Is the dry van freight soft where your at?

We don't have enough drivers to keep up with customer demand
.... So they are working us into ground

 

Same for us. It's a good feeling lol

With how picky my company is about hiring and as slow as they are at it I see no relief for us

 

A lot of freight slows this time of year. Nobody want any more inventory on the floor [to pay taxes on] then necessary come December 31. The "Christmas freight", beer, and booze should be done by now and already at the DC's and regional warehouses and local stores. Nothing to do now for many but wait for the spring up-tick, especially in the dry van world.

 

Dry van does not normally slow down this time of year. This is busy season for it all the way to mid January. Contract carriers seem to be staying really busy. Spot carriers are starving to death. There is no excess freight out here. You guys that are busy for now better get it while you can.

 

I read an article that stated that last year the large retailers had a hard time finding trucks to stock their warehouses in the normal "just in time" strategy so this year they packed their warehouses full during the summer like in the old days and that is why their isn't a Christmas rush unless you're hauling out of their warehouses.

 

We've been slow out here for awhile. Which doesn't make sense cause we're in a big company but one of my friends here runs teams and even they aren't getting enough miles!

 

Seems like the biggest problem is a contracting economy. Tens of thousands of oil workers out of jobs since the commodities crash. Most of them truckers who are out here competing for a shrinking number of loads in general freight. Contract carriers have everything and very little excess left over otherwise.

 

Not at my company/barn. We have guys not working everyday.

 

I'm with Landstar and the bottom fell out back in June. In the Spring their load board would bottom out at about 17,000, now that is the maximum. Rates also took a nosedive. What I find interesting is that it wasn't gradual, it was like someone flipped a switch and the lights went out.

 

That's the exact same thing and time frame I saw working loadboards ITS, DAT, CHR, etc @Preacher Man but even from Jan thru June I was telling some friends how crazy it was I was meeting my financial goals but was only working 2 or 3 day weeks and having to be really aggressive with late afternoon and weekend stuff nobody else wanted, or they couldn't find the trucks. There were no steady weeks of easy pickings. By the time July rolled around everything went over a cliff and that's where it has stayed. Difficult to find any decent paying work is an understatement.

That's why I'm telling you guys who are busy now you better count yourselves lucky, get it while you can, and hope the crunch never gets to you. This time last year - oct, nov, dec '14 - I was really gloating over solid rates and fuel prices dropping down into the gutter. Oil field guys were losing jobs left and right saying cheap oil was a very bad thing. I didn't believe it then but man ol man 2015 sure made a believer out of me. Been a long year that is for sure.