Market Predictions

I reevaluated the situation.
I gotta say it’s not getting any better.



prices to run from…

 

Hey if you can show me where I can make $11,000 a week doing completely local work, I'll jump on that.

Covid is gone and those rates are down the toilet forever.

Some will be in a pocket that they'll do better, but most will do worse.

That money that was made there for everyone, that will never happen again like that.

But if anybody can point me to $11,000 a week local work I'll be glad to go do it.

Didn't I just see a whole bunch of threads on here that the rates are in the toilet and nobody's making any money, and everybody's wondering if we're ever going to break out of this like maybe by the end of the year or next year?

It doesn't matter to me, I'm working on going into a better segment of this business for me, and that general freight hauling, especially van trailers, in my opinion is the garbage of all trucking, as far as how well you get paid.

It's just one step above container hauling to me.

 

I wouldn’t share that info. And neither would you.

 

I don't remember it like that in the first half of 2020. I remember it was worse than it is now nothing to be hauled for months unless you just worked for fuel. It did turn around and the boom started but it was really bleak at the end of February.

 

Same. 2020 is when the lockdowns were happening. It didn't start to really break loose until a little while later. It was a fine "name your price" carrier's market for a good bit.

2018-2019 wasn't bad due to the ELD mandate taking full effect and lots of carriers leaving the market. The rates in 2018 would have to be 35 percent higher in 2025 to be comparable due to inflation.

Pumping trillions of dollars into the economy had horrible consequences and it's stealing from every one of us.

 

There is no information to share because no one is making that anywhere doing local work..

I made that doing load board work.

That's never going to happen again with local freight and a van trailer.

Even on short local stuff like a hundred miles I was getting a thousand to $1200 for that kind of a load, or ALOT MORE if it really had to go.

I don't know what those rates are now but I'd guess it's probably about half of that.

Perhaps other people had other experiences in other parts of the country, but that was the time the freight was jammed up and it had to go and the load board rates were astronomically high.

If the high part of the cycle were high like that, this would be a much better business to be in.

 

I don’t really know how to respond because I don’t really know what point you are trying to make.

As far as the high cycle being like that. Well everything finds its own level. It won’t get that high as long as people think $800 a day or $4k a week doing local work is great money. Freight is like a savings bond. The longer it sits the more valuable it becomes.

But some people are happy just getting by. They make excuses for it. ie: it keeps me local or it gets me home or a little profit is better than no profit. So on and so forth.

And my point was. If you have a gravy train with biscuit wheels, it’s best to keep your mouth shut.

 

I remember making that kind of money on van freight during 2012-14. Automotive expedited. It was all around me. Manchester, TN - Lincoln, AL - Scottsboro, AL - Blue Springs, MS - Smyrna, TN - Canton, MS - Chattanooga. TN - Lebanon, TN - Hopkinsville, KY - Shelbyville, KY - Louisville, KY all high dollar freight all the time. I remember one winter people on here were talking about how all the freight down south below 40 was cheap in the winter and I was running Scottsboro to Blue Springs then back to Scottsboro for $1500 a trip one right after another as many as I could take all winter long never once saw a flake of snow My buddy that lived in Murfreesboro got in on that action and was running them too. Light weight loads ez on and off. That was from my Flint, MI CH Robinson contact. Had 2 solid years of freight like that from several good contacts I found. I got a lot more pushback during covid boom on options I gave than I did back then. Those were the best times I remember running a truck.

 

Where did all the money go???

 

Bought land, bought a brand new trailer, put a 20% down payment on a new house. Bought and paid for a lot of stuff. Spent a lot of money upkeeping an old truck. I was lazy and only worked 7-8 months a year but with spot freight it wasn't steady all year long, never was. Always budgeted for the slow months. There were a lot of mediocre years. 2017 was a solid year for me. By the time the pandemic rolled around I was pretty checked out on it all.