Chip shortage effecting car hauling and car sales?

I just had a car delivered from Cleveland to my place. Brand new Ford. The entire car hauler only had 2 cars on it including mine. I gave them the address to my yard but they tried to deliver to my house. The driver said normally they deny private house deliver but his boss said he had to take it. Tells me they are desperate.

I flip open the Truck Paper and half the listings are car haulers. Must be tough right now. @Banker may be able to give insight tho.

 

I’m looking to get into car hauling as an o/o. This has been a concern of mine, thanks for posting this question!

 

I feel good enough about this industry that I recently ordered a new $100,000+ trailer and still plan on hauling cars for several more years. Things are definitely different right now, but if you follow the work there is still work. I don’t do home delivery, never have and never will. I also don’t haul from auctions as they are a pain in the rear for the time involved in the load. The dealers who currently get full loads 7 or 8 of the 9 on my rig are already sold when I get to the dealership. One advantage that I can see for me is being leased to a very large auto hauling carrier with contract freight with nearly every new car manufacturer. When one plant shuts down or a railhead gets slow you can usually find work elsewhere. I personally believe the raw material shortage could get worse before it gets better, but it will eventually get back to normal. When it does get back to normal every carrier I am familiar with will be short of drivers.
The carrier I work with is constantly getting new traffic from locations we haven’t hauled contract freight from in the past. There are also drivers and owner ops in this industry leaving for “greener pastures” in general freight and that loss of drivers helps those of us who have been there and done that and aren’t leaving Carhaul.

 

At our local Walmart, the chip section is always the most well stocked,,,what, oh,,,never mind,,I think it's all a scam, btw, chip shortage, my axx.

 

Boss told me this morning that every Ford ramp except our 4 are currently under spot buy. And the way the pipeline looks, we'll be busting butt over the next few weeks if we're going to avoid that fate.

Our fleet has shrunk about 20% over the last year, and looking at the driver pool, growing it back will be tough.

 

The difference is, Samsung (and the like) are willing to pay more to be put at the top of the queue. They are also dropping production of high end components to make room for the lower end stuff.
If auto mfgs weren't so cheap, they too could be at the top of the queue and be less effected by the shortages.

 

This is not accurate

Samsung has some of their own chip fab iirc

As far as "paying to go on top of que" thats primarily what i disagree with, tsmc and the like have contracts booked out a few years in advance, basically what happened was automakers cancelled their slots, then 5 months later couldnt get their original slots back.

Couple that with high demand for silicon on so many other things, its tough luck for those that cancelled.

Without the covid disruption, it was already going to be rough 2020-2023 because capacity was already limited, with the disruption, its a nightmare.

Chip fab takes a lot more time, money and planning than most people realise. you cant just spin a new facility up From scratch in less than about 2 to 3 YEARS

 

If the carriers can’t get the manufacturers to realize if they want their vehicles delivered it is going to cost more now, they never will. 4 or 5 more good paying years will keep me in the game. The manufacturers who insist on rate cuts or no increases will get no one to haul them including me. Maybe eventually they will realize the drivers who left car haul and are making $100,000 or more doing something easier are not coming back.

 

My answer to the chip shortage,,who's stupid now, eh?