Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

I had a friend who owns a fab shop ask me when “we” meaning truckers were going to lower freight cost. He just paid 3700 to have 20k of plate steel shipped 600 miles. He hasn’t heard of this market crash.

 

Consider the source. It’s a strong likelihood they are full of caca. If they were asking for 1200 why hasn’t he already covered it?

 

That seems to be the only way to acquire equipment. Counterintuitive but effective. The difficult part is that poor rates times periods are longer than the good periods that they follow.
It may be a few months up to half a year to see availability in new trucks and trailers and a pricing change in the used junk.

They still try to sell 500 000 mile Cascadia for $175 000. If this current rate slowdown is not merely an early Spring volumes interruption, then those trucks will fall below $100 000 by August to be at $60 000 - 70 000 by the end of the year. The new equipment of trucks and trailers won't be too quick to change in pricing, especially, if it is true that they had to bump it due to the cost of component parts.

So we may have a situation during 2 dol per mile freight period with $185 000 ready to go, brand new tractors waiting at dealers' lots, add to it a $62 000 van trailer or $110 000 reefer and you are ready for another party.

 

Companies like TQL are part of the problem. I’m not one to blame Brokers for low rates. But they haven’t gotten so big in the last 18 yrs. on a 15% margin.

 

There are very few brokers I refuse to work with. TQL is number one on that list. I haven’t dealt with them in 7-8 years now. It hasn’t hurt my business one bit.

 

is a Up y down on Prices, Last 2 day heavy Up ,today 107.30$ Brent and Wti 103.83 $

 

A rough time for them?
There cannot be an equilibrium, this is either rough time for them or rough time for us, nothing in between, it seems.

 

It’s a rough time for them because they haven’t been able to keep 30-50% of the freight bill. It’s not as if the customers have seen a drop in the price. It’s also not as if TQL has been losing money.

 

Everything’s relevant. I recall around 1990, a 30 yr. Mortgage being 8%. Someone saying “ Isn’t that great!”