Paging In the Wind and anyone else who has trucker experience.

[Baitball Blogger]

I had a passing conversation with someone in the trucking business who said that Florida is a state that imports more than it exports. In the trucking business, they have a name for this. Unfortunately I don't have contact information for the person who told me this, and I can't recall the term she gave me.

Any one have any idea what that term might be?

[pinboy3niner]

1. You mean 'deadheading' (when a truck has to return empty)?

[Baitball Blogger]

3. I might be able to use that one.

Thanks. But I don't think that's the term I was looking for.

[NJCher]

2. pm tobin s

He'll help you; he's a trucker with a bachelor's degree.



Cher

[In_The_Wind]

4. My guess would be dead heading.

Dead head - to pull an empty trailer, which rarely pays. Drivers say, "I've got a load of dispatcher's brains!" or "got me a load of flying canaries!" (they weigh nothing.) A load of "postholes" also describes an empty trailer.

http://www.chickenhaulin.com/lingo.htm

It's usually bad for the truck driver's paycheck.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Thanks ITW!

Appreciate the info!

[DebJ]

24. I heard the term bobtailing, but I think that means no trailer attached

to a tractor, right? And I heard it is often ultimately deadly for the kidneys, because you bounce so much.

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. Yes, bobtailing is driving a tractor with no trailer.

It is a much rougher ride but most tractors are air ride suspension these days so it's not as bad as it used to be.

It is inherently more dangerous however as there is so little weight on the drive wheels

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. I have been a trucker for almost 30 years ...Edited to remove extra beef cattle!

And I have no idea what the term is you are looking for. Net importer?

Whether Florida imports more than exports is a question. There is a huge fruit and vegetable industry in Florida as well as beef cattle.



Oopsie! The previous screw up was because I was using the voice feature on my iPhone to post.

[pinboy3niner]

6. OMG, dude! You said 'beef cattle' 3 times!

That's like repeating 'Bloody Mary.'

Watch your back!

[KamaAina]

7. Or 'Beetlejuice'!

[pinboy3niner]

9. Come Mr. Tally Man, tally me bananas

Day-O! Day-ay-ay-O!

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. Well, that's what I get for trying to use the voice feature to post!

No texting while driving and all, but I can talk to my phone!

Chalk that up to......fuck up.

[pinboy3niner]

17. :) Hay, we know how the subject of cows can make you MAD

Have a good steer home, and hope you're not deadheading.

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Hauling mail at the moment. Very few empty miles doing this!

I have the pleasure, distinct or otherwise, of working a team operation at the moment, moving Florida bound mail from Detroit to north of Chattanooga where we meet the northbound, Florida originating truck and swap trailers.

All this and on my birthday too! Yay!

[pinboy3niner]

19. Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, A HERETIC I AM!

I hope you'll have an opportunity to celebrate after this run.

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Does a couple beers and a few shots of bourbon count?

I'll probably go find a slice of Prime Rib somewhere. Should be done and back at the hotel by 8:30 AM.....my 5 o-clock!

[In_The_Wind]

10. I keep hearing truckers talking about how much they love "bird freight".

[pinboy3niner]

11. I'm guessing there are other choice terms for it, too

It must suck to have to return home without a paid load, especially on a long trip.

I met some truckers when I worked for NTSB a long time ago. Even had some phone conversations with the longtime director of ATA, and one trucker souvenired me a model tractor-trailer rig.

[In_The_Wind]

13. A trucker's life is a hard one. They fight for every penny they earn.

Some of the stories I've heard brought tears to my eyes.

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. I spent 10 years as a car hauler and put many empty miles on.

Particularly with firms that haul exclusively new units. Most firms try and have contracts such that you can load at several assembly plants or rail yards or ports. There is a certain amount of empty miles in every segment of the industry, however. Probably the most prevalent is in the heavy/oversize market.

Deliver a wind turbine blade to the wilds of west Texas and you can be assured of driving quite a ways before you put another one on.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Bird freight?

If you mean an empty trailer, I've heard it called a number of different things over the years;

Sailboat fuel
Dispatcher brains
My wagon is empty!

[pinboy3niner]

22. Dispatcher brains?

[trof]

12. Deadheading originated with railroads.

Deadheading is a term used in the American railroad industry when a crew is transported from one terminal to another, or needs to be transported to pick up a train.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_mileage#Deadheading

It carried over to the airline industry.
Many times I deadheaded from one airport to another in order to pick up a flight.

[hay rick]

21. Heard a lot about Florida's import/export imbalance with trains.

All Aboard Florida is a big issue in my area (Treasure Coast- north of Palm Beach). The issue is that a Fortress Investment subsidiary (FEC) is trying to get taxpayer-subsidized loans to upgrade their tracks for an intercity passenger service. There hasn't been a profitable intercity passenger rail service in this country since the Penn Central bankruptcy ca. 1970. The passenger service is widely viewed as a ploy to get cheap financing to expand the profitable rail freight subsidiary. One thing that has come out of the debate is that many of the cars headed North are sent up empty for "repositioning." Florida has a lot of consumers and not much manufacturing- so the imbalance makes sense.

[denbot]

23. Both California and Florida are know as "dry" or "dead" when it comes to loading out.

At least that is what my boss calls it. It is easier to load out here in the Los Angeles area on Friday's, Monday's are harder, and mid-week is the most difficult time to find a load.

Lots of freight heads to Florida, but getting a load out in a timely fashion can be difficult, our guys often deadhead to a place just over the South Carolina line. I was just there in the Tampa area, but only had to head north west to Henry in the Hills FL to grab a load of orange juice for Chicago area Trader Joe's.

[KMOD]

25. I have nothing of value to add.

I just like In the Wind, and I have an urge to say 10-4 Rubber Duckie.

I remember as a kid, we would sit on the porch, and when a tractor trailer would pass, we would do that thing where you simulate tugging something with your right arm to see if you can get them to blow their horn.

[pinboy3niner]

26. +1

On road trips as a kid we'd always signal truckers to honk for us.

And by the railroad tracks we'd holler "Chalk!" at passing trains and the crew would toss us the thick chalk they used to mark boxcars.

[jmowreader]

27. The term is "freight imbalance"

"Deadhead" is pulling an empty trailer and "bobtail" is running without one, but the reason you do it is freight imbalance.

Here's the real travesty with Florida: the shippers know how serious the freight imbalance is, and they take advantage of both it and every guy whose shoes smell like diesel in the whole fucking state. When I was working Hurricane Andrew relief I would talk to the ice truck drivers...they LOVED hauling for FEMA because it was the first time in years any of them made a profit in Florida. Flat out: you DO NOT go to Florida unless you're either a company driver or you're on a flat-rate pay plan that covers empty mileage, because the odds of coming out of that rathole with a profitable load are lower than the odds of finding a Republican who isn't taking money from the Koch brothers.

[Baitball Blogger]

29. Good info here.

The trucker I spoke with was a company trucker.

Makes you wonder why Florida has allowed itself to sit back and rely on an economy based on entertainment, recreation and human service. Lord knows with all our beachline, someone should have come up with other ideas. I guess our waters are too shallow to support a vibrant fishing industry.

[CanSocDem]

30. There ya go....

...the right answer, finally.

"...lower than the odds of finding a Republican who isn't taking money from the Koch brothers" which is an appropriate truth behind another euphemism for "empty trailer" that was popular in the 70's: "A load of honest politicians"


.

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. Not sure I agree with all of that.

I cut my teeth in this business in the city of Miami, drove my first tractor trailer in Dade county in 1978, the year after I graduated HS. Hauling "Piggybacks" and containers, bumping docks up to 30 times a day.

Granted, Florida does not have any "Heavy Industry" like Ohio or Michigan - no steel plants or automotive assembly, but there are paper mills and of course, as I said above, lots of ag.

So if you're a reefer hauler, getting a load of produce out of the state, particularly in the winter (a huge amount of the winter tomatoes are grown in Florida) not to mention citrus, you can usually get a load out. I do grant you it isn't like Chicago or New England.

One of the biggest industries is aggregates and other minerals, but they mostly flow out of state on the rails.

Of the 3 main ports: Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville, only Jax has autos currently coming in and they are distributed all over the SE. Miami is a huge container port (well...comparitively, anyway) as well as Jacksonville. Tampa has some container freight but is mostly dry bulk (the aforementioned aggregates/minerals) and fuels. Most of the states gasoline, Diesel and other fuels comes into Tampa. Look at Google maps of the port of Tampa and you'll see the tank farms.

There is certainly no argument to the fact that this state, and I am a "Florida Man!" (I don't take the regular insults dished out on this board at all seriously) relies heavily on tourism. There is no state income tax in Florida, one of only 7 such states, and one of the main reasons for this is tourism. The Orlando area has a "Bed Tax", which along with normal state sales tax, brings a nights stay in Orlando to a tax rate of 12% I believe.

Your statement about how shippers may gouge drivers and companies looking for outbound freight is well taken. My first OTR gig in 1987 was with a company based in Ft. Lauderdale. In those days, the national going rate per mile to the driver was about $.25/per mile. I started at a whopping twelve cents a mile! Yup....drive 1000 miles, make $120!

Jmow, I have been contemplating putting together a "Truckers Glossary" type thread for quite a while, to include information to dispel misconceptions about the industry. Would you be willing to collaborate? All credit to the participants, of course. I thought maybe a "Calling all DU Truckers' thread could get it rolling.

Interested?

[jmowreader]

32. Sure. Sounds fun.

If I was planning to run the Southeast with my own rig (either as an independent or contracted to a trucking line), I would own a reefer - for exactly the reason you stated.