what happened to freight?

well it really depends on where you are. here is the current situation.
loads coming out of the south are great Georgia, south Carolina have the best rates even $3.00 a mile for dry van. north Carolina is hit or miss Tennessee and Kentucky also doing ok Alabama, Mississippi and Texas also have decent rates. out in the mid west its horrible the further north you go the worse it gets. the Megas are desperate to get to the good freight so there trying to send there entire fleet down south and there bidding on loads at $1.00 a mile to get down there so not only is it causing rates to drop even more then usual but its creating a major shortage in freight at the same time.
problem is once you get down south most of the good paying freight will take you back to the mid west so its a constant struggle. many of us cant keep doing this hope it picks up soon.

 

There is supposedly a 3% drop in available freight from April to this point in May and its 5.3% down from January

 

I think it's just going to be one of those years.

 

Actually is going to get worse, this pattern we have never seen it before, we have seen inflation, never a deflation, the oil prices went down, well,now all this market is adjusting to the lower prices,the trucking industry reported record revenues last quarter, because the oil prices went down,they saved millions on cheap fuel ,everything went down on price,including shipping prices,thats the reason they don't want to pay the money they used to pay,right now many companies are still working overtime, but soon people is going to stop buying,people like you or me because we are not making money, and then the government will say it openly,right now they don't want people to freak out about the economy, but it will happen eventually, I'm not an expert, but many economist say this is probably the worst market crash ever.

 

yes there keeping it quiet right now soon as it becomes public investors will start pulling out and will cause a chain reaction and the market will plummet over night. this is just a sign of much worse to come. though I really hope im wrong but ive seen it before my 15 years in the oilfield and 4 layoffs tell me im not.

 

You're definitely right, this crisis in the middle east, and then Russia, basically Russians depend on their oil to keep their economy going,when invaded Ukraine, the united states and their allies in Europe askem politely to walk out,but russia decided not to do it,the usa asked Saudi Arabia to lower their oil prices so they can punish the Russian economy, we did hurt their economy but ours at the same time,not only that,but russia in response, they dumped the American dollar,or in other words,the worlds currency reserve,just to show the American dollar weakness, and guess what, other countries are following the same pattern, what's going to happen??? Well we don't know for sure, but it seems scary,yet many folks are going out of business because they can't keep up making payments on their newer trucks,soon we'll see not just a shortage of drivers but trucks as well,and people on older models and low truck payments will see a pretty busy market, and will make tons of money, remember some people looses are some other people's wins,im not glad this is happening, but now I can tell I love my older freightliner Columbia

 

Supply and demand. Don't over think it!!

Are you basing your question upon what you're seeing in the spot market i.e. load boards?

On a side note........where's all the "Driver/Truck Shortage" guys?

 

My friend recently just bought a brand new truck, when the market was still doing ok, and he is already having a tough time, he is grossing much less now

 

Freight volume and rates are below normal when compared to the past 4 years. I would not want to own a dry van/reefer, even if I was given a brand new one. I don't know how a dry van even makes it when the going is good.

I see MANY full loads for 45klbs + posted at $0.85 per mile. That's not even driver pay and fuel. In principle, I'll rather deadhead to a better load than enable these cheapskates. TQL, you're it.

And if you take these tough states to get out of, (CO, MT, NM, ME, RI, AZ, UT), the rates going in fails to even out the rates getting out of these states. It's a lose-lose situation.

My rates per mile has yet to go below $2.26 per mile (all miles) for this year on average, and 10 750 miles per month. BUT IT WAS EXTREMELY HARD TO GET THE RATES THERE, and my cost of operation has not come down all that much for all the cheap diesel out there. But still, comparing with others, I think was very fortumate to keep my rates up, even if we had to work harder.