future of trucking

[alborz]

Hello friends.
Please comment how do you see future of trucking industry. As time passes the rates and loads get lower and shorter.

From April of this year when I pass by a Richie Brothers auction site, I see hundreds of trucks are auctioned at each auction . Many have big company names on them. Previous years barely you could count thirty plus trucks at the auction.

[Magard]

I see it as big fleets buy new trucks. Owner operators buy those used 450k mile trucks that are “fleet maintained” which means 50k oil change intervals and ran to the end based off of statistics on maintenance. Then owner operator or small fleets go broke because they are getting very complicated to work on yourself. Very few elite owner operator that works on their own stuff will make it. Better have a cool 40k in the bank to start with because that truck is gonna be a maintenance nightmare for a while. The owner operator that works like it’s feast or famine ever day. If there’s a paying load that works for you, you better take it. Those guys that work on truck on weekend and drive it during the week will make it just out of shear determination. But they have no life. Wife hardly ever sees you because your married to the truck. Or other options is buy a new truck like fleets only, you pay twice as much. Drive the shi#t out of it and not have the big maintenance bill and maybe have the weekend off but still no money to enjoy it anyway. It’s a dogs life. The company guys have no idea what a owner operator goes through. They all think there gonna get rich owning there own truck and have time off too. It just doesn’t work that way. Most company guys think the boss is getting rich. A truck will make maybe 15% of the gross dollars as profits. Looks like the rates have come down around that much in the last year. Now truck companies are going broke. This pattern will stay in the low side for a while as it’s just starting down.

[Chamberpains]

This period in time is just another slow down in trucking. Trucking is a huge roller coaster ride with some sharp highs and soul crushing lows.

We were very fortunate for the last 2 years to have a long high period. It doesn't happen very often for very long in trucking. But when it does it usually causes more long term problems than it does relief. People get short term stars in their eyes with big numbers and easier money. A lot of businesses and people bought in while everything is high. Thinking it was gonna go up from there. So they didn't make plans to see numbers drop. Or bigger companies see long term profit and they start to get lazy with it. Spending on needless stuff or taking the easy route instead of the cost effective route and they end up eating shi#t when things slow down. Just like what we're seeing now.

Its all temporary and will pass. But you need to see the whole picture to make this ride a bit smoother.

We as truck drivers and operators know all to well what the daily grind is. It seems all we know is how to push through. And we're damn good at. But that leaves us perpetually fatigued one way or another. Very few of us know what success is in this industry, let alone having a clear goal and a laid out path to follow. Knowing when you can actually turn away work because your good. You've made enough for now.

I was very guilty of this for a long time. Until i happened to catch a post by Rawze where he was bringing up some hypotheticals with different trucks and one of the hypothetical trucks he attached some , what seemed to be, very specific numbers and a goal to reach with the truck and the operation. It sounded a lot like what he describes his trucking operation. Something like $1.3 million gross in 7 years in low rent van freight and keeping as much of it as humanly possible (I'm just guessing cause I can't find the post right now) but it was a high number like that. That's when a light bulb went off in my head. It finally clicked. I NEVER HAD A CLEAR GOAL AND FINISH LINE. I don't know when Im successful and on track. I don't know what to do once I'm successful.

I imagine like most that are endlessly toiling to pay bills and keep the ship of life righted, we all know how to run number to make ends meet. Get all those bills paid to keep all the stuff we have with a little left over to play and MAYBE retire some day. But have many of us actually figured out how much money is needed to say we're done for now? Im successful enough and on track enough to NOT take work on and not have to worry so much about slow downs or slow periods? I'll bet not. I'll bet most of us are living week to week month to month and HOPING it adds up in the end. Why not have a clear number and KNOW that its adding up.

Having a clear goal to reach and seeing the big picture makes times like these nothing but another blip on the journey. Slow downs don't last forever. If you do the math and get that huge number and break that number down in to an amount per year and then monthly, it'll smooth out that daily and weekly roller coaster we're on. Because you have enough for now. You can begin to say you don't need to make huge money, or that's just too much work for the return pay. Or while its slow, im on track, im gonna take time to enjoy other things.

Learn how and when to say "I'm good, I don't need to trade my hard work for money right now because im on track" learn how to be successful and how to recognize that your successful. Have a plan for what your gonna do and definitely what your not gonna do when you're successful.

[redbeard]

Chamberpains, you are so right. It has taken me over 20 years of up and down, switching and adjusting company game plane to stay in the game.
It can be exhausting, overwhelming and very hard on the people most important to you. Family pays a price. The sooner we figure “this” out the better for everyone.
One of my biggest pet peeve is how many o/o do not prepare for retirement financially and just pretend there ok for now.
This is a business and you must do what needs to get done, or find another way.
Easy money is a dream rarely obtained.