How recession proof is trucking?

During the down fall of '08. Pay was terrible. Yet loads were still moving.

 

Refrigerated specialty carriers haul almost 100% food loads i.e. Groceries. This never slows down. Cutting food consumption is the last resort for any/all consumers. Whether they have a job or not, they're stil getting fatter by the month thanks to a very generous welfare and unemployment benefits system.

 

2008 and 09 were slow.(dry van)
I'd empty out and there'd be a hundred plus trucks ahead of me in the area waiting for a load.
So almost guaranteed my next load wouldn't pick up til the next day.
Most days there'd be a dozen of us (same company)
at a truckstop shoooting the #### waiting for a load.

 

It's not very recession proof. I mean you'll still have a job. But the amount of pay falls sharply. This is caused by a few things. Trucking is directly related to the economy for one. When people don't buy, freight doesn't move. Also, a lot of people flood the industry i.e. Construction and oil field guys. Which means more trucks with an already dwindling freight supply. Go back and look at all the companies that went belly up in '08 and '09. It was quite a few. Some were pretty large.

 

And if Trump has his way, and a full-blown global trade war starts, all bets are off for many sectors for a few years until a new economic and supply equilibrium gets established.

 

There is enormous elasticity in an industry as large as trucking. Example: I just delivered a new trailer to an XTRA lease yard in Romulus MI last week. The manager of the place said he is almost out of trailers, down to about 100 available units. 6 months ago he had 650 empty trailers sitting doing nothing. It stands to reason that the number of tractors (drivers) has increased incrementally in the same time frame. It all depends on your position, company, market place conditions, location. Too many variables to predict any outcome.

 

I imagine (no personal experience) fuel tankers stay pretty busy regardless. I just got a local job and the account I am working now has tankers with pavement materials. I am learning this in the hopes of moving into tankers and nothing else. I may even go back over the road at some point, but for now I am enjoying snuggling up to my wife every night in my own stationary bed.

 

I would also guess that beer haulers will always stay busy. People of all socioeconomic groups, regardless of the state of the economy, will continue to drink lots of beer.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Is welfare and unemployment really that generous??

By the GRACE OF GOD, I have never collected a welfare or an unemployment check, even when I was out of work in the past. It was absolutely FORBIDDEN. That's the type of family, both immediate and relatives, that I came from.

However, if I found myself out of work in the future, I would file for unemployment compensation. What little family that I have left is 1,500 miles away from me. I hope NOT to be in that position. I would NOT wish it on anyone else.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!