Meet the CEO Who Cut Worker Pay in Half While Pulling in $21 Million Last Year

[A HERETIC I AM]

63. On the other hand, think about this;

I haul cars for a living, and have been involved in automobile marketing and movement for most of my adult life. I have hauled literally thousands of Ford products.

I have roughly 17,000 compatriots in the industry, nationwide.


The average American buys a new car ...what? Every ten years? 5? 15? Whatever.

On the Monroney Sticker of each new car the "transportation" charges are listed, plain as day. They can vary from as little as $250 to over $1500, depending on model and manufacturer. It has NOTHING to do with distance from factory to dealer, BTW. There is a dealer right across the street ....literally ... across the street from Ford's Wayne Assembly Plant in Metro Detroit. The shipping charges on the Monroney stickers on that dealers lot on the vehicles made right across the street are the same as a dealer in Anchorage selling the same unit.


Would it make one single iota of a difference to you if that figure on the sticker was $20 higher? Really? For something you buy once a decade?

Guess how much of a difference in MY life and my 17,000 compatriots it would make if we all got $20 per car more than we are getting now.

In my industry, like so many others, the workers are nickel and dimed to death over sums that could EASILY be raised or acquired from other sources.

I make basically the same amount, in non adjusted dollars, as I was making in 1988 when I first started working for Buick Motorsports. The thing is, back then a Motel 6 rarely cost more than $20 a night, most less than $26 and some as low as $15.00 a night. Try and find a Motel 6 for less than $35.00 a night these days.


Ford builds vehicles - The Expedition is a perfect example - with $4000 or more profit built in. If they would simply build cars people want to buy, which they do in Europe, BTW, they could charge almost anything they wanted and pay their employees better.

It is my sincere hope that someday, some dickhead at a major distributer or manufacturer will figure out that the reason the damage rate is so high (around 3% or so, maybe a bit less in the new car segment) in the auto transport industry is because the rates they pay to the transport companies make it so those companies will hire any dipshit to do the job and continue to screw the experienced and competent guy charged with getting your car the final miles to the dealer, the most hazardous miles it travels.