American Trucking Grinding to a Halt

[HotRocks]

Got Preps?  American Trucking Association Tonnage Index.

"If there really are green shoots coming up, one of the early places they should be seen is in the American Trucking Association (ATA) Tonnage Index. If retail sales are going to tick up, iof inventories are going to be restocked, it has to be physically delivered..."

[zwick]

For the record (God, that sounds scary) I have been unemployed for several months and I'm still waiting for our beloved leaders' stimulus to kick in. I don't think I'll ever drive a truck again (YAY), which means i'll never make decent money again (Sob). My only and fervent prayer is that the world goes to shit before my unemployment bene's run out.

[9]

Interesting.  My wife and a few of my friends were just talking about how there seems to be less stuff on the store shelves and when ever there is a pretty good food or pop sale, you have to get into the store within 48hrs of the ad's release or it's  an empty shelf looking at you.

[jakinbr]

Intuitively we knew this was a consequence of dwindling oil & gas supplies.... I wonder what the tonnage carried by the train industry is these days? I know it has increased of late.

[freed1]

This quote from a UK Telegraph article by Ambrose Pritchard

"US freight data is getting worse, not better. The Association of American Railroads said traffic was down 22pc in the third week of May from a year earlier. Canadian freight was down 34pc."

[BlindMansBluff]

On the other hand, you can get a pretty good deal on a Kenworth now days.

[Simple Home Gardening]

On the other hand, you can get a pretty good deal on a Kenworth now days.

Yes, but how do you pay for it???

[9]

This quote from a UK Telegraph article by Ambrose Pritchard

"US freight data is getting worse, not better. The Association of American Railroads said traffic was down 22pc in the third week of May from a year earlier. Canadian freight was down 34pc."

22% is a pretty sizeable dip...

Wonder if there are less Chinese lockers to ship?  I'm sure the car crates are empty too.

[jcs44]

Trucking has been dropping quickly since last October; the chart shows April actually below the October lows, however, I wouldn't exactly label it "grinding to a halt" just yet. Slow steady dropoffs but nothing cataclysmic at this point.

[HotRocks]

Trucking has been dropping quickly since last October; the chart shows April actually below the October lows, however, I wouldn't exactly label it "grinding to a halt" just yet. Slow steady dropoffs but nothing cataclysmic at this point.

You may have noticed some of my titles tend toward the dramatic.  Makes them more entertaining to write, and hopefully read - sorry if anyone feels genuinely misled. 

[SabreKai]

On the other hand, you can get a pretty good deal on a Kenworth now days.

Yes, but how do you pay for it???

More to the point, why would you want to buy it in the first place? It might make a neat Mad Max Tank but otherwise pretty useless.

--

Sabre

[kats]

Trucking has been dropping quickly since last October; the chart shows April actually below the October lows, however, I wouldn't exactly label it "grinding to a halt" just yet. Slow steady dropoffs but nothing cataclysmic at this point.

Yes, I agree. Also, what does "Seasonally adjusted 2000 = 100" mean? Does it mean the level in 2000 was 100? In which case volume now is the same as in 2000. Not a very impressive drop from anywhere.

[zwick]

Yellow Freight and Roadway Trucking Co's merged a few years ago. Both had been around for a LONG time, I don't know when they started, but at least 60 years ago. This company is union and it's huge, many thousands of trucks. OK. This company is asking for bail-out assistance! I don't have a link (sorry), but if you're interested, google it. I've been involved in trucking as a driver for over 30 years. I have, of course, never seen it any way near this bad. I say "of course" because it should be obvious to all that this society is going down, and going down HARD. Just remember, folks, no water-no farmer---no farmer-no food---no trucker no food or gas or clothes or ammo or ANYTHING.....but what do I know? 

[kats]

Just remember, folks, no water-no farmer---no farmer-no food---no trucker no food or gas or clothes or ammo or ANYTHING.....but what do I know? 

Quite a lot, I should say.

[jcs44]

Got Preps?  American Trucking Association Tonnage Index.

"If there really are green shoots coming up, one of the early places they should be seen is in the American Trucking Association (ATA) Tonnage Index. If retail sales are going to tick up, iof inventories are going to be restocked, it has to be physically delivered..."

Thanks for the article. I actually work with a company that sells a little DSL to truckers at the retail level. They actually made me an analyst for the companies largest truckstops in March, mostly because of how much our DSL sales were down year to year. I forwarded the article to my bosses so that maybe they'll get off my back about how we haven't really made any progress in gaining any of the volume back over the last two months  . They think its coming back to "normal" levels at some point. I kind of sort of told them I pretty much thought we'd peaked as a company- they just looked at me like I was crazy...