Matchmakers

Chapter 6

Long Haul

How Balancing Prices Drives Value and Profits

Driving an eighty-foot eighteen-wheeler between Chicago and Seattle takes about three days. It’s a nearly 2,100-mile trek, mainly on Interstate 90, heading north from Illinois, winding through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and then across Washington almost to the coast of the Puget Sound. Along the way, the driver will likely visit at least one truck stop. There he can get a bite to eat, stock up on incidentals, fill his two-hundred-plus-gallon fuel tank with diesel, have a shower, and get some sleep.

Trucking is the most important way to move goods around the continental United States.¹ Fleet companies, some with hundreds of trucks, do most ...