I work for a small tanker company. ( 25 trucks) we haul mostly grease to animal feed mills and bio diesel plants, seems the colder it is, the more work we have, one reason is the animals eat more when it's cold.

 

i'm working for a construction/paving company and as long as the weather is decent (no rain) and the plants are open we have been busy. Seems like we were busier in 2007 than in 2006, but both years were good for us. I'm actually hoping that it rains a little monday because my truck is in the shop and i've been working on the crew for the past two weeks.

 

my boss also owns a dump company with about 20 tandems and about 20 dump wagons, they have been really slow since last year, that's why I went on the tanker, they are slow to the point that he dropped the insurance on all but 8 of the tandems and 4 of the dump wagons, not sure what the problem is there, construction is down, but it's still going, oh well, animals will always have to eat, so I guess the tanker job is secure, but I sure miss being home every night.

 

A couple of months ago, our Dear, Beloved President said that the nation's economy is "strong and healthy with a few storm clouds". This month, he's asking Congress for $145 Billion in "tax rebates" and "incentives for corporations" to JUMP-START the economy.

Oh, Dear Mr. President Bush... If our economy is strong and healthy.... Why do we need a JUMP-START?????

Because housing starts have stopped. Mortgage forclosures are at an all-time high. And, builders are offering 30% to 60% price cuts on "overstock" housing so they can get out from under the property tax burden. And a 17% inflation rate for 2007.

Also, American children are now being diagnosed with RICKETS, thought to have been stamped out more than a hundred years ago. Parents are faced with buying a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas. A gallon of milk will keep their kids healthy, but that gallon of gas is the difference between getting to work or missing work and losing their jobs.

That jump-start may last about 3 months, or it may simply fizzle. And whether you believe it or not, it all comes down to the cost of energy. No "COST OF LIVING RAISES". After all, FOOD and ENERGY do not figure into the cost of living or inflation.

Yes, we are in a recession. And, this one will be worse than any in many years. It may even go into a depression. We may well be looking at whole families going homeless, and that has not happened since the 1930's. Hunker down and dig in, folks. It's going to be a rocky ride. For too many years, we've allowed a group of foreign powers to regulate the cost of our energy, and that controls our economy.

 

Geomon, I have spoken with several people lately who have basically stated the same thing. I spoke with one friend from Nevada who was told by a clerk that there have been literally hundred's of owner operators turning in their plates in that one office alone. Anytime there are large fuel spikes and lower rates you will find owner operators losing their trucks. There is one guy I know who has already turned in one truck and will probably turn in another one. I don't know that it is in every part of the country, some will be hit harder than others. We still seem to be doing fairly well, but still need to fill a drivers seat. With me, it is more a matter of finding a good qualified driver rather than a lack of freight. I can usually come up with something that pays decent, even if I have to deadhead to a better freight area. I just try to stay out of the bad freight areas. I think the owner operators who are leased to carriers are suffering more than those of us who run our own authority. When you are leased to a carrier, you rely on them for your freight. If you run your own authority, you can get a load anywhere. We can negotiate better rates where someone who is leased to a carrier may not be able to do much negotiating. Some owner operators obligate themselves for large payments. When slow times come they cannot meet their obligations because they over committed on the payment and didn't put enough aside to see themselves through these slow times. A new owner operator should not have a payment over $1,000/month. In talking to another fleet owner I know, he thinks that an owner operator should keep his payment under $500/month. When you have a cheap payment, you can always double up and pay the truck off early. When things are slow, you should have been able to save enough to make payments during those times. It is much easier to make a $500 payment than $1,500 or more.

When business is slow, those with big payments tend to panic. They are so scared of sitting for a day to get a better rate that they are willing to take anything, going anywhere, for any rate offered to keep moving. That is the worst thing they can do, but I see it all the time. Most carriers don't realize that they control the rates. They think the shipper or broker controls rates. If the carrier or owner operator refuses to haul below a certain price, then he controls the rate. He needs to know what he rate he needs to haul freight. A shipper or broker is out of business unless they can move their products. The owner operator is out of business if he hauls freight less than his operating costs and a fair profit. In order to move those products the broker or shipper must find a truck to move it. These people will not pay more than they must to move a load. They make a profit on what they sell. Why should an owner operator not demand a rate that will guarantee him a fair profit after covering his operating expenses? If an owner operator gets a fair price and keeps his expenses low, then he will survive and make a decent profit. I spoke with another friend of mine a few days ago who is leased to a carrier. He told me that his fuel costs were running about 50% of what he is making. He is averaging about $1.30/mile for all miles. He is having financial difficulties. I have not yet convinced him that running a lot of miles doesn't necessarily translate into profit. I do think that I am making progress.

 

I'm afraid you may be right on.

I've been visiting a few finance/investment forums and a whole crapload of those folks have been comparing notes and crunching numbers the last couple months and I'm seeing a LOT of "We're in deep shit and .gov can't bail us out of this...." type posting going on.

And not a lot of argument to the contrary.

 

I know what you mean considering the cost of fuel has TRIPLED in 7 years let alone the cost of Insurance yet what has our great president done. Drained our treasury by going to war with a country that had nothing to do with the attacks of 9-11 also giving away all the surplus that he was given. Face facts people our Nations debt DOUBLED under DUBBA Bush and soon the bill will come due when it does say goodbye to the USA.

 

It is going to be interesting to watch, (in a perverse way) as the banks attempt to shore up their “shadow banking” activities. And the gov’t to tries to explain away the “cooked” numbers on inflation, personal income levels, jobs creation, etc. .
DaveP: You are very wise to learn from these financial forums. Learn as much as you can. It is very possible, depending on who you believe, that our entire banking system is under assault. For years now the banks and Wall Street have been trading “off balance sheet” derivatives, these are now in the TRILLIONS of dollars. It is a house of cards, founded on totally reckless lending practices, greed, and a huge amount of unregulated imagination.
Recession will most likely occur, jobs will be lost, the severity will depend on how fast and how much the gov’t is willing to spend to bail out the banks, Wall Street, and the money speculators to save our banking system from collapse, our economy from a depression similar to the 30’s, possibly even our way of life here. Depends on which “Chicken Little” we believe. I personally believe we are only seeing ˝ of the iceberg that lies dead ahead. Pretty much anyway you look a it, the gov’t will again be mortgaging the future of our country far into the future, for the last 10 years of greed , totally reckless spending and poor trade agreements brought to us by our political leaders in Congress and the White House.

 

The gov't influences behavior through taxation and regulation.

Jobs have been flowing off shore, for many years.
Chickns look to be coming home to roost.

That sub-prime problem was not the problem that it was portrayed as. It is an attempt to stem the losses of big inverstors, the world over.

The derivatives - nobody understands the impact, there.
A lot of of it could be risk diversification, but again, nobody understands the full impact.

Ben B - the new fed chief, gave a speech a couple of days ago. I didn't hear it, but someone that did, said that he stuttered, stammered, hemmed and hawed, and basically had to be relieved in the middle of the speech.

Sounds to me like somebody is holding a gun on him, to do as he is told...

That would make a good thread:
"Do as your told!
IT's the LAW!"

If you think that gov't can bail us out, you have had too much cool aide.

There are a hand full of things that are rightly the function of gov't. Beyond those, the gov't can only get in the way.

It wasn't gov't that built this country to greatness.
IT will likely be gov't that sinks it, though.

You can thank a liberal, for current conditions.
Liberals are an enemy to We The People.

 

It is easy to blame the president for the current economic conditions. The truth of the matter a major recession has been coming for a number of years. We are seeing the result of gross mismanagement of public assets over a period of decades. Banks are merging to postpone bankruptcy. Regions and Amsouth recently merged. I went into a Regions bank the other day to cash a check written on their bank. They wanted to charge me $5.00 to cash the check since I didn't have an account. That tells me that they are either dishonest or in great financial difficulty. These banks have been allowed to merge again and again which is creating a monopoly and a dangerous business environment. It is bad when a small bank goes under, but a major disaster when one of the largest banks in the country goes bankrupt. Chase and Citibank are both in difficulty. Country Wide is the largest mortgage lender in the nation and was recently saved from bankruptcy by a merger. All this is only postponing the inevitable collapse unless the government bails them out.

Excessive government regulation and greed has encouraged many major companies to move manufacturing facilities abroad. Excess taxation has also encouraged these companies to move abroad. We continue to reelect lawyers to mismanage public funds and divert them for their own purposes. Blaming one party or individual is wrong and misguided. They are all part of the problem.

Rather than drilling for more oil in the U.S. and encouraging alternative sources of energy, we continue to rely on foreign sources to supply our energy needs. Our political leaders have allowed most of the major oil companies to merge creating a virtual monopoly of oil in this country. This country runs on energy. When those costs are out of control, then the entire economy suffers. We have no energy policy.

If you must place blame on someone then the one to blame most is the person in the mirror. There are those who continue to look for a government handout, both personal and business. This is supposed to be a capitalistic country. In reality we have been living under socialism for years. Capitalism allows people and businesses to fail. Government continues to bail out major companies which defeats one purpose of capitalism. It encourages mismanagement. People refuse to become involved in the political process by an ever increasing number.

If you want to see governments who are in deep financial difficulty and mismanage public funds, then look at those states who are selling off toll roads and others who are pushing for new toll roads on free public access roads. We don't need higher fuel taxes. Politicians need to stop stealing or mismanaging public funds, including fuel taxes and diverting them to other areas. These people keep spending more of our money and we continue to encourage them. My question is when is enough, enough? When are we going to stop demanding a handout and take responsibility for our own welfare? When are we going to demand that our leaders start cutting their spending and start reducing the size of government?

This tax rebate is nothing but a shell game. It will not solve the problem. Government has NEVER done anything efficiently. The best thing our government can do is NOTHING.