Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

My Lowboy work has been slow for two or three weeks. Next week isn’t looking promising. Ain’t my first rodeo. It’ll probably be slow the rest of the year. I imagine it’s been slow already for a lot of people. I have been insulted for the last couple years.

 

Over capacity is over capacity first and foremost. People can make excuses and blame certain political parties and what not.Whine-whine-whine. Bottom line is during the pandemic A LOT of people had stars in their eyes bought trucks. Over capacity once again is the key word. Simple supply and demand. Nothing more - nothing else. Too many trucks !!

 

Thanks for the economics lesson

 

Times are tough, a Youtube expert is downsizing and cutting employees.

 

Yeah..for an economic downturn.
People ain't buying, manufacturers aint building and companies ain't shipping.
America is contracting.
There wasn't a capacity problem before covid was there. No..
we had a bustling economy.
Sure everybody and their brother bought a truck then the bottom drops out and they are the ones running at a loss.
I've been trucking 50 years and have been thru at least a half dozen recessions or downturn but this one seems different.
Like it is a plan to keep wages and rates artificially low.

 

I ran from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga yesterday and today. I-24 was a cluster both trips and several stretches of it where traffic slowed to 45 mph for no apparent reason other that just too much traffic bumper to bumper. The stores are packed 7 days a week. To me that's not what a down economy looks like. Where the heck are all these people driving to on a weekend with school back in? Freight volumes now are higher than they were 5 years ago. The economy ain't contracting. Some parts of it are suffering for sure, but not all of it is.

 

I don't see the doom and gloom, either. We do a bit of retail off the farm, and we are up 30% over last year, to the point I ran myself out of product to sell and have to cover from another farm. Our last two Saturdays, ordinary Saturdays in August, beat our best days all last year. People have money in their pockets and are willing to spend it.

 

Volumes are up but rates are down right?
I see layoffs, companies closing down.
Trucking companies cutting wage and benefits.
I see the largest credit card debt in history.
Food, gas, insurance, power and most everything else up 25 to 30 %
Maybe you're not suffering in the current climate but I'm willing to bet many are.
A good economy is when everybody does well.
Most living paycheck to paycheck.

And talking about farm economy Deere laying off so is Danfoss

 

It's not booming and bustling but it ain't the great depression either. And with everybody living paycheck to paycheck why are they all out driving everywhere all day every day, even on weekends? Why is there always so much traffic? Maybe there's no answer to that question.

 

And yes volumes can be up with freight rates down and declining. Those two things can happen at the same time.