Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

I think these guys are crazy.

We are still in the midst of the pandemic, we don't know if there's going to be more shutdowns or what's going to happen, there's a new Administration we have no idea what's going to happen with the economy we have no idea what's going to happen with interest rates with no idea what's going to happen with business taxes and no idea about a lot of things.

Just because it seems like there's Freight there to move right now definitely does not make it a good stable time to do this.

 

Im sort of conflicted on it. I guess my mind set is more for an ongoing operation though, vs an upstart. It’s one of those deals where 2019 also wasn’t good to get started, and 2020 wasn’t good for this or that reason. When is a person ever going to get going? Wait until 2022? Does 2022 turn into 2023? Ok, it’s 2023 now do you wait for the 2024 election? Years tick by, we get older, and opportunities become lost.

I’ll admit I’m absolutely gutted by this last election and didn’t expect it even a little bit. I’ll still hold on to hope until the fat lady sings because I never let go of what I believe in but obviously it doesn’t look good right now.

I have invested more this year in equipment and people then any year in my lifetime by a big amount. I moved up investments from next April to right now but I made that decision over two months ago. You could say I’m stuck with it but I still would make the same decision today as I did then.

One could say this is the perfect time to get your wheels turning, stack up cash very quickly and hang on if it comes to that. Or, things may keep rolling hard for quite a while to come. I said in Sept of 18 that in Sept of 20 we would be killing it again. Put all these other factors in from this crazy year and we’re rolling along even better then I thought it would be. Now, could things take a complete ####, of course! But, that’s always the case.

I think it goes back to what we’ve always preached on here. Save money, and a LOT of it so that your insulated as much as possible.

Nothing is going to change, the weak in the herd will get eatin, and the strong or smart, even better yet strong and smart will get by and thrive when possible.

All the craziness aside, it would surprise me if any decent operation hasn’t made more money in 2020 then they did in 2019. Even with the shut down and those 3 months of severe rate drought.

I’ll wrap up this long post by saying I’m very scared for a new administration but heck there was half the country scared after the 2016 one. I think it’s in my best interest to put my head down and pump out as much progress in my personal life and business as possible and utilize my mind and energy in as positive a way as I can. If not, I think I’ll just be penalizing myself during a time where I need to be striving in order to off set ideals for this country that I disagree with in every part of my being.

 

I agree with all of that.

I think I can clarify what I said a bit.

I think right now is a bad time for an upstart because of the uncertainty. So much money gets laid out in the beginning if there's not a lot of time to get to a good gallop that's not a good situation.

So really I guess what I'm saying is in general this is a bad time to get started but it's an especially bad time if you're not in a situation with extremely low overhead.

I think with all of the uncertainty if someone goes out and buys a truck and has a $2,500 a month payment and $1,000 a month payment on the trailer and a $1,500 a month payment on his insurance that's insane with all the uncertainty.

I don't think it's a great idea otherwise but at least if you have a lot of money in the bank and you have everything paid off and you have an extremely low overhead then that's better anyway.

It's still insane though if you're leaving a good job.

 

I would expect interest rates to remain artificially low a long time it’s the only way the government can pretend to handle the massive debt.

 

Go watch you tube it’s not trolling. Plenty of idiots that think they are getting rich in this business. They have no business being in this business. Who am I to say that though. I mean I can grill a mean cheeseburger up, don’t mean I’m going to open a cook out restaurant. Just yesterday or the day before I come across a video on you tube of some guy sleeping in his pick up truck on thanksgiving cause there was no loads, he said he would be there until Monday. So there is no shortage of ####ing stupid in this business. Cause trust me if I was going to New England the day before thanksgiving that load would of paid enough to dead head home and then some. My trucks been parked for 2 weeks. Nothing worth a #### to even turn the truck on. Within 200 miles of the house. No shortage of clowns that will haul the #### I think is way below sub par though. Half these clowns got by on govt loans thru the “pandemic” and that’s how most are getting started. You also have the “I retired with a huge pension now I want to play trucker” crowd.

Sorry for the rant, yes it’s my fault I rely mainly on broker freight. Come spring time I can haul for a direct customer for a few months, that should work well, and I’ve made excellent money this year. It is frustrating when I see what people haul for and the conditions people are willing to live thru just to say they are self employed I guess. The whole point of being self employed and being independent is financial freedom and doing what I love to do. Not living as poor as possible and skimming by.

 

2721 Miles, $1.94 mile....eye roll!

 

I should have been clearer, I did not mean on your end as a broker.

 

That's fair. No worries, here.

 

Truck stops, rest stops and even DOT scales are jam packed full of parked rigs every night. If freight lets up even a little it's gonna get brutal out here.