Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

These subjects make me too nervous.

 

Okay, enough of the derailing.

My question is will this hurt Trucking or will this help Trucking?

Will there be a boom for a few weeks and then maybe everything will almost stop?

Will it be slow as we go through this and then take off like a rocket?

Could this be one industry that does well through this?

Will drivers actually catch this and the so-called driver shortage will now become a reality?

Will we see $5 a mile rates and $2 a gallon fuel?

Will we see carriers large and small folding up all over the place?

???????

 

I'd say we're at least a week or two away from being able to answer any of your questions. They may lock down the US population as they did in China and are now doing in Italy and Spain, only allowing people out for necessities and work. It could all be over in a month, or it could last 3 or more months. If it drags on, consumer goods such as food and medical supplies with be a priority so I'd say reefers stand a good chance of doing well in the long run, but that's not for certain. I'd say fuel prices will remain low for the duration because world demand is very low and unless Saudi Arabia and Russia kiss and make up to decrease production, the oil market will be flooded keeping prices way down.

In the mean time, we'll all have our regular bills to pay and uncertainty of how to pay them. But we'll be in the same boat as a large segment of the population. I'd say lenders will have to modify loan terms otherwise they'll have millions of people in default. There is just too many variables right now to know how things will pan out.

 

OH and IL are closing all restaurants and bars to people eating/drinking in them. This thing could get pretty ugly yet.

Drive thru and take out only.

 

It could get way worse. Lots of fake news coming out of China that they're over the hump but they're not. Still a lot of massive NYC population wise areas over there that are under lockdown.

You guys calling people wolves for generously providing goods and services to people who need them are wrong. Like Steve pointed out hand sanitizer isn't even a necessity. Why would anyone pay 100x the market rate for a bottle of it? But even worse why do some people get mad if an enterprising individual sees a need for overpriced hand sanitizer and fills it for fools with money? If people are dumb enough to buy it so what.

If we relied on charity after storms and disasters to get needed goods everywhere it was needed there'd be a lot more starving and hungry people out there. You can thank capitalist "wolves" for putting their own neck on the line in those scenarios. Price increases of any sort, whether it's a marginal increase or very high, are a normal market function.

I can't imagine a scenario where Wal Mart, Amazon and other retailers do not raise their prices on these products going forward. They're going to have to do it to put the insanity in check. They stand to make many extra billions off these marginal increases until they get it right and things calm down. That's OK I guess but when they have bare shelves everyone's apparently mad at some little guy trying to feed his own family seeing an opportunity has product to offer? Ok..

 

From reading these thoughts on price gouging and its rights and wrongs it seems to me it depends on if you need the product or not. Some of those saying its capitalism at its finest may change your opinions if it's you trying to buy!.

I can remember a lot of shortages over the years, I was working in a grocery store in England in 1973 when I was 15 when there was no sugar available due to strike action. Sugar! What people would do for sugar stunned me back then but i was a later developer so never took the offers sadly. Seen many fuel shortages and been royally ripped off for a few gallons several times.

I really hope I'm wrong but if this situation is starting with the herd completely out of hand trying to bulk buy almost anything at all when right now its totally unnecessary I honestly think this will be a year like none of us have ever seen or imagined before. Almost all of us will come out the other side ok but we're going to have a rough ride, all of us.

 

Supply and demand, was when diesel was over four bucks a gallon. There wasn’t any less of it then.