25% tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks entering US

If the price of box trucks jumps up maybe it will curb all the non-CDL guys from jumping in and running all over the country and then maybe it will be possible to put together decent LTL van loads again.

 

A major problem with the tariffs is the unknowns. No one can plan. They go up, they go down, they are on, then off. Businesses need stability.
It takes years to build a plant. As soon as the steel and aluminum tariffs went into effect, the price of domestic steel went up. Many of the heavy machines used to produce trucks are made overseas. They have tariffs now making it more expensive to build a plant. Many of the parts that would go into these US built trucks come from overseas and are tariffed.

It was mentioned that the % of this tariffs is based on what the addition cost would be to build trucks in the US. In reality, this administration simply pulls the numbers out of their ###
I own a small manufacturing company here. Many of the materials we use are simply not available in the US. Because we produce for a niche market our base materials will never be produced here. On a particular tile we use, there has always been an 8% duty. My last container came in at 28% Unfortunately, the economy has slowed enough that I can only pass a small portion of this increase on. The result, my take home is significantly lower, none of my guys are getting raises this year.
Look at farms right now. Last year, we sold billions in soy beans to China. This year, not a single dollar. Farmers are going bankrupt. Now the administration is talking about a multi billion dollar bailout for farmers.
My whole point to this is that while tariffs and bringing jobs back to America sound good, it is not that simple.

 

There are two certainties here.

#1 Politicians are greedy, especially the top one. No matter what he says he isn't doing this for us, or for America.

#2 Any economic volatility helps the spot market. If you run spot market and can keep a truck running the next few years you'll probably be ok, just be careful.

 

You’re explaining it to the wrong group of people unfortunately. Most folks here know cheeseburgers and Diet Coke….
Now Latin America is happily profiting from soy while domestic farmers are at a loss big time, and china continues being happy. But don’t worry, our flip flopped president will save farmers with tax dollars to make himself look good, than publish a news article how he’s a great leader and always supports farmers.

 

And we are going to send Argentina 20 billion in aid.

 

What do you manufacture?

If it's such a niche market, why wouldn't your customers absorb the cost increase?

 

We make speciality and custom pool tile. This year the pool building market is way down. With interest rates up, people are very price conscious.

 

I was just talking to a few people about this. Most of the Non Decimal people are gonna go to these kind of jobs now and also start making companies up. I fill sorry for the box truck guys since I know they have a major issue coming with the influx of new people coming for their jobs. On the flip side I love they are leaving our industry.

 

Well if it was that simple someone would had done it already. You act like he has the backing of all the people that make money off selling the USA off! That is why it is how it is. On top of that you have the LEFT fighting everything in courts for no reason other than making business suffer and wait.

This is my old boss who has ran multiple companies and hates Trump. Been a Democrat all his life and same for his family. Give this a listen as he truly does understand what I am talking about with USA being sold out.

Also his name is Bear. I forgot other people are on this one. Ha Ha

 

Of all the industry in the USA the Farmers should be the one that gets help. They are NS above anything else.

Also funny I was talking to a farm buddy I grew up with yesterday on everything the last 10 or so years. He made some good points but one I will share that is the same with trucking. The stuff that they buy to plant crops like seeds and chemicals all go up and never come down like the spot market in trucking. The spot market pays about the same no matter what happens but all the other cost goes up. They have the same issue. That is why most are going broke, no different then the trucking companies that rely on the spot market.