Thoughts on this article about trucking slowdown?

Lots of truckers will fail.
Lots of business people will succeed.
Lots of truckers will go to work for business people. The business people will add to there wealth. The truckers will complain that the little guy hasn’t got a chance and how he got ripped off.
The more things change the more they stay the same.

 

Lots of truckers fail every day, why. Trucking is more about business that it is about trucking.

 

Economic recession is still a year out. Growth is slowing however. I have read that we are in a freight recession from the warehousing debacle that came with the trade war. All I can say is next summer/fall are gonna hurt with the oversupply of trucks.

 

Just want to tell ALL you guys something ...

Many of these articles are written for a couple purposes.

1 - the authors are trying to be the expert/go to writers/authority on trucking but fail miserably.

For most people like me will read something like an article predicting something but who never take it serious because these expert/go to writers/authority goes against the experiences gained by years of running a carrier - large or small. Most of them never been in a truck let alone managed anything more than a keyboard.

WARNING I am not being political or create a political discussion with what I post​

2 - the more important thing about these articles, (I have about a dozen I have printed off and read as of this morning), THEY look like that are created to push a narrative that we are going into a recession purely for political reasons.

While it is possible we could be, we have a lot of other factors involved in our industry that has removed any key indicators out of the recession prediction arena ------>>>> one is capacity which we are still well over what we should be.

Example ... Just like the recent stock market/bond market crap triggered (last count) 125 different articles on how we are doomed. Not surprising people buy into a lot of this as if it is going to happen but some of those 125 are machine written (*yes machines write a lot of the copy you guys read) and others are crafted for subtle words to get people to panic and drive the narrative again purely for political purposes.

The stock market and bond market are unpredictable emotionally driven machine regulated markets and many of the sell offs that happen, happen within seconds by machines used to make money on an up swing or a down turn on specific stocks. This is why we see sometimes wild rides and people jumping in to sell or hedge their positions better and causing more wild rides. BUT the seed has been planted in the minds of many that it is a disaster going to happen, when if the reporting wasn't political, it would have been just a blip and forgotten quickly.

That said, I know a lot of the companies that went under, like some of the small/medium size ones were due not to a recession or possible recession but the rates dropping too fast and the capacity they built up in the last 18 to 24 months which has caused some of these companies to fold under high debt load. One such company with 60 trucks is being bought by two companies, one is mine and the other is another member here who is silent most of the time. We are splitting the fleet to put them back on the road, but the cost is pennies on a dollar because that company just couldn't hack it with their management style.

 

They are talking this country into a recession because the presidential election is next year. Another effort to oust Trump. Employment is the highest it's been in 50 years.

 

Some of you hurt my degree in economics

 

I dont think the economy is as strong as the current leaders are trying to portray. If spending and manufacturing is that strong, then this isnt a conversation. People only jump in when the getting is good, when now is actually the time to get in, if one has the cash. The people that get in during the good times, really dont have it like that

 

Yes but most jobs dont pay squat.

 

I agree with the statement about sections of trucking having too many drivers(dry van and reefer). My company had to switch me to flatbed from reefer just so they can run me. It's slow in flatbed too, but loads are easier to find. Good thing I had flatbed experience, otherwise I may have been looking for somewhere to work

 

I don't know what you call squat, but most jobs have never paid squat, if you do snything anybody is capable of doing. It has always been like that and always will. Jobs like anything else goes by supply and demand, as it should be.