companys that have closed

There is alot of companies that have closed the doors. One in particular is Jevic which came as a surprise to me. They seemed pretty solid to me. With the state of the economy i'm sure their will be more companies downsizing or just shutting down completely.

 

There were almost 3,000 that closed their doors the first three quarters of this year. That was companies with 5 or more trucks. We'll be seeing the numbers for the last quarter of this year sometime in late January I would guess.

 

That sounds pretty dead on. I know that at the end of the first half of the year, 1900 companies with a total of around 88,000 trucks had gone under. And that was before the pressure of the highest spike in fuel prices had taken its toll. Those that were riding a fine line early in the year were in deep financial trouble by the third quarter. Those that had solid contracts and were managed well, were and are still doing ok. But keep this in mind... There are approximately 180 applications a DAY for new DOT operating authority. Not my stats, but the Governments. A lot of companies will close and reopen under another name and authority. New outfits are springing up all the time about as fast as others are going under. Trucking companies are like a lot of truck drivers... they are a revolving door. Solid companies just truck on and weather the storm. Good intentions and desires does not mean a solid P&L statement at the end of a quarter or year. In all of this economic hoopla, there are in fact a lot of companies and O/O that are doing better than they did the previous year. I am doing quite well and am not even close to worrying about the financials. But then I know at all times what the financials are on my operation and am never caught off guard with what is going on. I review mult level spreadsheets on all that is going on with my operation on virtually a daily basis and always have a running knowledge of my P&L.

Now if companies would put forth a little effort and plan accordingly, they would do much better. The hard part for any driver or O/O that is considering a company is finding out the financials of a company. In this economy, relying on glossy ads in magazines and the experiences of a few drivers probably get someone in trouble. And in my over 25 years of experince in this field, if a company will not answer any and all questions about its operation, then avoid them like the black plague. At least you will be moving the odds in your favor.

 

Cowpie1 - You are so correct. Planning and good business sense are so key, especially when things are not going well. There were articles posted about the number of companies that closed each quarter on here. They came from Landline Mag. Cybergal is really good about finding and posting articles about what is going on in the industry and keeping us all informed!

 

It will definitely be interesting over the next year at least. I don't know how some of these larger companies are staying in business. They have all the trucks and drivers, and many of those drivers are not getting many miles and are sitting a lot. That can't be good for the bottom line.

 

I wonder what the net loss of jobs and companies is, if cowpie is right that the gov statistics show 180 applications for OA a day, that is 30,000 applications in six months alone. Now granted probably the overwhelming majority of these are O/O but that still takes a LOT of pressure off the labor side looking for work. As a new driver trying to get started in OTR my biggest fear right now is that the market will be over saturated with quality experienced drivers leaving me in the lurch until concrete picks up again.

 

The companies that have closed are in the thousands. Most, none of us would have ever heard of. The majority are in the small fleet category, 20 or less trucks and DRIVERS. A few of the big guys too.

Mike

 

The 2,690 companies with 5 or more trucksthat closed down during the first three quarters this year pulled more than 127,000 trucks off the road.