Spot Rates

Q2 2020 Carrier Outlook: The worst is ahead - FreightWaves

 

Flip a coin LOL

 

So people not earning a income will have more money to spend later .. I hope he’s right but article looks pretty odd compared to others about trucking.

 

TBH, I think the spot market isn't really something people should rely on anymore for income. Bobblehead will preach it until he's blue in the face, but in the end, I think that market is going to be slowly dying.

 

the industry has been slowly dying if anyone’s s noticed.

trucking from what I hear has been on a decline since deregulation, inflation gone up, what was once a middle class job has turned into a entry level position.

yes there are few people that are making a decent buck but many more are not, that said the exception to the rule shouldn’t be used.

insurance costs 20k a year and up for new entry’s making it harder and harder to be an owner op. The industry is slowly pushing out owner operators not because they want to but because they can.


Megas charge $3 per mile on a load yet you see dollar a mile loads on the load board? Why is that? Because freight is insured and shippers don’t care if a shiner new rig with a 20 year history takes it or a new guy with no experience in a beaten down unsafe rig.

I was in front of a shipper last year parked across the entrance with a big sign that says trucks enter here, trucker came up and asked me where the entrance was? I was literally shocked. The sign was as big as my cab. Few other times I came up to drivers who had no idea how to slide tandems and these where supposedly vets with years of driving experience.
I know I made my share of mistakes but man the industry has shown me stupidity multiplies fast and corporations are taking advantage of that.

 

As ever, this stuff is generally cyclical. We were on a downward turn before the COVID-19 shenanigans started. Add to that, and we've got a weird, unprecedented situation all the way around. Once the country gets back to operational, I suspect we'll see a mad dash for a month or two, with it leveling back out. The thing that'll most affect rates is the amount of attrition in the carrier base we see over the next few months.

I'd imagine what we'll see is a lot of guys who bought in during the high rates of 18, or over-leveraged themselves during that time thinking those rates would continue will start to come back out of the market over the next few months, and rates will start to go up. The cycle will continue as soon as this speed bump goes away.

 

Posts 1 and 2. Remember that you make money by trucking. Journalists make money by writing and submitting articles on time and keeping the carrot out there dangling.

 

Don't forget the small businesses that will not survive, further adding to the downturn.

 

It really is hard to say what the process will look like. We're in uncharted waters right now.

There are yet so many variables that can and will come into play over the next few mos, who knows what a sustained recovery will look like.