Slowing freight?

Double doomed!

 

DOOM [is] Eternal
(I'll just show myself the door for that horrible joke)

 

No just NO.

 

Even if the tariffs disappeared by presidential fiat tomorrow, it will take time for it to have any impact on the transportation industry. For three decades I worked in offshore sourcing. I still stay in contact with many friends that still service the retail industry.

Retail makes 50% of its annual sales in the 4th quarter. Retail as a sector of the economy is going to suck this year. Why? They dialed WAY back on orders for Fall and Holiday. Less inventory to sell means they are planning for smaller sales.

It can take YEARS to develop a factory relationship AND have adequate infrastructure to pump out product. When Trump slapped Tarrifs on China that turned everything on its head. Suddenly all the China infrastructure, like local factories making parts, fabric, zipper, etc didn't matter. Retailers had to shift production to Vietnam, or Indonesia, or Bangladesh, etc. But none of those countries have the infrastructure, so all the raw materials has to get ordered and shipped to those countries, creating an additional month or more lead time, from order to delivery to a DC in the USA.

Right now orders for Spring '20 are starting to drop. Design work for Fall '20 are done. If you haven't started designing and planning for Spring '21, you are too ####ing late. That's just in the "rag industry" clothing and the like. The lead times are FAR longer and more costly if you are talking about needing dies for injection molds or die stamps. You can't just ship dies and stamps from one factory to another. Machinery is often completely different.

No, the tariff fiasco scored a direct hit on American business. Don't plan on it to recover quickly.

 

Well, actually things are picking up but if you are just dealing with brokers you may or may not see it. They will keep the difference as long as possible. Don’t blame them. That’s just the way it works.

 

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve been getting great offers from brokers that I haven’t used for a loooonngg time. If my current contract “expires” soon, I’m not worried about using my main old brokers again to stay busy.