What Kind of Year Will 2009 Be For You?

[ATeam]

Nobody in the financial press is saying the 2009 economy will be better than 2008 (at least no one I have seen). Since freight levels and prices are affected by general economic conditions, I am wondering what kind of year y'all expect?

Some veterans of past hard times report hauling less than one load a week in some months. Is that something to mentally, emotionally and financially prepare for now?

 

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We are looking forward to a good year in 2009. We had many wierd things happen to us 2008 that affected our bottom line. It is very unlikely that those things will repeat themselves next year. Sump pumps don't fail all that often and with the new back up system we are confident that we won't have a repeat of that fun. We lost almost two weeks to that mess. It is also not likely that we will have our cargo box totalled by a hurricane. We have lost a good bit of time already with that one and still are looking at loosing another 3-5 weeks when the new box is ready. On the flip side the new box will be really cool (a pun that I intended being a reefer truck) and should help provide a greater varitity of work for us in the new year.

As to what has happened in past years when the economy was down, nothing is ever the same. There is only one thing that never changes and that is the fact that everything changes all the time. Our industry has been growing and changing over the 3 years since we started and I bet the real old timers have seen massive changes. The industry has deversified the types of frieght we carry in since we started. I can only imagine the change over the last 10 or 15. We feel that our carrier is always looking for new business and hope that will help in the more difficult years. The more kinds of freight your carrier has access too the more likely you are to work in lean times.

Let us all hope that the U.S. ecomony is still as agile and resillent now as it as been in the past. We have always overcome these things in the past. As a people we are tough and smart and if things are not messed with too much by government the people will find new ways to make things work.
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