wars and rumors of wars… or is it bankruptcies?

by the48thronin on Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:43 am

I am watching transport and freight because I am closer to that than other aspects of the on going collapse of the global system. As almost every reader here know already knows the freight volumes both world wide on ships and nationally on rail and truck are still shrinking no matter how they might try to claim they are not.
3 days before Christmas a 1400 truck special hauler ( flat beds, removable neck trailer for over dimensional loads and drop decks) went out of business in a flaming collapse that stranded 1400 drivers. As an industry truckers turned and helped their fellow get home and hoped they would find work somewhere else.
Monday of this week on an overnight radio show that caters to drivers a caller claimed he had been notified his company ( where he had worked 7 years) was going to shut the doors the last day of January. He asked other drivers to let him know who might be hiring drivers still after the glut of arrow drivers that are still being re absorbed by the industry. There is no official word of this yet, but if that company closes, it will have a tremendous impact on some distribution of some products. That company is also in the flat bed drop deck etc business. Those trucking companies in that line have been hit the hardest by the cancellation of construction projects . Unlike myself they have little work tearing down or closing businesses, their thrust has to be new construction and remodel work which is DEAD at the moment . These companies are over a year away from their last profitable quarter. They will begin to fall off the cliff now.
The first quarter of the year has always seen some attrition in the trucking industry. The loss of produce in Florida due to the prolonged cold spell, and the continued depression in construction will now play out with a vengeance.
The commercial real estate bust is upon us, but more importantly the transportation infrastructure is at or close to the breaking point. Just my opinion.

Malthusia • View topic – wars and rumors of wars… or is it bankruptcies?