the oil companies are screwing the people harder even than the '70's. It's a rigged game. Furthermore the big grocers and food producers may be claiming transportation costs (i.e. fuel) are to blame for their price increases but I can tell you that is BS also. The fact of the matter is that the spot market/independent owner-operators have seen the freight rate per mile paid to them drop substantially over the last 12 months. In some cases the per mile rate paid is back to where it was when diesel was just a little over $2.00 per gallon. It is the greed of the corporations. I have seen it with the prices for parts. I recently bought a common brake component that typically has always been around $50 to $75. My normal dealer quoted me $151 and so of course I went looking other places and on-line. For the exact same part/brand the prices from about a dozen sources ranged out of sight. One source was $99 while several were $129 to $199. A few were well over $250 and the worst was pushing $400. Never in all my years of buying the same part have I seen such disparity. I ended up calling a local dealer for a different major truck manufacturer and their every day price was $77.
The freight rate paid to us for loads is controlled for the most part by the freight brokers who have weaseled themselves into the supply chain over the last 40 years. The manufacturers/producers/retailers hand off to them to arrange for trucks. For example a load that the producer is paying $4/mile to have hauled will be given to the broker (many times a guy in his pajamas in his basement with just a computer and a phone) and then he posts the info about the load on an internet "load board". But he doesn't put the rate as $4/mile and then ask for a percentage. He posts the load for $2/mile or less and keeps the rest for himself. They used to be legally required to disclose the freight rate paid on the paperwork for the load. But the big boys killed that a long time ago. I could go further into the subject but suffice it say that the transportation industry has forever engaged in kickbacks between individuals and entities for "steering" the freight to favored parties. Needless to say that by and large the vast majority of truck freight moving in this country every day moves by small operators of one or a couple of trucks. We don't get to say anything except "no" and that doesn't pay next month's bills. The big boys have control and they are doing very well and reporting record profits all over the place. They're using that money for big stock buybacks to pump their own wallets and for buying each other in mergers etc. The men and women who own the trucks, pay for the fuel/expenses and drive them every day aren't getting the lion's share of anything except the costs.
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