I heard Fredrick-Thompson closed down.

Exactly !

 

You guys ever heard the term "Impulse buyers"?

2018 came-people got smiles on their faces.....And instead of putting the money in the bank, "Let's go buy,buy,buy"......

I been around long enough to know it wasn't going to last.

And this wasn't just 1 truck rockers......This was being done,obviously by bigger corporations......

Gotta be smart when it comes to business and Brass tacks.. Don't just buy right away.

 

I will admit that last Christmas before I had my cascadia overhauled I almost traded it off on a 680 , but when I looked at higher payments and 4 more years of payments along with increased insurance for no real gain I said no way .
And I've been thru this thing from stem to stern and it will be payed off next year .

 

There ya go!!
Your a good guy , Proud of your accomplishment......Get that Title!! lol

 

Thank you !

 

In response to the internal post (FB link)..
The "lost jobs" don't necessarily reflect upon a sinking economy, as the poster would have you think.
It often correlates with
1) a bad business philosophy
2) failure to diversify your revenue stream (all eggs in one basket)
3) saturation of the market, and an unwillingness to change to remain competitive because what you've done has always worked.

This economy is steady.
Anyone that expects it to continually roll like a freight train and never have a burp is very naive.
Of course, there are some out there on the edge of their seats begging for a recession so they can say, "TOLD YA SO".

 

FTI - A Frederick Thompson Company
Found This
"FTI was sold March 2018 to a holding Company from MN. I'd heard that they would be merged with a larger US carrier (after the holding company stripped all the meat off the bone of course)."
Not sure how accurate this statement is.

 

The gun business is similar. Obamas somewhat surprising first win was a huge explosion in demand and every manufacturer raced to the bank to revamp, enlarge and up production. Prior to obama there was a lot of laying off, and it went right to hiring temps by the hundreds for quick staffing.

That obviously lasted 8 years and sold tons of plastic guns. Any gun is good enough how cheap can you make it was the recipe for that boom. Precision stainless guns not so much.

The industry spent like crazy, fully banked on hillary, filled the vaults in advance, and got trump by surprise. The trump slump is selling off inventory at cost just to unload it or be faced with needing more vault space. Or close the plant. People still love guns, theres just too many for sale.

And thats sort of where we are in trucking. Too many empty trailers looking for a date. The demand boom convinced lots of players to max leverage and chase that rabbit by adding all the capacity theyre worth. Well.. The shippers know how much over capacity there is now and are having fun seeking out the most desperate caller. Load board limbo.


Ive been thru 3 market bubbles and remember how the peaks felt pretty well. Thats how it feels now. Like the bulls are getting their reality check pretty soon.

 

I think the industry is levelling off finally. As has been mentioned, people were getting into the business like crazy while the getting was good. Pulling loads for pennies of profit, screwing each other out of loads. High debt loads, poor business plans. No chance of surviving once the economy rights itself. It’s the same here in Canada.

I don’t think there’s anyone here who wishes folks go out of business, but when you have a poor business model, you have it coming. The smart business models will make a ton of money on the other side of this.

 

This is an industry with very few barriers to entry. Literally anyone can become an O/O and throw their hat into the freight ring with little (or sometime no) money down. That's why you see such a bullwhip effect of bankruptcies and closures when demand softens after a freight boom.

The media hypes this up like the sky is falling but really it's just a natural part of the business cycle. Rates will eventually stabilize once the fringe players drop out of the market.