companys that have closed

There you go!

Mike

 

That's a scary number too!

That was from a late October piece on Landline magazine's site. There's probably still a link on here to it in the Trucking News section.

 

According to Transport Topics 12/22/08 page 14, the following companies filed bankruptcy or ceased to operate in 2008.

Sirva Inc., parent company of Allied Van Lines, North American Van Lines and Global Van Lines.

Summit Global Logistics

UTi Worldwide, a freight forwarder and warehouse operator. This resulted in the closing of a trucking operation in the Southeast as part of a cost-reduction plan.

Jevic Transportation

Danny Nicholson Inc.

Triad Trucking

Performance Transportation Services. Shut down after drivers went on strike to protest wage cuts.

Path Truck Lines

WH Transportation Co.

Alvan Motor Freight

Jim Palmer Trucking

Wells Brothers

C.W. Johnson Xpress

JHT Holdings

Priority Transportation

Copp Transportation and Monarch Transport

Gainey Corp

Greatwide Logistics Services

Hoosier Tradewinds

From the same source, page 9, we learn that the only major carriers whose stock price rose in 2008 are Arkansas Best Corp., Old Dominion Freight Line, Heartland Express and Marten Transport.

 

That is not all of them by a long shot. Those are the bigguns. The little guys, the mom and pops, some that have been around for years, never see these lists. As they do not have FLEETS, they have under say 20 or 30 trucks. That is the real story here, the ones that really lost everything, including the roofs over their heads as they tried to hang on.

We never hear of that bunch. And I am not talking about the fly by nighters.

Mike

 

My co had 1550 in jan. Now down to 1255 in dec.

I AM A FLATBEDDER, I TRAVEL WITH ALL EQUIPMENT NECCESSARY. CHAINS (FOR THE UNRULEY ONES), STRAPS (FOR THE SEMI-UNRULEY ONES), AND TARPS (FOR THE ONES NOT TO BE SEEN WITH YOU)!

 

I see you're from Al. I work for McGriff in Cullman and things look very bad. I wouldn't be surprised if they closed the doors soon.

 

Dang. I remember running with a few McGriff drivers years ago, playing tag down the highway.

 

I guess days of having a good job is coming to an end huh

 

I wouldn't worry too much. things are difficult now, but a lot of the companies that were mentioned as going out on a previous post, just did Chapter 11 and are still running. Palmer, Gainey, Great Wide, etc are still on the road.

There are a lot of O/O and companies with drivers that are doing quite well in this economy. Doesn't mean we should just blow off the situation, but there are always those that will just "stir the pot" and get people all worked up and worried that the sky is falling. Most economists agree that the Great Depression would not have been so "great" if cooler heads would have prevailed.

Am I concerned? Sure, but I don't let it rule over me. Freight slows this time of year anyway, so one has to keep that in perspective. Also, the companies and O/O that manage their affairs well will be in a great position to really do well when things level off and start coming back around. I could always be wrong on the economy, but I have gone thru some pretty nasty economic situations in the past. The late Seventies and early Eighties come to mind and then the post 9/11 situation. We are not even close to the problems we faced in the early 80's and we recovered without a total economic collapse.

The nightly news and talk shows love to play on people's fears and are like sharks in the water at the smell of blood. Every one needs to just take a chill pill and plan for the new year and keep hope alive. Don't take life too seriously. When we reach 25% nationwide unemployment and every bank has gone down then we will have a big problem. But we got thru the Great Depression with that happening, so who's to say we can't come thru this slump as well. We are not having to eat saw dust bread to survive like they did in Stalingrad in WWII and we are not dragging a massive amount of dead bodies down the street to be burned. We have just hit a bump in the road and we just need to get things under control and drive on. A lot of this problem is regional anyway. Some areas of the country are down right in good shape overall. I still see a lot of "hiring" signs posted out in front of manufacturing and distribution sites around the upper midwest.

 

Turnover at large TL carriers has dropped to 65% from 113% a year ago, according to Transport Topics 12/22/08. Turnover for small TL carriers was 58% down from 87%. Bob Costello, chief economist for ATA was quoted: "The downturn is allowing trucking companies to be more selective in hiring new drivers. The pressure to raise driver wages has diminished. Carriers will keep paring jobs next year. Once the recovery ensues later next year, the driver market will tighten again."