Posted on 08/28/2012 9:13:09 AM PDT by blam
America's Truckers Have Some Bad News About The US Economy
Sam Ro
Aug. 28, 2012, 10:50 AM
Almost every good we own has been in a truck at one point or another. As such trucking volumes are a key bellwether of the U.S. economy.
Unfortunately, truck volumes are looking "weaker than normal" so far in August. This is according to Christian Wetherbee, Citi's trucking analyst.
From his note to clients:
Last week we conducted a series of channel checks in the Truckload sector and while July freight was in line with expected seasonality, and up from last year’s relative weakness, August volumes were a bit weaker than expected. It appears that August loads were barely positive YoY and roughly flat sequentially (typically August volumes improve from July). Multiple carriers cited uncertainty over the election and overall economic softness as the drivers of August weakness and expected September softness. In addition, as we noted in our weekly, September has two fewer work days than in 2011, which may skew its typical seasonal strength and makes comps more challenging.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Combine this with rail volume being down over the last couple of quarters, and things aren’t ‘trending in the right direction’. Add in a bad drought and things could get bumpy here for a while.
Smart of the Teamsters ro support Obama.
Mrs. RQSR is CSR for a major national truckload carrier in America. She stated to me a couple of months ago that they were calling customers begging for freight. It’s a legitimate indicator of the condition of the economy when freight haulers of the magnitude of the company she works for are underbooked, and scrounging for freight not only here in California, but at all points they do business across the country.
Pray for America.
“Smart of the Teamsters ro support Obama.”
Actually my guess is that it’s only to large extent the Teamsters “leadership.” When truckers are not able to earn a living, they will vote to change that circumstance.
I judge the economy by how bad the traffic is. If there aren’t many cars and trucks on the road driving me crazy, that means there aren’t too many people going to work, buying cars, and shipping things. And I find now that I can drive even in the historically awful traffic of the DC area, number two in the nation, and go places quickly. Not a positive sign.
At my place of employment, I meet with freight reps fairly regularly. They have been mentioning that “things are slow” in the freight business. It shocks some people because the presstitutes keep pushing the mantra of a “recovery” when there isn’t one.
I used to work in my Dad’s warehouse after school. I soon learned you can get a good idea of how the economy is doing, just ask a truck driver. Or better yet see how full his(or her) trailer is.
I used to work in my Dad’s warehouse after school. I soon learned you can get a good idea of how the economy is doing, just ask a truck driver. Or better yet see how full his(or her) trailer is.
The big UP railyard in Roseville CA is virtually empty.
In 0bamalalaland press:
Truckers finally able to relax, enjoy their families and take well deserved vacations.
Developing...
That can be said about the UAW also. I have a large number of retired friends and aquaintences who are retired skilled tradesmen from the Big 3 who are diehard conservatives here in S.E. Michigan.
Several of them weren't until half way thru Obama's administration but they finally saw the light......
I used to work in a manufacturing plant that made over-the-road trailers. They were ALWAYS the first to lose orders in a recession and last to get orders back after a recession.
Out with political correctness! Abolish no-fault divorce! Hire the family man! Oh...that was during the ‘90s about the anti-Americanism in business, government and academic leadership from the ‘70s, on. Too late.
We’re getting into the part about consequences, aren’t we. The beast is beginning to starve, and funding for her social engineering shopping list will be cut again in a few months. Maybe she’ll try inflating and violating more freedoms, hiking taxes, etc. That would give us a great dose of dark humor.
On to the real and inevitable funding cuts one way or another. With no private sector remaining to be robbed, it’ll be one expensive federal government income recipient lobby against another before long. Which lobby will be the last to lose: public education, pensions, social work, psychology, planning/building inspection/zoning, police/surveillance, animal worship/protection, emergency/rescue, residential real estate, tourism, environmentalism/forestry/wildlife?
On the other side of the economic correction party, maybe I’ll make a few needed parts (gears, shafts and the like) for the more deserving (others who make useful things). ‘Till then, it’s illegal to produce anything of value (zoning, NIMBY-ism, gossip-ism: anti-competition efforts,...).
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