Posted on 11/06/2023 9:40:05 PM PST by SeekAndFind
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania — Two months ago, 30,000 truckers at Yellow lost their jobs when one of the nation’s oldest and largest trucking companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Last week, Convoy, the digital freight broker that was supposed to reinvent the wheel and disrupt the trucking industry in a positive way, also abruptly shuttered its doors.
These kinds of closings by both freight carriers lay bare the uncertain state of trucking, an industry that is an indicator of the mood of the consumer and also the beating heart of our economy.
“In my opinion, this industry is heading in the wrong direction, and when trucking and supply chain freight is heading in the wrong direction, so is the country. I am just not sure that people understand there is a problem,” said Rick McQuaide, who runs a freight company in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, as well as in Florida.
“The damage started when people went on a spending spree during COVID-19. The government was giving out cash, and people started ordering things in a way they have never done before,” McQuaide explained.
As a result, McQuaide said, new trucks were on the road to meet the consumers’ needs.
Beginning last year, that need started to recede when consumers’ spending spree started to ebb, and, as a result, several different things have happened in the industry, beginning with too many trucks in comparison to the amount of freight that is available.
That, McQuaide said, hits the truckers and truck companies hard: “The economy is slowing from its frenzy, people aren’t buying anymore, which means there are more trucks on the road than there are loads, and it’s forcing the rates down.”
McQuaide said his company’s rates are about 20% lower than last year.
“In other words, last year, we go from Pittsburgh to Allentown, maybe $1,200. This year, we’re lucky to get $900,” he said, adding, “You have more truckers fighting for the same loads that exist now, and that’s driving the rates down.”
Truckers are making less than they did in per-mile peak earnings, McQuaide said.
“Inflation plays a big part of that — at the same time, operating costs are going up.”
McQuaide, who also owns and runs a logistics company that has a series of warehouses holding imports and exports, says the freight recession is real.
“It isn’t just in the trucking world. It is also in air freight and in the rail industries.”
He said he worries not enough people are considering the wider implications of people not spending and truckers not having anything to move.
“This slump is real,” he said flatly.
McQuaide said the trucking industry, or any form of transportation that is moving goods, is the ultimate economic indicator of where the country is heading.
“It provides very valuable insights into the health of where the economy is going and into the mindset of the consumer: Are they spending, or are they feeling uncertain and moving within,” he asked rhetorically.
September data from the government contradicted McQuaide’s concerns, showing a surge in consumer spending — 0.4% to be exact. But economists, like McQuaide, were cautious in reaction.
The Associated Press reported that many households have been spending their money unwisely, tapping into shrinking savings accounts and pulling out the credit cards.
Data also show that when people are spending, they are rethinking forking out money on the big things, such as dishwashers, shiny new stainless stoves and refrigerators, which backs up what McQuaide is seeing on the freight side.
“That is what we are seeing on the freight side, and that is not a good omen for the U.S. economy. That spending had kept us out of a recession,” he said. “Now that consumers are pulling back, we should be paying more attention to what that means.”
In the Kalifornia ports, they placed restrictions on the age of the trucks that can operate there. If you have a perfectly good truck to pull a load, but it is too old, you cannot pick it up.
I notice blank spaces on my grocery store shelves, that never stopped being there since the plandemic. It varies, one week I can’t find my orange juice concentrate, then a few weeks later it reappears. But then it’s something else that’s missing. I keep thinking about the old Soviet Union pictures of their store shelves, and their bread lines. Welcome to the Great Reset, I guess.
Worse now, You need to obey CA CARB laws with all Diesel Trucks over 15k, all Diesel RVs and any Diesel Powered boat or locomotive over 15k.
doesnt matter where it’s registered. You have to do quarterly inspections if you enter CA, and it must be submitted to carb’s Database they’re building, and you foot the bill of by paying a smog database fee yearly. You can have no codes in the computer at test time. If you have a code for a tail light, you fail. Trucks can be forced to test at any time, when they go through the scales and their sniffer’s they’re installing think your trucks emissions are above the usual for its make/model.
if its defined as “non OBD” its a 6 month inspection. applies to specifically 2011 and 2012 trucks, and boats/locomotives. just an opacity test.
went into effect in july, with the rest in Jan.
We ain’t seen anything yet.
Let the voters get used to eating zee [WEF] bugs.
>> I notice blank spaces on my grocery store shelves &etc
Thank you for your comment. I thought I was the only one!
Used to be able to get buckwheat pancake mix any time I wanted, and three cheese Rosa sauce. There has not been either since Covid. Sun dried tomatoes finally reappeared after a year or so so I can make Rosa from scratch but it isn’t as convenient.
Buckwheat...still missing.
Malted milk available only at Wal-Mart now, I think.
16 Macintosh apples $51.99 online that’s $3.25 each because they are not grown in Mexico. Can’t find them at WalMart this year first time ever. If you order the smallest item online maybe weighing 2 ounces or less, they charge you nine or ten dollars shipping. I don’t buy this “too many trucks chasing too few packages” bullshit. If that were true the cost of shipping would be dropping not increasing. Lying to U.S. consumers and ripping them off has become a sheltered profession.
“16 Macintosh apples $51.99 online that’s $3.25”
That is crazy. I think I’ll get in the produce export business. I just bought 1/2 bushel of Stayman Winesap apples for $20.00 in central PA. This must have been an exceptional year for growing this variety; the apples were huge. I didn’t count them but easily 50+; but 1/2 bushel is half a bushel regardless of the count.
I’ve taken to the Kodiak brand pancake mix. Stick-to-your ribs hearty, but pricey.
Freight charges down, fuel prices up. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
The Federal Tax Receipts are way down in 23 over 22, while tax rates went up. Thanks Bidenomics.
Well shit. Let's just price them at $12,283,298.76 each. Half measures avail us nothing.
F*** California. I don’t even violate their airspace, a precaution you should always take with any neighboring, hostile communist country.
Deliberate way to hobble the economy!
yes
since covid
we used to take shopping for granted
Exactly.
Pennsylvania Ping!Temporarily filling-in for lightman, while he's smashing PA's demonKKKrat voting poll fraud & corruption, on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday.
We bought new trucks to meet the current demand, and now they reap the rewards of the greed based opportunist company. They should have at least consulted a host of banks, investment firms and even state and federal government before investing in millions of dollars worth of new vehicles.
Instead they looked at the current demand and when wild trying to cash in. Greed and a lack of any foresight.
👍👍
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