my son just started 'trucking' about eight months ago. He switched to flatbeds last week. Looks like that might have been a smart move.

during my systems degree program, I was taken aback by what I considered utter foolishness in trying to ride the edge of catastrophe in the name of maximum profitability.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

As applicable now as throughout history. JIT is an exercise in creating bottlenecks all along a supply chain when a single component becomes unavailable.

JIT was implimented in factories that had huge quantities. One of the values was that when faults were found with subsystem parts, while being installed in upper level systems, they could be corrected without having to address several weeks(months) of inventory that already contained the problem.

But that is in a supply chain measured in months and involving hundreds of thousands of parts. JIT gets applied to much smaller supply chains. In many cases, the subsystems are arriving "Just in time" but they were actually manufactured months before and sitting on shelves waiting to be requested for delivery. Faults in them still affect the inventory, it's just WHERE the inventory resides. At some point with JIT, the risk being taken is significantly larger than the payoff. Risking $100 to win a penny.

It's like a "were doing it because it's all the rage today and that's that" dynamic, without even a hint of sarcasm.

Where I work they only very begrudgingly stock enough inventory even on commonly used items. Instead they play shell game and only order stuff as needed to replace stuff that was borrowed and it causes all manner of delays due to double work and wasted motion. We bring this up to management, and while, at least lower management knows this is a problem and knows we're right, they tacitly suggest we're trouble makers for bringing this up.

but our drivers have to take a 10 hour brake after driving 10 hours

if they are an hour away they have to pull over to rest

we get our goods when we get them