Freight market and tariffs, what will happen?

tonnage is predicted to be in a downward trend until there is a reestablished market flow on imports.

I have drivers who were busting their ***** off hauling from processing centers to get things on ships for overseas customers.

I expect that to drop off next week unless something breaks with China.

 

My thoughts are along the lines of @Ridgeline.
In the event, a trade war continues and last longer between the US and Canada freight volumes will drop considerably for van. If that happens in some manufacturing comes back on shore, Freight volumes will be more dispersed throughout the country from point of orgin of manufactured goods to destination, compared to where it is now from the ports/warehouse to destination.

 

Ocean container bookings plummet..
Consumer spending fell considerably..
Fuel prices going down..
Not hard to figure..1928 is my guess

 

Manufacturing isn’t going to come back. No one wants to pay $500 for a microwave oven

 

Even if manufacturing does come back, it’s not going to happen overnight. You can’t snap your fingers and open the pipeline. Factories closed years ago haven’t been sitting pristine, full of machinery ready to make stuff. The machines are gone, the people who knew how to make them and make things with them are gone, heck, many of the buildings are gone.

 

Those are not the goods that need to be on-shored, there is a lot of other things that could be brought back without a higher cost to the consumer or businesses.

One is auto parts, replacement parts that is. Right now the market participants keep the prices up while the manufacturing costs are really low, giving a large margin to collect.

 

Short term none of this is great for trucking. There's been a little bit of a pull ahead but demand is about to get pretty rough.

Mid/Long term maybe things get better, but we are deep in uncharted territory right now so it's hard to accurately predict what will happen.

 

I wear US made boots, socks, belt, coat, etc… not much priced over an imported item of similar quality. I still have snapon tools and an American built M14 EBR. There still is a market for American made. Even Walmart has some American made products again. Wife picked up 3 Nordic cookware pans.