#truckers #trucking #RestForTruckers
Truck drivers are expected to rest after so many hours behind the wheel.
And in and around some big cities, where a big chunk of their deliveries and pickups take place, there are few places to park and take a break.
This causes drivers to waste time behind the wheel looking for a stopping place.
David Wickert, a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discussed this issue as it pertains to Atlanta in the Sept. 18, 2017, edition.
Driving a truck can be grueling. So, any wasted time behind the wheel exacerbates the problem.
“That’s trucks that are driving more than an hour for essentially no reason (looking for a place to rest),” Wickert quotes Daniel Studdard, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s freight planner.
So why not build more private truck stops? Local residents may balk, objecting to the noise and other nuisances linked to truck stops, Wickert writes.
Freight traffic in Atlanta is expected to rise 76 percent in coming decades, Wickert writes, so a solution to the problem is a necessity.
Or is it? Let’s examine the problem. As long as humans are driving trucks, rest periods will be required. But what if the trucks become driverless in the coming decades?
Anyone who drives for a living, be it a truck, bus, cab, ride-sharing vehicle etc., has to be concerned that their jobs could disappear over time.
The driverless vehicles have yet to be perfected – a fatal accident involving a driverless vehicle occurred recently — but there are lots of companies, Google among them, working on them.
First, it will be driverless cars. Then, who knows what vehicles will become driverless.
Remember, it’s the human drivers who have to rest, not the vehicles.
Who knows how long it will take for driverless trucks to be the most common delivery vehicles?
If you drive for a living now, and want to prepare for the day when your truck, or whatever you drive, will be driven by a computer, you should consider a Plan B – something that will give you an income when your windshield time goes away. There are many such income-producing vehicles out there. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, there will be a temporary problem for human drivers around big cities. In Atlanta, Wickert quotes an ARC survey, eight counties around Atlanta have no private parking for truckers. Parking along the side of the highway is prohibited, not to mention unsafe. Some truckers have resorted to that, Wickert writes. Or, they park on private property without permission.
When Willy Seals, 70, parked his rig at a Home Depot parking lot, it was booted, Wickert writes. It cost Seals $250 to get the boot removed.
So Atlanta, and undoubtedly other metropolitan areas, is struggling with this problem. How temporary it will be will depend on the technology.
Meanwhile, not only will there be little rest for the weary, but also a lot of wasted road time and fuel, not to mention the increased possibility of accidents etc.
The drive to make driverless trucks, therefore, becomes a potential nightmare for all those fatigued drivers.
Peter
Monthly Archives: March 2018
‘GIGGERS’ AND THE YOU ECONOMY
#giggers #SelfEmployed #SoloPractitioners #NonEmployerEstablishments
South Florida is loaded with “giggers.”
Atlanta, Dallas, Washington and Boston have also seen a surge.
What are “giggers?” They are one-person shops or, in bureaucratic parlance, “non-employer establishments.”
“Between 1997 and 2015, the number of non-employer establishments – that is, self-employed, freelance workers and independent contractors that aren’t often counted in traditional government measures of job growth – in the Miami area rose 142 percent,” writes Nancy Dahlberg in an article for the Miami Herald. The article was also published Dec. 25, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That growth is more than twice the national average of 58.6 percent, Dahlberg writes. The other metro areas showing growth behind Miami include Atlanta (126 percent), Dallas (95 percent), Washington, D.C. (78 percent) and Boston (31 percent), according to the article.
This trend shows that people with imagination and a marketable skill who want to work, but don’t want to be employed or are having trouble finding a traditional W-2 job, are using their skill and imagination to help others, while earning money.
The article also quotes a 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report that found about 27 percent of working-age people in the U.S. and Europe engage at least partially in independent work. It also quotes a 2016 study by the Minneapolis Fed that found the engagement at 37 percent in the U.S. alone, and government estimates show that rate could rise to 40 percent by 2020.
The 2008 recession has had lots of effects on lots of people. Some chose to continue to look for new jobs, with varied success. One should consider himself or herself incredibly fortunate if he or she had lost a good job, but subsequently found a better one. For many, if they have found new work at all, it pays less than they were making before. Therefore, a lifestyle adjustment became necessary.
But suppose you have some imagination, but don’t have a really marketable skill that you can peddle on your own? Or, what if the skills that you have are difficult, if not impossible, to ply in an independent setting?
Fortunately, there are many ways out there that you can earn a potentially significant income – perhaps even more than you’d ever earned before – without having a W-2 job or any specific skill or background. To check out one of the best, message me.
Most of us dream of working until a certain age, then perhaps concentrating on a favorite hobby or hobbies to occupy our time after working. For some, retirement came before they wanted, or were ready, and they are using their hobbies or skills as a solo practitioner.
For some, a lifestyle adjustment was required. Many of us dream of the time when we make a lifestyle adjustment only for the better.
We are moving toward a more “you economy,” in which you call your own shots, you solve your own economic problems and you advance your lifestyle.
What if you could do all those things, and help others do the same?
What if the “you economy” were not forced upon you by necessity, but presented to you as a gift?
What if that bad situation – a job loss – became the best thing that ever happened to you?
To borrow from John Lennon, you may say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.
Peter
HOUSING MYTHS
#housing #LowIncomeHousing #poverty #gentrification
There are three myths in the housing market.
First, gentrification has as much to do with morals as with economics. Second, there is more poverty in cities than suburbs. Third, having low-income housing in one’s community reduces property values.
Darcel Rockett discussed these myths in an article for the Chicago Tribune, that was also published Dec. 18, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Since the term gentrification has many connotations, we won’t spend a lot of time discussing it. Suffice it to say, “We need to take the depth of ethical and moral disgust out of the name gentrifier, so that we can get people together and say this is something that we are a part of, but it’s also something bigger than us …. So how do we move forward?” Rockett quotes John Joe Schlichtman, an associate professor of sociology at DePaul University.
But let’s dive deeper into the other two. Poverty exists everywhere. It’s not an urban problem, suburban problem or a rural problem. Especially since the 2008 recession, you have many people who were once considered “middle class” suddenly without a job, or, suddenly losing their homes.
For some, one or both of those events can create instant poverty, regardless of where one lives.
Secondly, there are many people moving from the suburbs to the cities, essentially gentrifying some urban neighborhoods.
“The number of poor persons in suburban Chicago eclipsed the number in the City of Chicago in the last decade, and there are no signs of this trend reversing anytime soon,” Rockett quotes Scott Allard, a professor at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.
That brings us to low-income housing’s effect on housing prices. Rockett quotes a 2016 Stanford Graduate School of Business analysis that reviewed low-income developments nationwide, funded by the low-income housing tax credit program. The impact of that housing on surrounding property values varied based on neighborhoods’ economic state and the number of minority residents, Rockett quotes the study.
“What the study finds is that the effects of putting one of these (low-income housing developments) in a neighborhood depends on the pre-existing conditions in that neighborhood,” Rockett quotes Anthony DeFusco, assistant professor of finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
What all of this tells us is that housing – just one segment of the overall economy – cannot be stereotyped. “Instead of building housing and targeting it” to people with income below a certain level, “if you just build more housing, and housing was more plentiful overall, prices in general would be lower and would be more affordable for everyone,” Rockett quotes DeFusco.
Are you living where you want to be living? If not, is it because of finances? Perhaps you need to look at ways to make more money that doesn’t involve a second W-2 job. There are many ways out there to earn extra money – perhaps even surpass the income from your primary job – by spending a few part-time, off-work hours a week. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
As the article intimates, it doesn’t matter how you label housing. Housing comes in all types and price ranges. You should be able to choose the housing, and location, that’s right for you. The more housing options available, the more affordable all housing becomes.
So, here’s hoping you are living where you want, in a place just right for you. Remember, too, that a house is a house. A home is created by the people living in it.
Peter
WORK UNTIL YOU ARE 70? REALLY?
#SuzeOrman #WorkUntilAge70 #retirement
Suze Orman has made a fine career of giving retirement and other financial advice.
But when she advises people to work until age 70, Wes Moss, who writes the Money Matters column in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and also has a radio show of the same name on WSB AM, begs to differ.
Moss discussed the matter in a Nov. 7, 2017, column.
Certainly, medical advances and the like have made living longer possible. Some folks may even enjoy their work to the point of never thinking about giving it up. Others may believe that the longer they are able to keep working, the better off they will be financially.
Moss points out that the latter is pretty much Orman’s philosophy. He quotes an old joke in financial circles: “How do you never run out of money for retirement? Work until you die,” Moss writes.
In Moss’ mind, perhaps the most important reason for not setting 70 as a retirement age is that “you may lose the sweet spot of your retirement – the years when you are healthy and active enough to live out your post-career dreams to the fullest,” he writes.
Certainly, the Social Security Administration has inched up the “full retirement” age to 67 from 65, where it was for decades. But Moss points to a Bloomberg News article that says Americans are retiring later, dying sooner and are sicker in between.
Here’s something else Moss points out: companies largely do not want older workers around. Younger workers are generally cheaper. So, even as workers approach middle age, they become vulnerable to being forced out of their jobs for one reason or another.
If you are among those who are nearing retirement, and don’t have lots of money saved, take heart. There are many ways out there you can make money in your spare time, say, a couple hours a week, without taking a second W-2 job, or working overtime (if available) in your first job. To check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
In short, unless you really love your job, think about retiring as soon as you are able. If you can foresee your job going away before you want it to, take measures to soften the blow when it comes. If you do the right things – spend less without depriving yourself, save more money, invest well etc. – you might even be able to walk out of your job with a smile.
As Moss says, you shouldn’t make it a goal to sacrifice the best years of your retirement by working those extra years. And, once you do retire, you shouldn’t waste time sitting at home, and not venturing out of your comfort zone. Have dreams. Fulfill them. Retire with no prejudices, no pretenses and no burdensome obligations.
That isn’t to say that there are some jobs that are so great, you don’t want to give them up unless you have to. But, chances are, no matter how good you are at what you do, eventually your employer is going to want you gone.
If you’re lucky, when your employer wants you gone, he or she will offer you a package to leave. If you get an offer like that, remember that few people who take them ultimately regret that decision. If you are being paid to leave, the message you should hear is that the employer want you out.
So, if you are a Suze Orman devotee, remember that not everyone agrees that one should work until he or she is 70. A better philosophy might be this: when is the SOONEST I can retire? Once you’ve determined that, think about not only how you are going to pull it off financially, but also what you will do with your new-found time.
Work, dream, save and retire.
Peter