Rates are starting to skyrocket already

No disagreement, here. Just saying that it's going to take longer than say, the midwest did.

 

Three weeks ago I needed a sheet of 5/8's plywood and paid $25 for it at Home Depot. Yesterday I needed another sheet of the same 5/8's plywood and it cost $35 that time. Is lumber paying the trucks that well? Because if it isn't any of you drivers that are hauling it for cheap ought to be ashamed of yourselves making everyone else involved rich when your critical services are in such demand.

 

Trucking companies have been subsidizing the lumber barons forever. OR/WA to SoCal are still paying what they were 10 years ago, yet small & large operators still haul it.

I refuse to...

 

Oof. Glad I'm sitting on some 1/2" that I bought for underlayment that I wound up not needing back in November. I'll be hanging onto that for projects...

 

Regular lumber has come up a bit, but its still far far cheaper than anything else i can load. I'll never understand how they can get trucks to move lumber at the rates they are willing to pay. I kid you not i could load freaking crane mats which is nothing but rough cut lumber bolted together for a full 50 cpm higher just a few miles away and not have to tarp it. Yet guys will still go get those 2x4s and plywood and break out the tarps.

 

Someone's out there hauling for dirt. I have a "customer" that sends out their lanes. In this week's list of loads: 1 pick, 7 stops on a flatbed or stepdeck. 1,084 loaded miles. They're offering $2400 on it. I don't even bother. I'm not trying to waste hours of my life trying to cover that hot garbage.

 

Yep. That's a perfect example of how cheap some are willing to operate.

 

Got to witness a local company having a hard time getting trucks in. I sat in his office for about 30 minutes helping re structure his loads because all he could get in was me, a flatbed, a hot shot car hauler, and a step deck. He really needed all semis. He was telling me, “just find another load coming back so I can load you again”... pretty crazy

His loads ended up being posted by several brokerages. I know he would have been a brokers customer. He was on the phone saying “ i needed trucks yesterday!, can you get a truck here, Can you can you??”

 

I get offers to haul lumber in my email box every other day or so. Just got one:

Puyallup, WA
To
Salinas, CA

Dry Van 53'
45,000 lbs
$1,025.00

That's a two day 900 mile run at $512.50 a day to the truck. Sad thing is, someone probably gobbled it up.