Just plain old ugly outside. Deeply overcast and raining with a chill in the air. I don't like wet cold. Never have and never will. But the bugs are backed off a little bit this morning and I am grateful for that. I reckon there is a silver lining in every dark cloud if we but know what to look for.
I am thinking about the trucking industry this morning. It is getting cooked down to just the big boys. The independent trucker is getting his ass tore off. Something like 50 or 100 a day are mailing their plates in to the Indiana BMV every day. That is going to be a lot of drivers looking for other work. And most of them are not covered by unemployment. For them it will be root hog or die. I hate this crap. These guys are just trying to make a living and they are getting stepped on like bugs. So we lose a lot of truckers and the big boys gobble up what is left and to hell with the people. And everything the people gets is hauled by truck. There ain't a damn thing I can think of that does not reach destination by truck. Everything in your grocery store. Every thing you buy at a hamburger joint. Every article of clothing at the stores. Your fuel. Your tires. Your medicine. Your guns and ammo. EVERYTHING.
And the truckers are going out rapidly. What will happen to us? It's hard to say. But it will not be good. And don't forget those men who drive and haul every day. They will be out of work. I reckon that after a couple of years of misery and hunger we will see something arise from the ashes that will give us our supplies again. To be truthful, I think we will be better off not buying food and other stuff if we can possibly keep from it. Grow your food. Mend your clothes. Let your kids make their own toys. Except for some essential medicines we need to get by with as little economic activity concerning the general national economy as we possibly can. And don't forget that Warren Buffet invested HIS money in the railroad last week. (I think something is trying to get through to me.) But no matter what happens I am finding this truck shut down troubling. This cannot do us any good.
The market is nuts again. Gold is down as well as silver. The dollar is up, and we all know the dollar is as useless as tits on a boar. The other countries of the world are printing up currency just as fast as we are but the dollar is acting like it is just a little too sick to hold anymore. And why should they sacrifice what little security they have to do us any favors? With all the treasury bills we have handed out over the years we sure haven't done anything to earn any fiscal loyalty. Stay alive.
Michael
mboone@rtccom.net
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My husband builds over-the-road trucks for a living, almost 15 years now, and the market is really weird. We had a big layoff about 3 years ago and then an illegal lockout that lead to a strike 2 years ago. As it is now, they're working overtime, lots of it. He said for the first time in a couple years orders are going up, but he's already planning on trouble next year when it's time for a new contract.
I don't see how the truckers have made it this far. Very few will get jobs with the big trucking groups and all the rest will be out like the rest of the country looking for work. I saw that the real unemployment rate is more like 17.5%, and I think that is still low for California. I would bet that here in CA it's more like 19%. The dollar it all but dead and the big fall is coming I can feel it in my bones.
http://patriotsagainstthenwo.blogspot.com/
Big companies consuming small truckers is much like Walmart, Autozone/O'reilly's, and Lowe's/Home Depot consuming small independent stores.
In the case of retail stores, in the long run you end up with people getting lower prices for the most popular items but the price is that many people with decent paying jobs (many of them self-employed) now make much less money working for the big company. At the same time while the price on the most popular items may be lower (along with the quality in many cases) the availability of less popular items is much worse.
In the case of the trucking industry, the big customers get lower prices (and probably worse service since the drivers are now working for someone else instead of themselves) and the smaller customers get much worse service at higher prices. This will put even more pressure on the small independently owned retail stores that still survive.
Hell, I don't know what to say other than truckers out of work tells us that the collapse is moving right along. It sucks when people lose their livlihood, but it'll probably wake a few more people up to what's going on...
Well Folks I am one of those small truck companies hanging in there. In April 2008 I had 14 trucks contracted with me, now I'm down to 2 local and 3 on loan to another agency ( gotta keep people going somehow) where they are not happy and can't wait to get back here, I really don't see it happening just yet.
In past few years thousands upon thousand of o/o have gone under along with a few of the big boys too. Its sad to see years of being your own boss gone after being company for a few years to be an o/o.
Thanks for thinking about how trucking effects our lives, now think also how dependent trucking has made our lives also, I truly understand and believe in planning and I do that more so now that I moved over to Indiana from Louisville. Am truly glad I found this blog off of MD blog and can be around like minded people, God bless you and yours always.
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