Oldest Operating Common Carrier Truck Line in the United States?

[greyhounds]

Convicted One

Absolutes are sticky critters. I try to avoid them whenever possible. Anyone with ambition and access to capital can open a trucking business. And in the instances where that person is also a fool, can inflict serious harm onto legitimate operators. To the extent that regulation levels the playing field and shelters legits from  the posers, it CAN serve a valid purpose.

"Anyone with ambition and access to capital can open a trucking business."  You seem to have a problem with that.  How is that different from a landscaping business or a web design business?  Trucking isn't special.  If you're going to restrict competition why would you limit such a restriction to trucking.  After all, anyone with ambition and access to capital can open a landscaping business or a web design business.

It's basic American freedom and opportunity that "Anyone with ambition and access to capital can open a trucking business."  You seem to value protecting the established order over freedom and opportunity for the common people.  I do not like your values.  I find them respressive and repugnant.  Everyone should be able to take their shot at economic opportunity.  And no one should be protected from someone else trying to start a trucking company or anything else legitimate.

That's the USA, but it doesn't seem to be you.  Do you seriously propose that every start up business plan, trucking or otherwise, be reviewed and approved by some government agency?

I do know a guy who started up his one person web design business about five years ago.  He built it up, employing several people as it grew.  He just sold it for $1.25 million.  He'd still be waiting on government approval if things were organized your way.  (His wife has been able to quit a job that she didn't like to spend more time with their children.  That's called opportunity and freedom and you don't seem to like those things one bit.)

Ever hear of Arkansas Freightways?  They were a little outfit down there in copperhead country.  But those Arkansas folks knew what they were doing.  Arkansas Freightways (LTL mainly) just grew and grew under deregulation.  (No government approval for economic growth is required under deregulation.)  Heck Fire, they even changed the name.  They became "American Freightways".  

Then this Memphis outfit known then as Federal Express was looking for a way to get in to the surface LTL market.  So that dang FedEx paid those Arkansas folks $1 billion for American Freightways.

There are a lot of such opportunities.  But you want to quash such opportunities.  I absolutely disagree with you.  And I do know how to use various forms of the word "Absolute" correctly. As in:

"There is absolutely no valid justification for the economic regulation of motor freight."  And you ain't come up with one yet.

[Convicted One]

greyhounds

You said: "I can find no empirical proof that uninsured drivers drive any less safely than insured ones".

Still haven't. all i've gotten  thus far is your say so. And even if you do produce tangible back up, the figues you cite boil down to  "12.5% of the drivers cause 16.7% of the accidents",  such a correlation is hardly a game changer.

 

greyhounds

You've totally changed the issue.

 

You were the one who brought up " predilection to risky behavior will spill over to driving habits.  And to other behaviors such as use of credit."  So who is changing issues?

The requirement that higher risks carry additional coverage being an economic requirement as opposed to a safety measure was the original point, and I still have not seen any proof that the additional coverage makes the impacted drivers "safer".

Nice try at obfuscation, but I'm not biting.

[Convicted One]

greyhounds

you seem to have a problem with that.

 

I don't believe that is what I said. The comment was just a qualifier to establish that the barrier to entry is not  a high one. There are no opportunities I wish to "quash",  I just recognize that  a few motivated fools lacking guidance can turn opportunity into disaster that impacts more than just themselves.

I realize that you are going to believe what you wish to believe, so I sure don't expect to change your  mind about any of this. But I do disagree with your  assertion that  absolutely no valid  economic reasons exist to justify regulation. 

[Convicted One]

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

But again, what do I know......

 

Peace brother, I'm not trying to start an argument. There is no absolute right or wrong answer to the question. It's just a tool to gain insight into a person's way of thinking.