New RPods price increase |
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
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Topic: New RPods price increase Posted: 08 Jan 2022 at 7:55pm |
I recently sold my trailer with a plan to get back into aviation instead. Thought that the trailer sale was great as I made a few $k on it, till I discovered that aircraft have gone up a few $10k's. And now there is a 6 month wait-list for Garmin aviation gps navigators due to the infamous "chip shortage".
Oh well, it's only money. Buy high, sell low, that's my motto. |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2595 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jan 2022 at 6:52am |
Much of the price increases we are seeing can be attributed to the effects of Covid on the international supply chain and how it affected the psychology of those in the domestic labor market. People don't want to work for inadequate pay and are refusing to work in low paying jobs with poor working conditions.
One good example is the trucking industry. There is a critical shortage of drivers, resulting in transport bottlenecks in the movement of supplies. Truckers are now mostly paid by the mile, not by the time on the job. When they wait for a day and a half to hook up a load, they are not making money. When they arrive at a terminal and again have to wait, and wait, and wait to unload, they are working for free. Real truckers' pay has actually declined. If a trucker was paid a 1980 wage in constant 2015 Dollars, s/he'd be making about $110,000 a year instead of the average pay of today at about $50K a year. Until we resolve supply chain and logistics issues, there will be shortages and prices will reflect the law of supply and demand.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jan 2022 at 9:02am |
Also needed to go into that figure are increased fuel costs, increased equipment costs, increased taxes, increased regulations, etc. that make it much more difficult for drivers.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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mjlrpod
Senior Member Joined: 27 Sep 2016 Location: Massachusetts Online Status: Offline Posts: 1215 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jan 2022 at 9:44am |
Personally, I wouldn't buy a new pod, or other brand right now. I've seen on some pod models, they are sending out "unfinished" pods. They are missing some of the what should be standard equipment. I've seen some with no door window, some without the glass door, or some with different windows than normal, and some missing other parts. I'm sure they are just sticking in whatever parts they can get, and not redesigning the fit for the "new" part. I'm sure this is happening industry wide. Once things normalize, these few year models will be a "buyer beware" model.
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2017.5 Rp-172
2020 R-pod 195 2015 Frontier sv 4.0L 6cyl I'll be rpodding |
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2595 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jan 2022 at 10:14am |
What makes it especially difficult for drivers is the fact that transport companies, warehousing companies, shipping terminals, and so on. For example, there are far too many reports claiming that they won't even permit the truckers to use the facilities while they're waiting to pick up cargo or a container. As for regulation, the industry has been substantially deregulated since 1980, which coincides with the decline of wages. Drivers are driving dangerously longer hours and are not getting the rest that was once mandated. Since 2010 there has been a 43% increase in interstate truck accidents according to the National Safety Council.
Long distance truck driving is a miserable job with inhuman hours and working conditions, low pay, and adverse effects on one's health. One trick a friend of mine, who was president of a national moving company, told me about was a situation in which transport companies did rent to own deals with "owner operators." The driver made the payments from his earnings, then as the end of the term was closing in and he was about to be granted title to the truck, the company started giving him less work so he couldn't make the payments. The company claimed a default and took the truck back leaving him with all the money he invested in the $125,000+ truck down the drain. It's no wonder no one wants to work as a long haul driver.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 09 Jan 2022 at 11:34am |
Actually fuel is cheaper now in inflation adjusted dollars than it was in 1980. Vehicles are a bit more but they have many more features and are much more reliable and safer. Fuel taxes fund less and less of our highway maintenace costs over time. It is clear that the 1980 deregulation of the trucking industry was what changed what used to be a good blue collar occupation into yet another starvation wage job, and cheap shipping is what has made the Big Box and later the internet sales corporations rich.
If you look at the state of European society before and after the Black Death of the 1340's you'll notice that the disruption that event caused actually ended up being good for the poor and working class of that period. There was a labor surplus before and a big shortage after. Many people took advantage of that situation to begin a slow climb out of poverty and institutional stagnation, resulting eventually in the Renaissance. Of course the rich and powerful were unhappy because they couldn't get enough ppl to work of starvation wages as they used to, and because their control of society was shaken. That's always how it is. You hear the same kind of thing now from the same folks so maybe this will wind up being a good thing too. I sure hope so. |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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