Tractor Shortages

[EddinKY]

It is certainly fueled by the lack of a coherent national industrial strategy. What products are critical to our national survival, and what is our plan to be sure that we have USA capacity? We learned in 2020 that many (most) of our medicines are produced overseas. Have you heard a plan to produce critical meds in the states again?...nope. Our plan is apparently to have trade rules that produce maximum short term profits for big donors and contributors. Most of you don't even know which side lead the change in laws 30 years ago, that pushed our manufacturing overseas and closed our factories.

 

[EddinKY]

Hard for most westerners to grasp the fact that there is no appreciable difference between a Chinese company and the Chinese government.

Most people have no idea. Our state just gave Heier Corp $40 million to expand a factory. Heier is a chinese company...by definition owned by the comunisrt Govt. We say we are against coomi's..but we subsidize them..if it feels good short term, to get some $16/hr jobs. The only thing consistent is our inconsistency.

 

[Hay Dude]

Most people have no idea. Our state just gave Heier Corp $40 million to expand a factory. Heier is a chinese company...by definition owned by the comunisrt Govt. We say we are against coomi's..but we subsidize them..if it feels good short term, to get some $16/hr jobs. The only thing consistent is our inconsistency.

It’s an inherent lack of intelligence in business acumen in our leadership.
We are always reacting instead of acting to changing economic conditions and markets.
We are also educating our children to be stupid.
It’s so sad.

 

[Paystar]

You can't blame the Govt for low pay. Trucking companies are private businesses. That is a natural part of the free enterprise system we all love.

OK, show me ANYWHERE in my post where I said the government had anything to do with trucking rates??

It amazes me how many people make comments without reading the posts.

 

[jyoutz]

Unfortunately, the rules here preclude the opportunity to refute and debunk this statement.

You don’t think that “maximizing shareholder value” has any relationship to offshoring of jobs by US corporations?

 

[Jchonline]

The OP was about tractor shortages…can we please keep it on topic and not get Scottys thread closed.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

You can't blame the Govt for low pay. Trucking companies are private businesses. That is a natural part of the free enterprise system we all love.

Trucking was deregulated in the early 1980's; up to that point it was high wage Teamster driven. (no pun intended)

 

[EddinKY]

There is no shortage of truckers, just a shortage becuase of truckers that have got out of the industry (like I have after being a driver and an owner for 37 years) because nobody wants to pay, over regulation to the point you are treated like a criminal, and all the "new" drivers they are importing that are making a trip down the highway a suicide mission now.

Thanks I did read your post. The "nobody wants to pay" is businesses (not the govt) that is how the free enterprise system works. If the pay was high enough (from your customers or contractor) you would overcome all the little regulation challenges and you would have bought a new truck in the 13 years between when the CA law was passed and when it took effect. Do you really think people in California are suffering terribly because they can't buy their favorite brand of toilet paper or salad dressing during this terrible shortage?

 

[MoArk Willy]

Too much dependency on foreign made products.
If we return to making more here, it wouldn’t be as bad.

Unions and greed are the reasons we limit what we make.

 

[Paystar]

Am I missing something in what I wrote? I did not say "nobody wants to pay" being caused by the government. I've dealt with all the rate cutting scabs all my life to know everyone in the trucking industry is their own worst enemy.

Just making separate points. There is no shortage of truckers, just a shortage of owners and drivers willing to stay in the industry.

And none of it affects me anyway. Never been to California, and never hauled cans.

I just thought it was funny they are trying to partly blame it on a "shortage" of drivers. That is the game they use to import new people to the country that they can put in trucks untrained and unqualified and use them like new world slaves.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Unions and greed are the reasons we limit what we make.

OK... And Unions are also why a lot of us have what we have.

 

[Jstpssng]

Look at all the cargo ships from China waiting to unload.
So we wait for other countries to spoon feed us what we need. Such a sad state of affairs.
Some live in areas of the country where things are going pretty well. For those of us in the rust belt watching our industrial plants closing (if there are any left) or being bought by foreign countries, it’s tough to watch.

Our chickens are coming home, to roost.

Some of us have been predicting this or something similar since jobs started going overseas 40 years ago.

 

[mike02557a]

Can't really give an honest opinion without getting a "timeout". Yes, the world has always had diverse politics but things have changed dramatically in the past 5 years or so. People are no longer allowed to have frank and open discussions anymore. If you say something that is not part of the official narrative you lose your speaking privileges. This is what America has become and even this simple, honest statement will likely be removed and my account locked. But yes, I agree with you that the pandemic has been used to create a whole new world.

I long or the GOOD TIMES of the 1950's/1960's...we had ethics..values...*** and violence on TV were less...we got to watch the Mickey Mouse club and we believed the Superman was right fighting fo TRUTH, JUSTICE and the AMERICAN WAY. Today's world is a far shot from what good ole America used to be. We reward greed and buy voters bu giving them money. What will 2022 bring? The answer: Hyperinflation, a stock market crash and a real estate market bust. How to prepare for it: Learn how to repair everything you can...buy tools...learn new skills..buy repair books...work hard every day and save what you can so you can buy during the down cycle in 2022/2023. A recession is on its way..

 

[mike02557a]

I offered someone a job at $17/hr helping me get things done around my farm. He needs the money as he can't pay his bills. He doesn't have a job and I could use some help around the farm doing odd jobs like mowing my 9 acres, helping me clean out the greenhouses, hold up the other end of a 2x4 while I fix something, or help me repair my many trucks and tractors. I thought $17/hr was good pay seeing retail jobs pay around $10/hr.

He declined...saying he wanted at least $20/hr.

I don't get it....he still isn't working...he still needs money but he is looking for a handout...

 

[Macinnis]

Unions and greed are the reasons we limit what we make.

Page 7 before someone hit the nail on the head.

 

[ranchito]

Whats really funny is that the 'Just In Time' thing was created by Toyota and after a period of rejection, US companies finally embraced it then took it to the extreme and got to the point where if deliveries were delayed by even an hour the lines shut down (Motorola in the 90's anyone?). Having learned their lessen, US companies relaxed things a bit and went to a couple days to a couple weeks of inventories, depending.

But Toyota never said to have inventories coming in the back door just in time to build whats going out the front. They said not to have *years* worth of inventory sitting around (common at the time) and to limit it to about 6 months to reduce overhead but still allow for any fluctuations in the supply chain. This is why Toyota was the only car manufacturer to not shut down lines and still had fully functioning cars, chips and all. I have a feeling US companies are going to do another reset after this, LOL.

Another benefit for Toyota was that a defect later discovered in millions of parts or assemblies were not sitting in a warehouse only to be installed in the rest of that model year or more. By having a limited inventory, corrections were made so only a limited number of vehicles were affected. One notable exception being the frame rot on their pickups, a result of a lighter frame that was no match for road salt. Of course, they also stopped the line if a problem was discovered during assembly and a solution was found then and there by the workers, unlike the US brands which would push the defective cars out to the dealers to find a remedy. Germans would let the defect get to the end of the line where a team would make corrections before shipment to dealers and add that sometimes substantial cost onto the MSRP of the cars. All of this in a great book I read many years ago. And we wonder how the Japanese lines took over the auto industry.

 

[Hay Dude]

Some of us have been predicting this or something similar since jobs started going overseas 40 years ago.

I’d be in that “some of us” group.

 

[Hay Dude]

You don’t think that “maximizing shareholder value” has any relationship to offshoring of jobs by US corporations?

Not as much as over-regulation, high taxes and overpaid, over -benefitted employees.
If you get rid of maximizing shareholder value you might as well say goodbye to capitalism

 

[Hay Dude]

Am I missing something in what I wrote? I did not say "nobody wants to pay" being caused by the government. I've dealt with all the rate cutting scabs all my life to know everyone in the trucking industry is their own worst enemy.

Just making separate points. There is no shortage of truckers, just a shortage of owners and drivers willing to stay in the industry.

And none of it affects me anyway. Never been to California, and never hauled cans.

I just thought it was funny they are trying to partly blame it on a "shortage" of drivers. That is the game they use to import new people to the country that they can put in trucks untrained and unqualified and use them like new world slaves.

I think there’s a shortage of truckers because many of the truckers are small companies and small businesses are being decimated.
I recently took delivery of a large piece of equipment. Delivered by a rural trucker. He said the electronic controlled wastegate broke on his trucks turbocharger and wouldn’t make much boost. Aggravating to drive but said he’d probably have to drive it this way for a while because trucking money is way down.

 

[check]

Took my Kubota BX25 in for service a couple weeks ago, and my dealer where I bought it has been expanding and getting bigger. The two nearest dealers close down, so now they have all the business! Still had very little inventory, and everything that I saw they said it was already sold or in for service.