Closing up shop or thinking about it? 2.0 Heavy hitters welcome.

I have been running dedicated freight on a contract for the past 8 1/2 years, it pays quite well, BUT the loads are getting smaller each day. I strongly suspect that this run will have to be renegotiated down IF the factory even survives the next 7 months.
If the ship sinks, i may go back to pulling end dump. I won’t deny that i am getting nervous and there is something brown and stinky running down my leg.

 

I know you would know excatly what that meant

 

I dont believe in just surviving, im going to continue to thrive!!! Thank God!

 

It's not looking good in our area but so far we're doing alright. We don't run any spot market freight and we don't use brokers so I can't really comment on that segment.
There's a lot of equipment for sale but nothing seems to be moving. Some of the better established guys are using this downturn to pick up trucks that the price has dropped on. There are some real good deals out there if a guy could afford to buy and wait until the rates improve.
I get phone calls and emails every day from equipment brokers, auction companies, and salesmen cold calling. I have no plans on buying anything. The last thing I bought was a self loading log truck and I was able to sell that for what I paid for it after working it for a season. The guy that bought it wants to sell it but can't find any buyers.
Our fire season was really slow this year. That's both good and bad. I hate to see the country burn but when my water trucks and Cats are sitting because of lack of work it makes me question the wisdom of depending on something so unpredictable. Everything I had worked but some of it didn't work too much. That makes it hard to keep good drivers and operators.
I'll keep going the way I am for now

 

I know that my run up your way the one I bought the daycab to do has disappeared.

 

A friend of ours has a grocery store on the coast. He said his business is off by between 10 and 15% from last year. He is taking one less truckload of groceries every week.
He says it's just people cutting back on their buying. He's the third generation to have that store and he knows when to worry and when to just ride it out. Right now he's just riding.
He said a lot of what people have cut back on are things like ice cream, the fancier cuts of meat, pastries, and snack foods...things that are nice to have but not really necessary.

 

Just burning money over here

 

A little of both

Ive done more work around town and helping family/neighbors with the pickup, than i have worked with the semi. All together this year i might've done 3 months of driving total... Lots of wrenching on the semi with some more stuff i need to do...Cant complain to much because it was mostly by choice... Been trying to put some stuff together in the southwest but havent had any luck... Just using my down time reading books and gain knowledge about business and sales and see how i can apply it to what i do... Been spent alot of time staring at the wall thinking about #### all day long... Think the future is going to be interesting for me if I can figure how to put all my ideas togethers