Somewhat Hopeful News

[ATeam]

Many have said here in the Open Forum that a recession shakes out the weak players and the strong pick up the slack. I came across this article today that puts some numbers to the theory.

While it appears things will get worse before they get better, it was encouraging to read, "A record number of trucks, in a record amount of time, representing a record amount of the nation's capacity has been taken out of service," (an analyst) said in an e-mail interview. "Even a small pickup in demand will create a very tight capacity situation very quickly."

 

[nobb4u]

Actually Phil I know I will probably catch some flack for this but I think the fuel prices surge will probably in the long run be a plus to those of us who are able to hang on.

What has happened the owner operators out here who have driven their own trucks and thought of themselves as "truck drivers" and not as "business owners" either already have or will be going under.

As O/O they have been able for years to just pretend they were truck drivers who made a decent wage and never had to give the fact that they were actually running a business and had to calculate were every penny went or where it had to go. Such as instead of putting away that extra $1000 for another price spike in fuel prices they decide on getting that really good looking Texas bumper, or adding another couple hundred LED lights.

So pretty soon here comes the repo man, because where the fuel cost for the month went from a usual $5000.00 to a huge bill of $15000.00. And the truck driver was driving the truck but not running the business.

So now we have all these poor souls who have been running as truck drivers are no longer out there. And when things stabilize and they will, there will plenty of freight at decent rates for those of us who were diligent in thinking ahead and watching all the pennies. We realize that every mile counts whether it is loaded or empty.

I get load offers that pay $2-$3 a mile until I add the deadhead and it can easily drop below a $1 so that is an absolute refusal. ALL MILES COUNT!!

Just MHO

 

[moose]

Hi ,Phil , Please allow me to hijack your thread ,as you are talking about capacity...
on the low side of the scale ,many of us are waiting for the day ,in wich there will be enough freight for cargo-vans to hoal .
well ,here is an observation : as long as hard working American will continue to loose they're jobs ,there will be workers that see CV as an EZ way for making an income,
our elected President (no, not this one ,the one before)have sayied today as he was wrapping the global economic meeting ,that the actions taken by the administration have already inshore the credit line for many American ,if he is knowing what he is talking about , then it will continue to be EZ to walk with no credit to the dealer and leave with a new van...
Maybe ???




Moose.