Thinking I might need to go back to OTR

No it's not bad for everyone. I agree with with you. Everybody's situation is different. They may not have high expenses, they live in a good freight lane. You know how it goes what's good for me may not be good for you. I say this we live in a great country with great opportunities. We all must find out what works for us. I have found in challenging times you must have diversity. If one pond dries up, you have to be able to move to another one.

 

Have you seen what the price of Insurance is lately? Now is not the time to buy a truck.

 

Yes I have, I got a quote of 25k for cargo liability and commercial auto. Insurance is high for new companies....

 

*Smh. No you are right. There is no good time to get into trucking.

Witness the ever increasing flood of people who want in but cannot pay 7000 dollars for a CDL via federal student loans or whatever. It was 2500 back in the 80's but I digress.

Trucking for me came together back in 2000 when I was introduced to a highdollar million point two for McKesson in Memphis and the speed at which they handle the stuff eliminated alot of BS and lost time on our part as company drivers. And so if we get back into it (We don't know at this point) it will be right back to medicines, nothing else.

Would I buy a truck or 50 to get into medicines by contract? Erm maybe if I was strong enough to do that kind of battle with lines of credit and money piled in scrooges bank. But no.

The Industry from my view will have a bloat of brand new MC numbers piled between newbies who don't know any better and literally do not have 10.00 to lose. And bet everything. And the influx of overseas immigrations establishing cheap labor by rounding up their own people to run at even cheaper rates. Because they don't know any better.

Shipper John is more than happy to pay 1.20 or 0.80 or god knows what. If he does not have to pay 3.00.

I wonder how long will it be before John understands he has overflowing warehouses and no trucks anywhere unless he bought some and hired drivers? Or is out of business?

And China? I got word from two seperate providers of my hobby stuff that my current orders will not stand this year because the Chinese are literally dropping dead. The orders will not be built there and shipped here this year. Factories that do that are closed. Shut. Done. Finished. No work. And this is just nicky picky hobby crap. But still.... A examination of shipping shows that China is probably on the way to not producing anything soon.

America will just have to make do and wait a while.

And thats why there isnt much need for trucks. Cass Index shows about 12 to 15% of trucks idle. And half a million rail cars sitting still unloaded. Our trains look really skimpy on one engine instead of 4 today. The freight is not there for the things that people love to buy and truckers deliver.

Unless you can get into something that people will not live without.

 

Do you, or anyone think the cost for insurance is going to go down?

 

Do you have a truck payment on top of that insane insurance?

 

I didn’t see where he said he failed, I only read that he owned trucks in the past and came off the road in 2015.

I had trucks from 2011 to the end of 2016. I sold mine because I was burnt out doing what I was doing and had zero desire to go pull a van or reefer. I sure didn’t feel like a failure taking a company job and having zero debt and money in the bank. When I had the chance to get in on something good I had the money sitting there to go get another truck.

And because of what we haul, some of us have no desire to be an independent O/O because we wouldn’t have access to these loads.

To the OP, if you made it through lean times before and have the capital to get a truck now then you should be able to make a go of it. Most people are comparing this to 08-09 so there’s some reference for you.

 

I have heard people say that getting into this Industry when rates are low and adjusting your business model to survive in the current market conditions is a huge plus. Versus the guys that all jumped into the business in 2018 and thought those rates were the new Norm. and they are now bankrupt.

 

Now is an EXCELLENT time to buy a truck cheap, stay at your job a while and go through the new rig piece by piece. Its just not a great time to run your own truck since rates are low.

I say that but last week was pretty good for me actually. I landed a great backhaul load off the board, so good that i actually *lowered* my price $50 from the offer to ensure that the broker waited on me to get a packet setup. Upon delivery i randomly bagged an 11,000lb no tarp load that picked 1.5 miles from my drop and went right back to the first place. Grabbed another of those, then 4 more for my coworkers. And on a cold call to a rockyard i never saw, managed to sell a full truckload of flagstone that i will haul out monday, which is right next to this new excellent backhaul. So for me, the tide has been turning.

The spring boom will improve things atleast somewhat, for everyone.

 

Not for a new authority.

 

So why wait?

By the time rates go up (if they do) insurance will be even more expensive.