 CAB retribution was not the most immediate threat to the non-skeds' continued existence, however, and it soon became apparent there were too few contracts to support the influx of new businesses.Hundreds of thinly financed operations went bankrupt within a few months, and ruthless competition for work turned into suicidal rate slashing as non-sked owners undercut air, rail, and naval shipping to prices that failed even to cover their fuel costs.Such cutthroat practices and the poor safety record earned the non-skeds' an ineffaceable reputation as the aviation industry's seedy underbelly.