Ice Road Trucking Problems: Hint-Not Global Warming!
Posted on Apr 24, 2009 - 9:00am by Linda Sunkle-Pierucki in Economy
Trucking is suffering everywhere. Even the Ice Road Truckers crew is seeing less freight this year. According to a report in Today’s Trucking, one mine has closed and others are shipping less. The NWT Motor Transport Association says this is simply a factor of the economic slowdown and they expect tonnage to rebound once the economy picks up. You’ll be able to continue to get your weekly fix of Alex, Drew, Hugh and the gang, they’ve got freight and they’re truckin!
I’ve never quite seen what the attraction is to this show. I know all kinds of people that are addicted to it. My son and husband watch it religiously even in reruns. To me, it’s another bad northern run in February. I know there’s a whole lot more to it than that, but that’s the feeling I get whenever it’s on. I get that queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. And the crew is just exaggerated caricatures of all the truckers I’ve ever known, you could swear you’ve met them somewhere before. All in all, it probably gives a better public image of trucking than the Smokey and The Bandit, though.
Speaking of Trucking News Good and Bad:
Another little tidbit I picked up out of Today’s Trucking is the Schneider Logistics annual State of the Industry review. We all have our own opinions on what the industry looks like, and it’s usually heavily colored by our own personal experience. It’s never a bad idea to know what premise the competition is operating under; Schneider Logistics looks at capacity, freight and pricing scenarios not only in the United States but Canada, Mexico, China and Europe in the recent past and what they see coming up in the future. The report not only covers all types of truck freight, including TTL, LTL and Expedite but rail and ocean shipping prospects too.
There have been times when I’ve felt these big players make their own history, they have very clear ideas of where they want the industry to go and often have the power and connections to make it happen. In order for the independent owner operator to succeed and even thrive in this environment, he’s going to have to plan in advance to position himself to take advantage of what the big players do and don’t do. So, here’s the pdf file of their report, 38 pages of recent history, facts and likely scenarios. And quotes like these:
“It’s going to be a big nasty.” Thom Albrecht, analyst, Stevens and “Customers are drooling over new chances to beat up on carriers.” John Q. Anderson, Fenway Partners
Anyway, here’s your homework. And remember; keep the dirty side down and all the ink black!
RSS feed for comments on this post | Trackback URI
We're on Twitter!
1. Tried watching Ice Road Truckers once – it’s like “professional” wrestling – moronic.
2. What is “Today’s Trucking?” Never heard of it. Is it a magazine, website, blog or other?
3. What is “TTL?” http://www.acronymfinder.com/TTL.html shows no trucking/logistics connection to “TTL.”
4. I don’t have to read a 38 page report from “Schneider” to know that – like the banks, the economists, the government, the auto industry and all the other greedy bastards – “they” have absolutely no clue as to how to deal with this economy.
5. The “premise” (unusual term for you to use) the “big guys” use to do business is the same as it was 50 years ago – undercut the owner operator. Price it lower than the competition ie: JB Hunt. Move it at a loss if necessary. Make it up somewhere else. Use new drivers at $.28 per mile.
6. Right now and for the next 2-3 years it is a SHIPPERS market.