Thursday, May 08, 2008

Build Trucks! Schneider Lowers the Limit

Schneider Trucking just announced that their rigs will be limited to 60 MPH on the highways, to save fuel.

OK.

But imagine the roads as a conveyor belt moving X pounds of goods. If one slows the conveyor belt, the only way to move the same amount of goods in the same time period is to increase the number of carriers moving goods.

Voila! More trucks, more trailers.

6 comments:

capper said...

I believe it is spelled, "Whallah!"
:)

Headless Blogger said...

They'll just drive longer each day. Those log entries are easy to fabricate.

grumps said...

Or you can eliminate choke-points at distribution centers. Or account for the slowing economy and excess capacity. There's a lot of ways to make sure the conveyor moves at a steady capacity

David said...

And don't forget to widden the expressways.

Display Name said...

If they're driving 15% more slowly on average, it doesn't necessarily follow that there will be 15% more trucks on the road. Perhaps the economic slowdown will help them use the same number of trucks as before.

Dad29 said...

John, when Carter imposed the 55mph limit, truck-builders went into overtime, and the business only slowed in the last two years or so.

It's not an iron law, but it's as close as you can get.