11 Hours

11 Hours

11 hours may not sound like much. When you think about it, we are usually awake for 12-18 hours every day at work or at home or somewhere in between. So what is the significance of eleven hours? Not much to most people, but to a truck driver, 11 hours is the rule of the land.
The Federal Government imposes rules on employees that work on the transportation industry. Whether you drive a bus or truck, run a train, or fly a plane, you have to abide by a specific set of rules that relate to your training, fitness for duty, and as will be covered here, hours of service.
“Hours of Service” refers to the amount of work you can do in a day legally. As a truck driver, there are four different times I must observe daily. Type one is called “Off Duty” and is basically anything I do away from the truck. I can be at home, on vacation, sitting in a terminal, etc and the hours of service do not apply. Once I get to my truck though, things change a bit. The next kind of time is called “Sleeper Berth”. This is time I spend (as the name implies) back in the sleeper of the truck. Usually this time is spent sleeping, but it can also be spent reading and relaxing. The Fed requires that I have certain amounts of “Off Duty” and “Sleeper Berth” time between driving shifts as I will outline below.
The last two kinds of time are, of course, my working time. First is “Driving”, which is pretty self explanatory. This is any time I spend behind the wheel. Finally, “On Duty, Not Driving” rounds out my day and usually consists of things like loading or unloading trailers, fueling, and time spent doing company required tasks at Terminals (simulator, etc).
So what’s all the fuss about 11 hours? 11 hours is the maximum amount of time I can drive in a 14 hour window. That’s where the money is. That’s where I cash in. Basically I can drive up to 11 hours (split up however conditions warrant) in a 14 hour period. After 14 hours, I am required to take a 10 hour break (in the sleeper or off duty) before I can drive again. Now, I know that 11 hours doesn’t sound like much, but consider that in 11 hours, I can drive approximately 650 miles. That’s like driving from Philadelphia, PA to Chicago, IL or from Harrisburg, PA to Savannah, GA….Everyday.
Not many truckers drive straight 11 hours every day. We stop, take breaks, eat meals, get showers and do laundry. That’s where the 14 hours come in. Lets say I drive for 6 hours, then I stop and eat some lunch, get a shower and watch some TV for 2 hours, then I drive another 5 hours…. Still legal, but now I have to stop and take that 10 hour break.
Complicated huh? Well folks, that’s your tax dollars at work. It actually gets a bit more complicated (It’s called the split-sleeper rule) but I won’t go into that here. If you have any questions about Hours of Service or being a trucker, just drop me a line!

Concar - The Automotive Solution

Johnathan Broder, who works for the railroad "Conrail", coined the name "Concar" in his Philadelphia Daily News article about how the current auto industry situation is smilier to how the northeast US railroads found themselves in the mid 1970s.

His full article can be read here: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20081211_Remember_Conrail__Think_Concar.html

For those with ADD, the upshot is the government "bailed out" the railroads of the northeast who were losing 1 million PER DAY and created the Consolidated Rail Corporation or Conrail. Conrail took a rag-tag bunch of decrepit rail lines and by 1983, pared the lumbering giant into a lean, mean, profitable machine. There is a picture on www.thecrhs.org of a $200 MILLION dollar check given to the federal government to pay off the last of the money owed to make Conrail "free and clear". All the tax-payer money was paid off with interest. In 1999, Conrail was sold off to two other railroads for $10.5 BILLION. Not too bad for a company that was hemorrhaging cash just 30 years ago.

Now that the history lesson is over, on with the "plan" for "Concar"

So GM, Ford and Chrysler are in the midst of taking a big shit. They have been circling the toilet bowl now for some time and soon one of them (GM, most likely) will go down the hole. With this in mind, let's not bail it out, let's fix it. Here's how.

1) Ditch the Unions. - Yeah. I'm gonna get all kinds of hell for that one. There are two things in this world you don't scorn. Women and Unions. Both throw a hissy fit when you tell 'em to go take a hike. Fact is that the Unions had their place and helped the workers get better treatment. They got greedy though, didn't they? Yup. They are also some of the most resistant to change. Auto Unions try to do business like it was 1950 all over again. When you look at the numbers, Union pay, benefits, and retirement are bleeding the already injured companies dry. So lets change that.

2) Make a better product. - Lets face it, the Chevy, Ford and Chrysler cars can't hold a candle to the likes of Honda and Toyota. Go see for yourself. Go check out a Chevy Impala and then a Honda Accord. Better Construction, nicer interiors, better paint jobs, stronger components, and more reliability will be found in the Accord.

3) Make cars people actually want to buy. - The Big 3 are truck makers. Can't fault them for that. If you want a work truck or a good pickup, you get a Ford, Chevy, or a Dodge. (I don't know who makes the best one. The answer to that will keep rednecks arguing for years to come....) If you want a good, efficient car, however, you go elsewhere. Impalas, Fusions, and Intrepids, 300s, Cobalts and Focuses are bland and boring. I don't know of too many people who get excited over the Fusion they way they get excited over something like a Subaru WRX or Civic. While non of the aforementioned cars can be considered "flashy" cars, the domestics are just so Goddam boring.

4)Cut back on SUVs already. - Nobody wants the fuckin things already. The age of the SUV is as dead as a truckstop hooker. People who are ditching their Trailblazers and Expeditions are going for CRVs and RAV4s and Pilots and things like that. The Big 3 are lacking in that area BIG TIME, and what they do have is as boring as waiting at the dentist's office.

5) Get designers heads out of their collective asses. - I have a theory that Domestic car designers are all clones of Ben Stein. (Bueller? ..... Bueller? ...... Bueller?......)(If you know not of what I speak on the subject of Ben Stein, watch the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's a classic and must be watched!) They all have no sense of what's "in" now and have had the corporate lobotomy. Fifty years ago, if a car didn't sell well, they added chrome. Kinda like today, isn't it? Hey, that Ford Fusion isn't selling too well, by God, let's add some chrome! Give it some stick-on fancy bits and those suckers will buy it! Don't see much chrome on Hondas or Toyotas, do ya? Hmmmm.....

6) Cut overhead from overhead. - Management. Nobody wants it, nobody needs it, but the Big 3 have plenty of it. Heck, they built a SKYSCRAPER in Detroit to house it all. Do we really need that much? Nope. Fire 'em! And while you're at it, don't pay 'em as much. It's not like they earn it or anything, I mean come on...are they REALLY doing that good of a job to deserve millions of dollars every year? Get real. It's just a bunch of greedy grab-asses doing what they do best. If I worked that poorly at something, I'd have been fired long ago.

So what to do about it? Well, here's the plan-

Let's say Boober here takes over tomorrow and is given control of "Concar", which a merger of the 3 failing auto makers. First thing is inform the work force that ALL company facilities will be henceforth Non-Union shops. Period. They have the option of keeping their jobs (with new conditions to be outlined in a minute), or leaving. That's it. Simple as that. You can keep working here under the new rules, or you can go piss up a rope. Your choice. If the employees stay on, they will be paid a competitive salary to other non-union workers. Pensions will be gone (although there will be a sliding scale for older workers and pensions of retired workers will stay in effect. It's not fair to stop income on retirees who have no other source of income. I'm not a complete asshole.) If workers decide not to work and/or picket the plant, it will be closed down and production moved to another plant. The Big 3 could stand to lose a couple plants anyway. The new regime will have no tolerance for greed in employees or management. If you don't want to live by the new rules, you won't have a job. It's that simple. New Management has a set of balls. Learn to adjust.

Next on the chopping block is Management. I'd go through corporate like a dump truck through a nitroglycerin factory. It would not be pretty. Jobs would be cut, salaries lowered, positions eliminated. I would most likely be the most hated man in Detroit. Perhaps old managers could be offered positions in the plants where Union holdouts used to be. Along with Management would go a good bit of the designers and engineers. New blood is essential to the process, and we'd definitely get us some of that. Middle Management would be completely obliterated.

Next in line, Dealerships. Dealerships would be shed to make the process more streamlined. If Harrisburg, PA has 7 Domestic dealers, half would go bye-bye. The remaining ones would be the best for customer service and facilities.

Pricing is also something that would be re-vamped. One-price pricing would be the order of the day. No more rebates and incentives, no more shell games at dealers. The price on the sticker is the price you pay. Period. Dealers would be paid a flat rate per car and sales people would also be paid a flat rate. No more commission. Some folks won't like that, but tough shit. Don't like the music? Go to a different concert.

So what do you get as an employee? Well, I, as CEO, get a salary of $150K per year with no bonuses. (I know it sounds like a lot, but believe me, it's a fraction of what the guys get now) Management below CEO would get proportionately less. Most Plant Managers would get some were around 85K, while supervisors would get 60K. As an hourly employee, you'd be looking at about $25-$29 per hour. Benefits would be smiler to other industry. Concar would offer 401(k) as a retirement plan. No more pensions. No other company paid retirement benefits. You gotta earn it. Nothing will be "handed out"

I think all this, coupled with an increase in quality in the cars along with streamlining the manufacturing process, revising the way dealers act and do business, and cutting workforce blunders of the past would keep Concar on the forefront of the Auto Industry.

Run Russ Run

I haven't posted for a while. I apologise for that. No, wait...I don't really. lol. I'm currently sitting in Portland, Oregon at a truckstop waiting for a load. Since my last post, I was sent from Harrisburg, PA to Bakersfield, California with a load of pretzels. (If I only could have found a beer truck!) Then from Fontana Terminal to Portland with a truckload of dog food. Along the way, I got to check out the Mojave Desert (Which was really cool), along with the Tehachapi area (Great train stuff) as well as the fertile valleys of California. I also discovered that every decent sized grain elevator in CA has it's own switcher! I really wish I could have gotten some pictures, but it's hard to take pics while driving. I did take a few pics, but they're all of the desert and the Front Range Mountains.

http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk229/rswinnerton/fromthetruck/

Heading up to Portland yesterday, I got to tackle the Cascades, which is FREAKIN BEAUTIFUL, but with 79,700 GVW and 6% grades (for up to 8 miles at a time), I was a bit busy for pictures. I really wouldn't mind living in Northern California (Yereka area) as it has rolling hills and awesome snow-covered mountains as a back-drop.

No rants today as I'm getting tired, but I'll be in Canton, OH in seven days for 48 hours, so I'm sure by then, something will have pissed me off! Everyone keep safe and keep it rubber side down.
Russ