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ABF | What Happened To This Company?

canaryinthemine said:
Fair assessment.....Out of the cesspool that LTL freight has become....there's always something that ...floats to the surface.......

It seems ALL management treats the unique lifestyle and challenges of driving,....as an impediment to profits. Yet it remains the highest Liability factor in LTL occupations.

If they could only find a way to ....rid themselves of drivers.....Robot-driven trucks? Investing money in technology that takes away driver decisions? Driver-facing cameras,...because drivers aren't as....trustworthy as robots?

What about honest pay,...in an era of critical driver shortages? Instead of pay and benefit cuts,....to buy technology to eliminate drivers? Most other occupations can pay good money in...8 hours. Trucking relies on 60 hour weeks, and a vast majority doesn't get overtime.

Companies lobby for increases in HOS,....and longer trailers, combination units,....heavier weight. Surface Transportation Act of 1982 allowed for 53'ers.....17% more freight on a trailer......Did we get a 17% pay increase?

The job is more dangerous now,...because of industry lobbying for longer, heavier trucks...driven longer and farther by tired drivers....
..in an era of cell phones and other distractions....It's like driving truck in a nation full of....drunk people......

Yet,.....companies focus on cutting wages, pensions, and benefits......Improves the bottom line.........
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Agree, Canary. But if you look at trucking in the big picture, the one thing that is hardest for people who have been around it for a long time, is to accept a lot of the changes you mention.But it’s not just 1 company trying the technology, and chasing the profits. It’s everyone.
 
GO40 said:
If they don’t fix the problems they will be another dinosaur out of business....
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The unionized LTL sector should have started making major changes in the early 90’s. I’m not sure anything is fixable now. The teamsters, the rank and file, and the companies did nothing back 30 years ago to compete with the fast growing non union companies. Every contract since then has been Basically the way it was years before the 90’s. No one looked, down the road, or wanted anything to change.
 
BIG R GUY said:
The unionized LTL sector should have started making major changes in the early 90’s. I’m not sure anything is fixable now. The teamsters, the rank and file, and the companies did nothing back 30 years ago to compete with the fast growing non union companies. Every contract since then has been Basically the way it was years before the 90’s. No one looked, down the road, or wanted anything to change.
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Oh,...I'll agree with you that shortsighted management couldn't look no farther than the....cash register.
But what was worse,......was the Teamsters "leadership"........The Hoffa Jr. era will go down in history as the most disastrous, ineffective, compromised group of self-serving, out-of-touch........so-called "Leaders"......

Just look at the mess Johnson and Sweeton left the NMFA ........They were too busy feathering their own little nests, protecting their fiefdoms,.....and arranging their tee times to suit the management buddies who called the shots......

It was decades since they were behind the wheel,....or touched a box of freight,.........and they had lost any sort of idea of what it was to work in LTL....They had to rely on management to tell them what was going on......

The last time the Teamsters had a....quick response to new technology proposed by management and the ATA,....
.....was when they re-opened the contract back in 1977 to insert the phrase: "No driver shall be required to operate a truck with the cab designed to fit under the trailer"......

In response to the Strick cab-under........Language is still in the contract.

Way back when we had leadership with common sense and not beholden to management..........
 
BIG R GUY said:
The unionized LTL sector should have started making major changes in the early 90’s. I’m not sure anything is fixable now. The teamsters, the rank and file, and the companies did nothing back 30 years ago to compete with the fast growing non union companies. Every contract since then has been Basically the way it was years before the 90’s. No one looked, down the road, or wanted anything to change.
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Why not back in the 80s, I might could have still driving a big ole transfer truck?
 
GO40 said:
When you take over a profitable terminal & now show losses for 7 straight years, refuse to go on sales calls and the list goes on and on. It just gets frustrating as a employee that everything that is posted on here is 100% factual and falls on deaf ears....
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I wish I could give 100 likes
 
BIG R GUY said:
The unionized LTL sector should have started making major changes in the early 90’s. I’m not sure anything is fixable now. The teamsters, the rank and file, and the companies did nothing back 30 years ago to compete with the fast growing non union companies. Every contract since then has been Basically the way it was years before the 90’s. No one looked, down the road, or wanted anything to change.
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I clearly remember the push to unionize Overnite, instead of making us seem welcome we were threatened and intimidated. Cutting air lines, pulling 5th whl. pins, I was pushed off a dock by a Local 107 Red Star driver, and my personal favorite throwing creme filled Tastycakes at my windshield, effective, you ain't goin' nowhere till you scrape that oily mess off. I will admit that when we finally went Union my pay and benefits went up considerably almost making up for the Us against them mentality of management..
 
Crumudgeon said:
I clearly remember the push to unionize Overnite, instead of making us seem welcome we were threatened and intimidated. Cutting air lines, pulling 5th whl. pins, I was pushed off a dock by a Local 107 Red Star driver, and my personal favorite throwing creme filled Tastycakes at my windshield, effective, you ain't goin' nowhere till you scrape that oily mess off. I will admit that when we finally went Union my pay and benefits went up considerably almost making up for the Us against them mentality of management..
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Old-style so-called "organizing" effort by Hoffa Jr. and cronies. And a shame......If you remember, the first Overnite organizing drive stalled out,....because of infighting between the outgoing Carey Teamsters,...and the incoming Hoffa Teamsters.

The Hoffa people were more than willing to sabotage any gains made through organizing,...by Carey people. Politics over Philosophy.......The Hoffa people "won",......and the Overnite guys lost........

And then,....years later,....through card-check covered under contract by the purchasing UPS company........Overnite organized within 4 months. I was on both organizing drives......and I was put into a position of apologizing to my Overnite friends at several terminals,.....for rank incompetence by some of the Teamster upper "Leadership".......

The fact that the overwhelming majority of Overnite guys gladly signed organizing cards,.....ONCE the company intimidation and retribution was removed,....only shows how easy it would've been to organize Overnite the first time,......IF the Teamsters had used intelligence and actual Leadership........instead of trying to sabotage what Old Guard Teamsters regarded as an "insurgent" uprising through Ron Carey....
"Sabotage" including ruining any sort of reforms and organizing that the Carey people had instituted......Which meant throwing Overnite Union supporters to the company wolves.......

To make Carey...."look bad..."

Tastycakes? Man! I'm glad you didn't suffer a heart attack,..with all those greasy calories and cholesterol thrown at you......
I'm surprised they didn't use Twinkies,....At that time, they were Union-made.......

(No Longer! "Hostess" is non-Union,...and skipped out on their pension obligations through a bogus bankruptcy......Boycott Hostess!...)
 
Crumudgeon said:
I clearly remember the push to unionize Overnite, instead of making us seem welcome we were threatened and intimidated. Cutting air lines, pulling 5th whl. pins, I was pushed off a dock by a Local 107 Red Star driver, and my personal favorite throwing creme filled Tastycakes at my windshield, effective, you ain't goin' nowhere till you scrape that oily mess off. I will admit that when we finally went Union my pay and benefits went up considerably almost making up for the Us against them mentality of management..
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What was the deal with the Cincinnati terminal, I seem to remember something about them being a sticking point.
 
joes bar and grill said:
What was the deal with the Cincinnati terminal, I seem to remember something about them being a sticking point.
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I don't recall Cincinnati in particular, but Kansas City, Lexington Oh., and Memphis had big issues, we were sold to the Union as part of allowing UPS to pull out of Central States, they agreed on card check and no opposition. All worked out for the best I guess, an unchecked Big Brown Monster is a scary thought. We still have 2 non-union terminals, Waynesboro Va. and Savanah Ga.
 
canaryinthemine said:
Old-style so-called "organizing" effort by Hoffa Jr. and cronies. And a shame......If you remember, the first Overnite organizing drive stalled out,....because of infighting between the outgoing Carey Teamsters,...and the incoming Hoffa Teamsters.

The Hoffa people were more than willing to sabotage any gains made through organizing,...by Carey people. Politics over Philosophy.......The Hoffa people "won",......and the Overnite guys lost........

And then,....years later,....through card-check covered under contract by the purchasing UPS company........Overnite organized within 4 months. I was on both organizing drives......and I was put into a position of apologizing to my Overnite friends at several terminals,.....for rank incompetence by some of the Teamster upper "Leadership".......

The fact that the overwhelming majority of Overnite guys gladly signed organizing cards,.....ONCE the company intimidation and retribution was removed,....only shows how easy it would've been to organize Overnite the first time,......IF the Teamsters had used intelligence and actual Leadership........instead of trying to sabotage what Old Guard Teamsters regarded as an "insurgent" uprising through Ron Carey....
"Sabotage" including ruining any sort of reforms and organizing that the Carey people had instituted......Which meant throwing Overnite Union supporters to the company wolves.......

To make Carey...."look bad..."

Tastycakes? Man! I'm glad you didn't suffer a heart attack,..with all those greasy calories and cholesterol thrown at you......
I'm surprised they didn't use Twinkies,....At that time, they were Union-made.......

(No Longer! "Hostess" is non-Union,...and skipped out on their pension obligations through a bogus bankruptcy......Boycott Hostess!...)
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They Very well could have been Hostess, Tastycake was a Teamster plant in N E Philly too...
 
canaryinthemine said:
Oh,...I'll agree with you that shortsighted management couldn't look no farther than the....cash register.
But what was worse,......was the Teamsters "leadership"........The Hoffa Jr. era will go down in history as the most disastrous, ineffective, compromised group of self-serving, out-of-touch........so-called "Leaders"......

Just look at the mess Johnson and Sweeton left the NMFA ........They were too busy feathering their own little nests, protecting their fiefdoms,.....and arranging their tee times to suit the management buddies who called the shots......

It was decades since they were behind the wheel,....or touched a box of freight,.........and they had lost any sort of idea of what it was to work in LTL....They had to rely on management to tell them what was going on......

The last time the Teamsters had a....quick response to new technology proposed by management and the ATA,....
.....was when they re-opened the contract back in 1977 to insert the phrase: "No driver shall be required to operate a truck with the cab designed to fit under the trailer"......

In response to the Strick cab-under........Language is still in the contract.

Way back when we had leadership with common sense and not beholden to management..........
Click to expand...

union 'leadership' is not beholden to management, it is criminals and Marxist. The AFL CIO and many union leaders are card carrying Marxists. They hate capitalism and endorse the Cuban/Venezuelan method of conducting commerce.
They must be so pleases at their handiwork in Portland & Seattle...
It has done wonders for teamster membership in the LTL industry...
 
Puff Driver said:
union 'leadership' is not beholden to management, it is criminals and Marxist. The AFL CIO and many union leaders are card carrying Marxists. They hate capitalism and endorse the Cuban/Venezuelan method of conducting commerce.
They must be so pleases at their handiwork in Portland & Seattle...
It has done wonders for teamster membership in the LTL industry...
Click to expand...
**** off troll
 
Puff Driver said:
union 'leadership' is not beholden to management, it is criminals and Marxist. The AFL CIO and many union leaders are card carrying Marxists. They hate capitalism and endorse the Cuban/Venezuelan method of conducting commerce.
They must be so pleases at their handiwork in Portland & Seattle...
It has done wonders for teamster membership in the LTL industry...
Click to expand...

What was that old TV commercial?
Oh...yeah...

"A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste..."
 
BIG R GUY said:
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/arcbest-reports-lower-q2-midyear-earnings-because-covid-19
All things considered, in my opinion they weathered the second quarter as best as they could.
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Very interesting article. Ms. McReynolds said the "one bright spot" was the e-commerce business, in which residential deliveries were up 12% the first quarter,...and 39% the second quarter...
Ms. McReynolds:
"We have had to get comfortable going into neighborhoods and the requirements to delivering to a home....."

Ms. McReynolds says ABF has a competitive advantage,....since the company recognized the rise of computer-based home deliveries way back in 1997.....

I would have to say that.....as much as we may not like it,......Home deliveries will end up driving our industry,.....especially as brick-and-mortar disappear.
And,.....Being Union is a great advantage. As a former Steward,...I was on many private home deliveries. I was able to "call the shots",...as it were..... on what was safe,..what was needed to be safe..and to set the parameters where the DRIVER could make the call per stop,......as the DRIVER was the "boots on the ground".....not someone in an office 50 miles away.

This don't happen at non-Union shops, believe me........The rules there are: "Hunker down, ignore problems, do it as fast as you can,.....and hope there's no liability invoked....." Makes the dispatcher happy.......

Stewards need more training from the Union,....on what a "safe" private home delivery is......What is required for safe handling, what PPE is required to reduce liability to the Customer....AND the DRIVER.

Personally,...I see the rise of many, many legal problems if a customer who had a home delivery hears that the DRIVER who did the delivery.....tested positive. Conversely,.....I see many, many problems if the DRIVER hears the home he was ordered to deliver to.....had Coronavirus in it......Worker's Compensation, for beginners...........

PPE is Critical.........Even more so...the DRIVER'S DISCRETION is even more Critical..........

Yes,.....Private home deliveries will be vital to ABF's future,.....Can't help that guys,...inevitable......
But,....the smartest thing ABF AND the Teamsters could do,....is work together to establish safe private home deliveries......from a DRIVER'S viewpoint.

Much to the disgust of some of my guys I represented,........I fought for refrigerator dollies, four-wheeled carts, furniture blankets, shoe covers, latex gloves,.........If we were going to deliver homes,...By God, we were going to....Do It Right.

Now add PPE,.....and training to prevent the driver getting hurt without the proper equipment,....AND the ability for the DRIVER to "call the shots"....even if it means more than one driver to do it safely.......

And the backing of the Union,...if the Driver has an argument with the.....customer. We all know that they are never...."unreasonable".....
 
canaryinthemine said:
Very interesting article. Ms. McReynolds said the "one bright spot" was the e-commerce business, in which residential deliveries were up 12% the first quarter,...and 39% the second quarter...
Ms. McReynolds:
"We have had to get comfortable going into neighborhoods and the requirements to delivering to a home....."

Ms. McReynolds says ABF has a competitive advantage,....since the company recognized the rise of computer-based home deliveries way back in 1997.....

I would have to say that.....as much as we may not like it,......Home deliveries will end up driving our industry,.....especially as brick-and-mortar disappear.
And,.....Being Union is a great advantage. As a former Steward,...I was on many private home deliveries. I was able to "call the shots",...as it were..... on what was safe,..what was needed to be safe..and to set the parameters where the DRIVER could make the call per stop,......as the DRIVER was the "boots on the ground".....not someone in an office 50 miles away.

This don't happen at non-Union shops, believe me........The rules there are: "Hunker down, ignore problems, do it as fast as you can,.....and hope there's no liability invoked....." Makes the dispatcher happy.......

Stewards need more training from the Union,....on what a "safe" private home delivery is......What is required for safe handling, what PPE is required to reduce liability to the Customer....AND the DRIVER.

Personally,...I see the rise of many, many legal problems if a customer who had a home delivery hears that the DRIVER who did the delivery.....tested positive. Conversely,.....I see many, many problems if the DRIVER hears the home he was ordered to deliver to.....had Coronavirus in it......Worker's Compensation, for beginners...........

PPE is Critical.........Even more so...the DRIVER'S DISCRETION is even more Critical..........

Yes,.....Private home deliveries will be vital to ABF's future,.....Can't help that guys,...inevitable......
But,....the smartest thing ABF AND the Teamsters could do,....is work together to establish safe private home deliveries......from a DRIVER'S viewpoint.

Much to the disgust of some of my guys I represented,........I fought for refrigerator dollies, four-wheeled carts, furniture blankets, shoe covers, latex gloves,.........If we were going to deliver homes,...By God, we were going to....Do It Right.

Now add PPE,.....and training to prevent the driver getting hurt without the proper equipment,....AND the ability for the DRIVER to "call the shots"....even if it means more than one driver to do it safely.......

And the backing of the Union,...if the Driver has an argument with the.....customer. We all know that they are never...."unreasonable".....
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The future of the company is dependent on adapting to change & customer demands. Ultimately the customer pays our wages/pensions.
 
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