On Thursday we noted that April orders for class 8 heavy trucks fell a staggering 73% year over year, and 44% from March – the worst order numbers on record as coronavirus shutdowns have put the trucking industry on the cusp of a “freight cliff” according to a FEMA report obtained by Politico.
Unsurprisingly, truck drivers have suffered an absolute bloodbath – losing approximately 88,300 jobs in April alone, according to Business Insider, which notes that it’s the largest single-month loss of trucking jobs on record (with records going back to 1990).
April wiped out all trucking employments gained during the past five years and a half years [sic], bringing the industry back to its employment numbers in November 2014.
The rest of the April jobs report, which was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 8, was similarly jarring. Some 20.5 million payrolls were cut in April, which is 25 times larger than the worst monthly decline seen during the recession in the late 2000s. –Business Insider
And while truck drivers are considered “essential” workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, a collapse in freight volumes – of which nearly 75% of are moved by truck – has resulted in the devastating loss of jobs as the economy remains at a standstill.
Nationwide, the unemployment rate is now 14.7% – the highest since the Great Depression as BI notes.
Problems were already there
According to industry data from Broughton Capital, the trucking industry was already in bad shape – with around 640 companies going bankrupt in the first half of 2019, an increase of more than 300% over 2018’s bankruptcies. According to the Institute of Supply Management, the 2019 trucking recession was due to the decline in manufacturing, which had contracted for several months last year.
There were a lot of companies in the first few weeks of this that were cutting drivers pay, or straight up laying people off. A lot of the “non essential” freight dried up. There were a ton of them outside of the White House that were protesting the unfair rates they were getting. The pay they were getting couldn’t even cover the fuel costs. So it’s come down to what Henry was talking about in the beginning of this, they have to come after transportation. That’s one big way they can really get to us. I haul dairy, so I’m still running, but I’m waiting for them to come for us next.
Here in the islands, we do food distribution, we have been holding on with mostly hour reductions, couple drivers have left to competitor that is offering FT hrs (not sure how they are doing that) and now we have been told to start laying off by percentage of business reductions.
It seems odd to me that as business is supposed to be getting back to at least a higher volume soon, they are now doing permanent layoffs…when we have been holding on for so long already.
BS, I guess the companies are not so sure about the near future…
all I can say is, no change here, working my ass off, just picked up from Wilmington Port, Delaware for Florida, Fruit Juices from offshore.
Inexperience will hurt you..
Bad driving record? Its bye bye…
This is when you dont want to work for large companies, you want to work for a small fleet owner.
If you cant handle tight situations, or close maneuvering while backing. Your history.
Alot of real tight hard situations now, goodbye to the easy stuff.
Alot of kiss ass with brokers now, they want you to haul ass, plenty of phone contact, etc. You dont do it, your gone, you get alot of flat tires, your gone, you get over weight tickets, your gone, your trailer is dirty, your gone, etc, etc…
Heavy maintenance problems, yep, you guessed it, your gone.
Now its all about the kiss ass thing…
Off topic but… Mark, did the Lexington/Concord coin arrive? Tracking says delivered last week. I know you’re on the road a lot so you may not have gotten to it yet. Would bring peace of mind to know it arrived safely. Thanks.
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I’m sure it did. I won’t get my hands on it for a while. Maybe a month.
Thanks for letting me know. And wow, you must arrive to huge piles of mail.
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Yeah Mark, same thing with me, I haven’t seen much of change. It was slow initially (like the first two weeks from the shock of everything), but then we got crazy busy and its been constant. I do think if they want to have food shortages, they will have to do something to mess with us. What they’re planning? I haven’t the slightest idea.