ironpony
Professional Pot-Stirrer
In context of how the industry is structured, there is a difference between something like Swift Transportation LLC and Wal-Mart. First, Swift is what we commonly refer to as a megacarrier - a for-hire, common carrier under the definition of the law pertaining to our industry, while the Wal-Mart truck fleet does not carry goods belonging to other shippers than their parent company. They are a private carrier by definition.PRIVATE and MEGA are not acronyms! ,,,,
Walmart is traded on every major stock exchange. That makes it a bonafide Public corporation, not private one. ,,,,,,,,,,
Walmart has a fleet of 7000 tractors and 75,,000 trailers and 10,000 drivers on direct payroll, and 5000 contracted.
If that does not constitute a mega carrier, then Big Bertha is a Danish princess, and not a Russian Comrade.
Second, in terms of size, 7000 power unit may seem to be huge, but in actuality they are just a large outfit when compared to Swift, with over 16000 power units - actually more than that since they morphed with Knight.
You appear to be relatively new to the industry so when we talk about a megacarrier, we're referring to a common carrier with over 10000 power units. There's a reason for this beyond just numerical size. The bureaucratic inertia of a large organization seems to change the culture of a large corporation from something that's a bit more responsive to employees, customers and the public, to a much more impersonal, monolithic beast that treats those it interacts with as their natural fifedom that they are entitled to due to their immense size. I submit that the Wal-Mart private fleet isn't there yet. Yup, they're big, there's no denying that. Being separate from the retail operation, and built around a DC subtructure, has allowed them to maintain a more personable nature in their relationship with their drivers than a very large common carrier. The Swifts of this world reduce drivers to easily replaceable labor units, a "thing," not a person. In my observation, Wal-Mart ain't got there yet.
Swift (Knight-Swift, whatever they are these days) is the definition of a megacarrier, and Wal-Mart isn't in their league of industrial scale abuse of human labor.
