Trucking News: The 'Amazon effect,' take two: Is long haul trucking fading away?

[Mike]

It's called "the Amazon effect," after the e-commerce giant's ability to remake the internet, then industry, and then the world in its own image, and it's been eating away at the long-haul segment of the trucking industry for years. But even as Amazon builds more warehouses and distribution centers, and consultants, tech leaders and some politicians imagine a world with more regional, short haul trucking, the over-the-road segment has stood its ground, Overdrive's reporting finds.

Over the past decade, Overdrive has tracked a decline in the length between pickup and delivery of the average owner-operator's load. With the last update, in 2018, the decrease in miles seemed tied to the growing uptake of electronic logging devices preceding the then-new ELD mandate. Yet the trend has in some ways continued into 2022, with a new survey indicating that, yet again, average length of haul seems to Overdrive readers to be dropping.

Is long-haul fading away? The 'Amazon effect' on trucking

As the e-commerce giant seeks to remake the world -- and trucking -- in its own image, the pandemic has paved the way for length-of-haul counter-trends. Long-haul isn't a dinosaur just yet.

www.overdriveonline.com

 

[Electric Chicken]

It's coming full circle. Decades ago it was day cabs and regional runs. Then sleepers came about and warehouses got bigger to consolidate storage.

Now even Amazon has tiny ones tucked away in places you wouldn't expect.

HOWEVER....

Amazon sent an email out saying they'll be opening up more solo long haul routes. It's been mostly team in the past.

 

[Rigjockey]

It has been a long time coming. A return to the old spoke and wheel way of transport.
How to do it was the missing link. Tech is filling that link.
New drivers and older drivers don't want to be out weeks at a time.
Larger companies have been able to break up runs into switches/relays.
Tech will allow smaller companies to do the same.

 

[Mike]

I haven’t seen any reduction in long haul runs.

 

[Electric Chicken]

I haven’t seen any reduction in long haul runs.

It's not like it happens overnight to a single truck.

It's more of a trend a fleet would see. The bigger the fleet the more in tune to trends.

 

[Mike]

It's not like it happens overnight to a single truck.

It's more of a trend a fleet would see. The bigger the fleet the more in tune to trends.

I get it.

and I have been hearing the story for 30 years now. Long haul trucking has been becoming a thing of the past since I started driving.

The big fleets have regionalized it, moving it terminal to terminal as much as possible, but like it has always been, the big fleets only account for a very small percentage of the industry.

 

[Electric Chicken]

I get it.

and I have been hearing the story for 30 years now. Long haul trucking has been becoming a thing of the past since I started driving.

The big fleets have regionalized it, moving it terminal to terminal as much as possible, but like it has always been, the big fleets only account for a very small percentage of the industry.

If you think about it, everyone in the industry has been saying everything since the beginning of the industry.

Trucks too complex.
Fuel too expensive.
Trucks too expensive.
Brokers bad.
Brokers take too much.
Shippers take forever.
Too much government.
@Rigjockey is a legend.
Wakefern sucks.

Nothing changes.

 

[389 Hood]

A legend in his own mind!

 

[Electric Chicken]

A legend in his own mind!

Every time he gets in his truck at the beginning of his shift he has two people standing there to remove his glitter cape and one in the passenger seat at all times to wipe his brow and hand him water.

 

[AK7]

If you think about it, everyone in the industry has been saying everything since the beginning of the industry.

Trucks too complex.
Fuel too expensive.
Trucks too expensive.
Brokers bad.
Brokers take too much.
Shippers take forever.
Too much government.
@Rigjockey is a legend.
Wakefern sucks.

Nothing changes.

Your not wrong about Wakefern.
Back in the early '80s I delivered box meat direct to the stores.
8 to 12 stores and final out at King Kullen on Long Island.
They sucked back then too.

 

[mndriver]

So long as shit like this has to come from a boat off the gulf or coast and go to someplace in the interior states, in this case ‘why not minot” ND,

Long haul truckin’ will never die.

Point of origin was Japan.