Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

I'm not sure if y'all grew up in that area, but it drives this Arkansas kid crazy, and I'm not talking NYC (Never been there).

The whole northeast area just has so much traffic. I took a load from WA to MA. Then popped over to NE PA to grab some rock.

There wasn't really much congestion, just lots of traffic. All pretty much moving though.

It wasn't terrible, but I didn't take a full breath from the time I hit Chicago till I got back past St Louis.

 

NEPA to grab some stone. That's my backyard. I'm in the middle of bluestone country

 

Yep. Grabbed some blue stone from Gustin Stone outside Lakwood. That was a nice drive. Took it to a Wal Mart execs new home build in Rogers, AR.

Another place I wouldn't mind a 34 with my fly rod.

 

Yeah that's out in the boonies

 

2 years ago starting salary in a particular industry I’m tracking was $40 per hour at best.

today it’s $65 per hour.

projected next year $75



fight for $15? Laughable at best. The idiots who wanted that had the rug pulled from underneath them. Something some of us knew was going to happen.


So issue is caused by the idiots who hold power.

 

I say the same #### thing then when I noticed it’s mainly company drivers but I definitely slowed down you will be lucky if my turbo ever kicks In

 

Joe you are looking at this like this is an individual decision-making process. It is not.

It's more like a chess match that that each piece is locked in by the movement of the other pieces and all of that has been set by the policies beforehand.

 

This year is pretty bad. The truck is in shop again for two weeks. Cost 10K or more.
It's wearing me down. I cancelled all prebooked loads. I put away 5K for repairs, but it's double than that.
It isn't easy to pay off everything when you need to take to the shop all the time.
Painting the house at the moment.
I need dental work, close to 4K for an implant. Lucky me!

 

Even with all the increases we've seen on operating & equipment costs, and decrease in rates in the spot market, it still appears to be busy as usual out there. Does anybody know of anyone that closed shop and just said screw it? For those still trucking along how have you adjusted to the craziness going on around?