How will Ford changes affect you?

**greg334** · 01-23-2006, 02:58 PM

As many expediting companies depend on auto freight as their exclusive means of revenue, Ford will announce in a matter of minutes of this post the plants that will be closing and some of these plants will affect those companies greatly.

As it goes in the US auto industry, who has suffered throughout the last 45 years, plant closings and changes, the real winners are â€¦ well no one. Everyone will feel the effects of some of these plants being shut down. Some, like Louisville, Lorain, Wixom, and others are rather large operations and depend on expediting as part of the JIT formula.

It is not about a single plant closing, it is about the negative impact to a lot of people that should be a concern. In order for many to understand this impact, you have to look at the suppliers of the plants, not only Visteon, but the little shops with 50 or so people who depend on Ford to buy that bracket and the expediter who brings those brackets to the plant.

So for those who are dependent on automotive freight, how do you think it will affect you?

**RichM** · 01-23-2006, 02:58 PM

In one way or another it will affect us all.Assume 500 Expedite loads every day are dedicated to the Ford and GM locations plus their suppliers, the companies that presently are satisfied with this freight will go looking elsewhere.
In many cases the smaller companies have less overhead than the larger ones and subsequently can chip away at the larger carriers customers with lower rates and discounts.
So the Expedite pie shrinks some more and this industry along with many others suffers. I was listening to a program earlier in where the UAW was getting the blame. Yes they have obtained tremendous benefits and salries for their members, but Ford and GM management did not have to go along with their demands. Blame exists on both sides.

guest · 01-23-2006, 05:52 PM

As a former employee benefits attorney I can tell you that one of the nails in the coffin of the automotive industry is the back loaded benefits the unions negotiated for its members. By back loaded I mean the unions negotiated great pension and retiree health benefits, with the auto companies not realizing the actual cost of these benefits, particularly health care coverage. They made the promises and keeping the promises is going to bury them. It's a tough situation--they either walk away from promises to a lot of former employees or they keep the promises and profitability becomes impossible.

Dull cars that fall apart don't help things either.

I feel for all of the hard working Ford and subcontractor employees that will be impacted by this, as well as us, of course.

The airlines are getting hit by the same employee benefits liability issues. Old promises that are very expensive to keep.

**Lawrence** · 01-23-2006, 06:04 PM

Let me very frank here.

Does buy American make a difference? Just ask these guys who are losing their jobs today.

Lawrence,
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**Broompilot** · 01-23-2006, 06:29 PM

Times are changing, luckily Automotive is not the bigges % customer all those industries took advantage as a fix to there problems no air shipments overnight, Expedite.

Ford has done nothing but an excellent job at its auto line up, the Mustang GT is the shaprest affordable car in the market today.

Almost everything in their line up is a head turner.

**davekc** · 01-23-2006, 06:37 PM

Buying American is the exact issue along with supply and demand. For expediting, it is primarily a change in customers. Instead of hauling for Ford, it has now shifted to Toyota,Nissan, and other foriegn automakers.
The ones that are exclusive to the big three better finds a means to diversify. The ones that don't likely won't be around in the future.

There will be certainly alot of challenges ahead for the autoworkers and others supported by these plants.

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**Lawrence** · 01-23-2006, 07:08 PM

Dave,

The problem with hauling for Toyota and Honda is that they build their main components (transmissions, engines) in Asia.

They "assemble" them in North America to by-pass duty fees. They then promote their cars as "American Made" - when in fact they are only assembled here.

They do have some US/Canadian components like door knobs and simple trim items - hardly American made IMHO.

Lawrence,
Expediters Online.com

T.V. - Why do you think they call it programming?

No, YOU suck. - the mean people

"Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States." - J. Bartlett Brebner

Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. - I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.

Become who you are. - Nietzsche

Whoever coined the phrase "Quiet as a mouse" has never stepped on one.

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**davekc** · 01-23-2006, 07:14 PM

Sad but true. Seems to be following the path American electronics took several years back.

Davekc
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**Broompilot** · 01-23-2006, 07:29 PM

I ask this--- Are we gona take a stand or just keep buying at Walmart? I hate this companies philsophy but Americans can't even stay away at 2AM there putting grocery stores under IGA Spartan to name a few, camera stores, film processing, hair salons, now they want a piece of the banking industry, I believe insurance is next.

Where do we shop?

**bryan** · 01-23-2006, 08:05 PM

HI
Goverment subsidized health care would save GM $2500.00 per car built.Thats alot of money that they can't put towards Research and Development.So they can't compete with foriegn cars because those companies get supplemented health benefits.So they can spent $2500.00 per car built on R&D.
This country is either going to have to catch up or all the jobs that can be done somewhere else will. Jobs such as ours that can't be done somewhere else will be filled by immigants.This has been going on for years.
The goverment helps the people who don't work by giving them the benefits purchased with the working classes tax dollars.I have to wonder what their going to do when there is no more working class in this country.
I sure am glad we are at war with a small group of terriorist because if we had a major war with China or Japan we would have to buy black market weapons from South American gun runners.
As for the original question of will Ford closures hurt us? Yes its going to hurt the whole counties economy.Kind of like the late 70's and early 80's when gas was in short supply and so were jobs.WE had a trillion dollar deficit and not enough tax payers to cover it.People fresh out of college were having to work at McDonalds.De.ja vu!

**sixwheeler** · 01-23-2006, 08:24 PM

Let me ask you this, given the choice, all things being equal, miles, pay etc., where wouild you rather deliver, to a nissan or toyota plant or to a plant where the people you will have to deal with are uaw? Maybe its just me but I cant help but feel like they ve brought a little bit of this on themselves. The arrogance of those guys has infuriated the **** out of me more than a few times. They re just gonna have to roll with the punches, like everybody else.

If they sold cars that were more reasonably priced that regular people could afford, that also lasted longer than the payments do, maybe they wouldnt be in this situation.

As far as how it affects the expediting business, well at least to me personally, if I was dependant solely, or to a fairly large degree, for my income, on uaw plants, I'd rather work at mcdonalds.

**highway star** · 01-23-2006, 10:02 PM

The same number of cars will be built after these plants close. There will be plants that are now running 2 shifts that will go to 3 to compensate. So should'nt that mean parts will still be needed?

As Friscomike says, they are in a mess. One of their own making. The Big 3 made their bed when they began just giving in to the UAW. The money flowed, bathtubs were filled with champagne, "Let them eat cake!" In the 60's they thought the status quo would be eternal. I preface this next by saying that with the exception of 2 VW Beetles when I was a teen, all my vehicles have been Big 3.

The formidable competition from the Japenese brought on the "Be American, Buy American" canpaign. Since our products are'nt a good value, we'll make people feel like crap if they don't buy them. You can feel very patriotic when you're driving your American made car to the dealerships service department.

To their credit, the product is much better than 30 years ago. But given the extent of their problems, it could be too little too late. With some foresight things could have been better.

**LDB** · 01-23-2006, 10:27 PM

The government needs to collect the same duties on the assembled in America foreign cars as the assembled outside the U.S. foreign cars. We need to do what it takes to keep the American jobs stable. That said, the companies need to stand up to the unions and if they want to quit then let them. There are plenty of people who will do the job for the substantial wages paid without giving even more to the greedy union members. I fully understand the position as I want $5.48 per mile for all miles however I don't expect it and the unions need to quit expecting an equally excessive compensation. The company execs are to blame for being greedy and padding their pockets at the same time they are conceding to the unions. The unions are to blame for failing to accept well above average compensation and continually demanding more.

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**greg334** · 01-23-2006, 10:37 PM

WOW a great bunch of answers to my rhetorical question.

I do have something else to say. Actually I have a response to Highwaystar.

Look I think that quality did improve a bit but not much and being frank, since the selling point for the Japanese was quality when they hit our shores but they have actually let their quality slip quite a bit since they have established themselves here in NA. Honda and Toyota have recalls, something unheard of in the 70â€™s/80s and no longer worried about losing face with the customer base in the NA market.

But I have an example about quality. I have a caravan that has 99000 miles on it and to say that is a better quality car (van) in comparison to my 1974 Duster is not really true. The Duster when I sold it drove better, less rust, didnâ€™t burn oil and the A/C worked, having over 140K on the OD. My caravan needs a new front end, I had to replace the rotors on it three times, the A/C has been repaired three times and no longer works and it is starting to burn oil.

So to add to this, for me fit and finish is critical then as it is now and the Duster still had better fit and finish than the caravan. The paint was clear, not the float glass reflection (distorted reflection like looking through float glass with air bubbles) as many have to day (have any of you really looked at a new car and its finish, yuk!) and the trim was properly applied, and emblems were not skewed but square. Yea it rusted out a little faster than most cars today, but I didnâ€™t have that problem until I was ready to get rid of it.

As for Ford and GM, I wonâ€™t buy their product until they take the customer seriously and straighten up their dealers and stop the employee discount advertising. Oh copying otherâ€™s car designs would help too. Fusion looks like a Cadillac and most look like Mercedes, Why?

Today I hear that I could lease a jeep for $99 a month, great a new car in the drive? Maybe until we got to the dealer and was told that this special was only for D-C employees. I put up with this crap all my life and had it rub in our face about employee discountsn.

Also D-C is a foreign car company just like Toyota, Honda, BMW and all the others, no such thing as the big three any more.

**RichM** · 01-23-2006, 11:55 PM

Back in the 80's i worked for a French Company and used to go over there about 6 times a year. One time I was there and trade discussions were going on with the Japanese. The japanese wanted to sell Toyota's and Datsuns ( which is what they were called before Nissan took them over) in France .
The French Trade guys said "Ok but we want equal opportunity to sell our Renaults and Citroens in Japan." the Japanese delegation had a fit and basically said" Your cars will not adapt to our roads ,our fuel etc".

Then the French guys got up,laughed,told them to urinate up a rope and walked out. To this day you see very little Japanese or Korean automobiles in France. Our Government could take a lesson here,just last week I heard the China is now producing an automobile and plans to sell 200,000 here. If our Congressional reps came from the trenches vs the golden spoons maybe things would be different.

For the record I own a 2005 Chevy Mailbu and a 1997 Ford Escort,both are excellent automobiles.