankruptcy by exploiting their single-largest vulnerability—disloyal truck drivers. It sounds brutal, and for the owners of those companies, it might be. But for their drivers and support personnel, it will be an enormous step up to a future that has never looked brighter.
Our approach is to offer Truckonomics to LHTDs exclusively through a network of select trucking companies. That means, any LHTD who chooses to opt-in to the Truckonomics retirement plan must be first actively employed or sponsored by a trucking company in our network.
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