Do reefer freight volumes and rates go up and down with economy?

The food type changes with economy fluctuations.
When people have more $ they buy better cuts of meat instead of just cheap poultry and ground beef.
Produce is seasonal and can earn a truck some good $ if they know the freight lanes.

If the economy tanked, U.S. beef ( actual steaks ) & high end seafood would be the first to get cutback. Cheaper imported stuff would gain more market share ( cheaper rates ) would fill the volume void.

Then it would be the restaurant food stuffs. That frozen, prepared off site & stored in a warehouse until it is made "fresh" for you at the local feeding troughs. People will stop going to Olive Garden for that $15 plate of meh spaghetti because they need the $ to put gas in their car.

 

I run medicine, it's the most steady of reefer work. And will be for decades to come.

Food items all you have to do is look at the people buying crap cheap in the store to know how we are doing. And the restrurants as stated by the previous poster.

If America has no money, the demand tanks. Oh sure we would have to eat but what we eat matters due to cost.

 

The freight volume may stay the same but the trucking capacity changes dramatically from year to year and market to market which affects the supply and demand balance.

 

Bad times, people eat plain ramen. Normal times, top ramen. Good times, top ramen with beef. Other than beef, the same ingredients in all of them. Stay with basics and the volumes stay pretty constant.

 

I can relate to staying fat. LOL. Pretty much in bad times that whole cow turns into cheaper cuts. Kind of hard to just get certain cuts out of a cow. Ice cream is up and down with the seasons.

 

The store does not order as many.

 

I’ve worked for a distributer of fast food chains since ‘05. During the ‘08/‘09 recession our case-counts went way down. These are national concepts but our area is New England and Mid-Atlantic. Definitely felt the economic downturn. We have fresh produce, fresh beef and a bunch of frozen processed food, among other things.

 

Rates get good everybody and their dog buys a reefer trailer till rates tank then after a bunch go under rates slowly climb again..