Slow freight in winter?

,Problem I see is companies hire more drivers then freight.Does'nt matter if its slow or busy time of the yr,mega carriers like werner makes the drivers sit.If a company is slow during the Winter months then quit hiring drivers and give the miles to the ones already employed.Some companies are always on top of loads and have preplans while a driver is under a load.Those are the companies to work for.

 

Carriers are overly optimistic as a whole it seems. But then again carriers are in a highly competitive industry in a world where one event can cause freight movements to increase or decrease drastically overnight so they have to always be able to handle any freight surges that periodically come up in a weeks notice. One customer get's a large contract, and the preferred carrier is not able to meet the needs, they may well be out the door in favor of their competitor who has the ready capacity in that market.

Many of the drivers at the mega-carriers have not been there long enough to be participating in an benefits that may cost the carrier (health insurance) so it really doesn't "cost them" to have an over-abundance of drivers sit. The fixed costs go on regardless and the wages only kick in when the revenue kicks in.

 

I think in many ways it depends on the customer/freight base more than anything else.....we do a lot of retail stuff......lowes/home depot/walmart and a few others.......vendor to dc, dc to dc and dc to store type stuff.....the lowes and hd stuff is pretty obvious as to why it slows down in winter months and then the true retail stuff always ramps up before thanksgiving and xmas and then immediately following xmas drops off noticeably until spring until people pay off those xmas debts or at least part of it.....other than staples like tp and clothes they don't do much spending for other stuff. fortunately we have other accounts to kind of pick up the slack but we do see a noticeable slowdown first couple months of the year. how big or how small depends on the other accounts and how steady their freight is. if you're a runner and can manage your clock you can generally not lose much in the way of miles or money.....at my company anyway

 

I know a lot of places shutdown for a week or two during the Christmas and New Years holiday. But it picks up again after that.

 

i could see some types of freight slowing down. specially if it's inventory type stuff for taxes. or construction/home building or what not.

i worked the last 2 christmas's. what a joke. getting loaded was no problem. shippers were working. but every receiver i went to. was NOT.

i'm staying home this year.

 

Half of annual sales for major retailers is accounted for between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's make or break time of year for them.

In the run up to Holiday sales season truckers are busy right up to Thanksgiving. If it isn't in the retailer warehouse by Thanksgiving, then it isn't getting there.

After Thanksgiving dry goods (van load) will drop off considerably in the retail sector. There will be a spate of activity in late December to early February for their Spring offerings, but it isn't anything close to Holiday freight volumes. Back To School and Holiday freight will start picking up again in May.

I know about these freight variances because during my 30+ year hiatus from trucking I worked as a supplier to the retail industry, in a variety of product lines and positions. The lead time built into the supply chain is incredibly long. For example, right now if you are a supplier of outer wear you are working Spring and Fall 2015 with the retailers. 2014 is already "put to bed", Spring 2014 production is done, and Fall 2014 orders are starting and fall/holiday production will finish in May. Design and sampling for Spring 2015 is underway and should be finished within a couple of months.

Lead times for a variety of other products follow similar lead times. Product has to be in major retailer distribution centers weeks or sometimes months in advance of product or season launch dates (in spite of JIT requirements)... and we all know what "JIT" stands for, right?.... Just In Trouble....

 

Well industries generally like around the first of the year tend to do inventory which can cause a slow down in purchasing months prior to minimize the amount of product on hand. But there are also a lot of factors like the slow down in tourism during the winter and there tends to be less consumerism after the first of the year when everyone gets there credit card statement from christmas So yes you will generally see a slow down from Jan-April at least in the ltl industry

 

Really depends on the industrial base any particular company is serving. As an example, some companies are heavily into the road construction industry and as such, when winter hits there will be an abundance of that particular fleet sitting idle in the colder environments. Reefer loads will normally run pretty steady leading up to Christmas, then slacken a bit after New Years (something to do with the bills coming in). We are very much a supply and demand, so if the demand slackens, then the number of loads will drop a bit.

I've run the gambit from a private not for hire carrier and now as an OTR trucker. I saw the cycles in the food industry for over 20 years and could count on the slow down after Christmas.

 

I worked for a Reefer Co. out of OKC and we never slowed down. We delivered Meat to cities West of OK and then picked up meat or garbage back. Lots of boxed and swinging, Pork out of E NE and IA and a lot of beef out of Amarillo. We did drop and hook in most meat plants and mostly ahd loads waiting or were ready within 2-3 hrs, long enough to get a nap. Our busiest time was Sept to Jan but never got slow, they just gave loads away.