Closing up shop, or thinking about it?

It's been a rough summer. My rates don't change, except for fuel surcharge, but it was S.L.O.W. that with everything else getting expensive and I took on a bunch more debt in the last year. I've definitely been watching cash out-flow closer. But I don't know what the heck else I would do to make the money I'm used to/need now. Outside of trucking that is. Luckily it seems to be picking back up in my world. Had 4 good weeks in a row. Worse comes to worse my equipment is still worth nearly what I paid for it

 

It hasn't gotten that ugly, yet. Rates are down, freight volume seems to be down, on the loadboard anyway. Noticed on Craigslist today seems everybody is selling their classic cars and projects, not sure how much of that is just an end of summer trend. Seems like used car prices are starting to fall, has me wondering if repos have been picking up. I expect we're looking at a repeat of 08, hopefully not worse than that though I wouldn't be horribly surprised if it is.

 

Yep, I got tired of the games, I sold my truck while it still had some value. I became a local fuel hauler, home every night, two days a week off, Next step for me will be retirement, although I have met a couple of guys that are in their 80's and still coming to work every day. It keeps them active and they enjoy the job.

 

I've noticed too that there are more than the usual amount of people selling off their toys..also vehicle sales are down like you said sure is funny there is no shortage of new cars & pickups now .. like there was 6 mths ago guess that ship with all those computer chips came in
Any way .. I know of 7 ...O/Os with in 20 mile circle of home that called it quits this summer
Mean while my rate cutting back stabbing..shoe string operation neighbors have ..They have been adding some worn out hoods .. that they thought were a good deal to their rate cutting fleet...I'am sure their in the hammer lane to bankruptcy.. .. I know of a few shops they have owed a fair amount of money too for a significant amount of time..
I still think this is gonna be more like the early 80's than 08 on a severity level.. Alot of similarities

 

I sold off all equipment save 1 truck and 1 trailer for me.

You can still make a profit with drivers, but it isn’t that high that it makes up for the risk and headaches. Also it was impossible to hire and hold drivers and it was a cushy job and offered great pay.

 

There are quite a few I know of that have their trucks for sale. The problem is, nobody with any sense and any money wants to buy them.
In almost every case they're people who took on too much debt when things were good and figured it would always be that way.
We see that on here quite a bit.
They have a lot of excuses for getting out but what it comes down to is they're going broke, realize it, and are trying to get out from under without going bankrupt.
I get calls every day from people looking for loads. I don't have anything for them but I try not to add to their misery. They made mistakes, most of them, and now they're paying the price.

 

All I know is I'm now glad I spent all the money I did in the last 4 years going thru my paid for truck and resisted the temptation to buy a new one .
The only people I hear crys of pain from are those with huge truck payments in the spot market sector.

 

It's weird to me that anyone who has been at this for a long time would close up unless they are just basically retiring. I'd say I'm a lifer. I don't know what else I would do. My worst day trucking is still better than my best day doing anything else I've done.

My equipment is paid for and can hopefully last about 5 more years. When things get bad I'm going on vacation but not giving up. I'm still maintaining about .25 per mile less than my better days at this all miles. Maybe .50 less than my best days. It just requires diligence and quite frankly when it isn't hard work I get pretty bored.

I'd rather be pissed at work working my butt off than sitting around trying to figure out how else to make money.

Maybe I'm just showing my cards on my limited skill set, lol.

 

I agree with @86scotty but I just got rid of hired drivers. As a owner operator it’s not that bad but it’s rough as a fleet owner.