Cliff's Announcement and Company Transition

Now I want to make myself very clear about my feelings toward USA Truck. If they succeed or fail is no skin off my nose, it will not affect my life in anyway. I do have friends that are drivers as well as none drivers that work there. These people work hard and if the company does pull out of this it will be these good people that did it, NOT that idiot Cliff Beckham. I know as sure as the grass is green somebody is going to come in here and start bashing me on my opinions of this company. I am sure they will tell of their miles and the great paydays they are getting, and make it known I don't know what I am talking about. Just a word to the wise here. This refi bought the company maybe as much as another 18 months depending on how well some things go for them. The largest thing is capacity, remember this word. If USA Truck does pull out of this it will be because the economy got better and there was increased demand for capacity. If however the economy does not get better or stays stagnant there will be more capacity then demand. In this situation USA Truck loses, period! The company does not have the means to fight a rate war with the other carriers. So lets wait and see what 2013 holds for this company before anybody posts their obit, or what success they will have. I'm pulling for them to succeed, I want to see the company climb out of debt and maybe one day pay a dividend.

 

We are sure getting mushy here.

 

Your comments also reflect the comments I heard from another driver this morning. I spent Monday afternoon , Tuesday and Wednesday in Charleston SC on a mini vacation. I stopped in the Pilot near Bowman SC on the way back to Atlanta this morning for some breakfast and ran into this driver. He was finishing a 34 and said he was already preplanned on a paper load tonight. He said his miles have been up for about 30 days now. Hey, I'm pulling for all you drivers. I hope this company can pull out of this funk, pay back these loans and everybody make some money. chemsoldier1 I will be the first one to say IN PUBLIC I was wrong, if it turns out I actually am. I would feel much better though about the company's future if that idiot running it was terminated by the nitwits on the board!

 

My miles have been up the last three weeks. Ran my hours out all three weeks. Chasing hours this week while trying to get home. Don't want to restart and get home even later lol.


Sent from somewhere out there on the road.

 

I am in Vandalia right now and every driver I talked to said a average of 2600 to 3200 miles. They are also trying to pull in more dedicated

 

Last I looked USA Truck stock was still in the tank at $3.72 a share. Don't know why it's trading so low. I wanted to wait till I had a chance to speak to some friends about this jump in miles before I made a comment. What I was told was the capacity thing I spoke of in an earlier post. Right now capacity is at a premium. My source in operations told me management has took all the restrictions off the planners and the company has more business because of it. I was also told the still very high Tractor TBA % plus the amount of Tractors down for maintenance is also high and is also playing a part. My thoughts are simple, run like hell and get it while it's there to get. If this capacity thing dries up or slows down like I feel it will come January and February we will get a better picture of things across the board. I can not vouch for this information but it's been brought to my attention that several of the bigger dry van carriers plan rate cuts during the first quarter of 2013. I think a lot of the dedicated contracts are due to be renewed then this is why. Folks if this happens I really fear for USA Truck and this is not a bunch of hyperbole!

 

I know USA truck stock is pretty thin on trading anyway but there was no volume on friday and so there is none today?

 

I mean so far there is none today

 

I took a look a few minutes ago and saw some volume. The stock price dropped .12 cents today. Right now I am on vacation getting some much needed rest. I went by a place in my hometown and asked a stock expert about this price drop. I got the usual confusing spiel about all kind of things but this one sentence jumped out at me. When a company is drowning in debt and the stock price drops it's primarily caused by a huge volume of sell orders. It seems that there are a good bit of automated sell orders driving the stock price down. This person told me there was some protections built into the system and would get activated if the stock prices go much further down. This person also said to look at the stock being held by the board members. If they start selling it's over and look for a hostile takeover to take place. I was also told that if a hostile takeover was instigated it would drive the stock price up, at this point it's just a matter of what price the stock gets sold for. The professionals seem to be advising to hold USA Truck stock at this time. So I guess we will see what happens next!