Deregulation of the Trucking industry

Well now, I can only answer from the outside, being that I was still in Canada and reading the US trade mags such as Overdrive. The reason given for dereg was supposedly that the "little guys" would be able to get a bigger share of the pie, but what actually happened was the big outfits pushed the rates to an artificial low and held them there until the little guys starved out. Kinda like what's going on today with the "Global Economy".

 

Google Thomas Gale Moore. He's written a fair amount of stuff on deregulation of the trucking industry. Pretty much a blessing and a curse according to him!

 

There were a whole lot less companies (therefore less trucks) out there so freight rates remained pretty good. A company had to buy rights or trip lease to haul freight. If you had a load but your company did not have the rights to haul that type of freight through a particular state on your way to the destination, you had to interline with a company that did. That meant going to the other company's office, filling out some paperwork, taping their placard on your doors, then entering and or leaving the state through a "gateway". Nowadays you just get "authority", insurance, a trailer and go to it.

 

All deregulation did was drive down rates and make it so every Tom, Dick or Harry could buy a truck,trailer get rights and start hauling ,it was great for shippers but not the o/o or smaller trucking company's, before deregulation right's were given out only if there was a need for your service other wise you had to trip lease or run through the company that had the rights in that perticular area or lane,

 

The bad part is truckers went on strike to get deregulation and ronnie reagan just smiled and said no problem.
Regulation had all freight rates set they could not be changed.Only congress could do it so there were no need for brokers.After deregulation brokers came out of the woodwork all it takes to cut a rate now is a phone call.

 

Read "Sweatshops on Wheels' by Michael Belzer. He explains it in sometimes boring great detail.

And we really can't blame it on Reagan. Trucking industry deregulation was largely a product of the Carter administration, just as much of the deregulation of the financial industry took place under Clinton, which pretty much proves my long-held contention that it's not about Dem vs Repub or liberal vs conservative, but about capital vs labor. It's about the wealthy against the rest of us. What we now have is the near total ascension of capital over labor, real incomes falling for all but the wealthy elite and the disappearance of the middle class. Just like Marx predicted.

 

Carter signed it into law before he left office, in July 1980. Deregulation gave us Swift, Werner, and a whole lot of other piddly little companies that became the mega carriers we have today.

 

now i disagree with a lot about deregualtion, it has been better for me , quite frankly i never had it so good , guess it is how yo adapt to the change .
before if you bought a truck you had no choice but to lease and the leasing company much like it is today got most of your money you could not compete because you could not get your own authority.

today you can get your own authority and do your own thing and compete with the big boys and they do not like it , you can set your own rate most dont but you can I DO,it's lot better for me guess it depend on how you truck and how youn take care of buisness. southernpride

 

Before deregulation the rate was set by the government and no one could cut it.Anyone can call whoever you are hauling for and bid down your rate. It is legal to do so.I just read in wikipedia deregulation began in 1970 under nixon and was completed in 1986 under reagan. Carter and ford was in it also but in that 16 year period over 70,000 companies started up due to deregulation.