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| Economy |
| What the 'Great Trucking Recession' Is Warning Us About the Economy |
| 2023-11-07 |
| [Hot Air] 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. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #6 Used to love hearing WWL's Road Gang show during night shifts when I was too busy or too tired to read. Nothing like shivering at the weather in Revelstoke while soaking and sweating in the muggly stuff between two fans. Dragged me taste in country music kicking and screaming into the '50s. |
| Posted by: Chirong Lumumba6331 2023-11-07 22:20 |
| #5 The Old Big Rigs – What It Was Like To Drive Them "Retired? See the Country, Drive a Big Rig" Are older commercial truck drivers causing more danger on nation's highways? Company drivers may stay employed as the industry winds down but retirees that cashed their 401ks to buy a rig are going to hurt. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-11-07 10:21 |
| #4 I will add, who was walking around at all those sales? Immigrant families. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-11-07 08:49 |
| #3 Drove up the center of Florida on Saturday, every little town was having a community wide yard sale. If people would give up on shiny new Chinese crap, buy existing stuff and the country generate a healthy industry of refurbishment / repair shops, we could re-make the "consumer economy" in ways that would benefit the USA instead of the rest of the world. Of course, nobody (WEF, cough, cough) wants that. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-11-07 08:49 |
| #2 We are about to achieve actual lockdown. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2023-11-07 08:48 |
| #1 So class - trucking, ocean shipping and air freight demand is down simultaneously. What does that tell us about the actual state of the domestic economy? |
| Posted by: Griter Slash1619 2023-11-07 08:43 |