Another trucking company shuts down with no notice.

Yeah, I have a pretty limited range of items that I buy or check prices for online. Clothes, art supplies, CD-DVD, watches, books. But within that range, I never see Amazon with a better price. I make maybe 4 or 5 small purchases a month on eBay... haven't given Amazon a dime in years. I used to like getting VHS and DVDs from Amazon at seven cents plus 2.99 postage 8 or 10 years ago but that market seems to have dried up. Sellers starved to death or something.

 

There are also items I purchase on Ebay from time to time. That are out of production for a decade or more. My hobby involves trains. And very technology advanced computer driven ones at that. At one time in the past when I was a child, they made products in bulk and inventoried, warehoused it etc until Sold. In the last 20 years or so, they would call China and tell the factory there to make a contract for 400 items to ship to the USA next June. If you did not have a existing physical order for that item that is being made overseas, you will not see that item until it shows up later on Ebay or Amazon etc.

I was actually able to get some new old stock SSD drives for my computer for 60 dollars each shipped from San Francisco. The original 6 I bought from Newegg was 320 retail. Each. So it stood at 2000 dollars shipped a few years ago.

5 of them are still in the computer working after 4 years. One burned up. There is 6 more on the table at 60.00 each for a total of 300.00 from the bay ready to go into either a new replacement build that will feature 10 of the SSD's in raid 5 or spare replacement parts for the original ssds that burn up.

Im getting ready to order more SSD's because 4 of them out of total 11 on hand here at the house are approaching 9 years 24/7 work and cannot expect to continue to be reliable.

Most people never get to that level of computing. And parts are sometimes hard to come by when Newegg quit selling them. SO it's either Amazon or Ebay for the part. or item. Generally I consider myself lucky.

HOWEVER.

You cannot make money or a profit on Ebay. By the time you finish selling, pay the 10% fee then pay the shipping, you are losing money. That's why you have sellers falling by the wayside. You sell something on ebay because you need cash now at any loss and as long you have physical cash from the sale next week you are good to go.

I do own a merchant's id and associated numbers and able to buy wholesale and sell retail. However that involves 1099 taxes and god only knows what else such as taxes on unsold inventory (Unrealized capital) and so on. I choose not to be involved in that even though my account is capable of 10,000 dollars in sales each month cash.

Ebay and Amazon are good for the time being. However... times are changing and I don't know where we will be in 5 years.

 

Just out of curiosity what company is pulling Amazon's trailers ? Or is it O/OP ?

 

I’ve been seeing megas and small outfits pulling their trailers. Everyone and their brother’s welcome.

 

10/4

 

When I read about that company it seemed like it was a money issue. The article said they had been having financial issues for a while. Falcon Transport just closed today with 585 drivers. They said their fuel cards were not paid. Penske closed down its doors at Fort Wayne and cited a major contract ending...in my opinion that is still a financial issue. They should have anticipated if something goes left with a company like loosing said contract. It’s always about the money...it is always about how you management your business’ money. If you get too big too fast with unprepared for downturns then it’s going impact you negatively.

And as far as Amazon goes the massive growth they are experiencing consistently is a little scary because it’s across multiple industries at a time. I read that the company understands they will loose money a few years getting into the freight brokerage/trucking side but Jeff Bezos believes he will turn a profit. He has money to loose because he is the richest man in the world. It’s almost like trying to fight with a suicide bomber because he does not care to loose. It’s a part of his plan. He can afford it.

 

I wonder if the elog mandate had any part to do with this?

 

It’s probably on TTR somewhere but ALA Trucking out of Anderson Indiana is closing end of the month. Around 55 trucks.

 

Well gang if you need a truck check out the next Richie Bros action near you.