You make a number of smart and articulate observations about what drives the short term thinking of modern publicly traded corporations. They are a close fit with what goes on at many publicly traded companies.
However, TOTE is a closely held family business owned by Saltchuk Resources (a family holding company), which is owned by the founder’s three daughters. As I recall, TOTE (Seattle) was created by the founder, a top Seattle lawyer.
TOTE (Jacksonville) was bought by Saltchuk and renamed fairly recently, maybe about five years ago. I think the price-fixing activity pre-dated Saltchuk ownership, but Saltchuk got stuck with the multi-million dollar fine. It maybe that the Jacksonville management continued the price fixing after the sale. It’s been awhile since I heard the story, so I don’t remember.
It might be that the price-fixing was an effort by old management to pump up the enterprise value of the company, and their bonuses, which may have resulted in Saltchuk overpaying for the Jacksonville company. I cannot remember the name of the company before it got merged into TOTE. So, the observations that you made might be a pretty good fit with the behavior of company management preparing to sell the company at the time of the price fixing scheme.
A lot of vessel owning companies are privately held, and their financial structure more closely resembles a commercial real estate project, than a company with publicly traded stock. They think longer term.
Many vessel owning companies are inadequately capitalized and struggling. It can be a feast or famine business. At some of the the Mom and Pop companies, when business is slow or bidding is very competitive, Mom and Pop are living at home on cash flow that is created by deferring maintenance on the boats. If they did the required maintenance, they wouldn’t eat. And yes, some of them are just greedy and living beyond their means.
Word around the Seattle waterfront is that Saltchuk is hurting financially. I hear that the pain is also being felt at Foss, a Saltchuk owned company. I assume that the reason behind this, if it’s true, is the high cost of the new TOTE ships, the EL FARO disaster, and the unexpected scrapping of EL JUNKIE. Those are bitter pills for any family held company to have to swallow in rapid succession.