How Is The Trucking Industry Now?

I've been away from trucking for quite some time and now am considering coming back, but all the news I saw says truck drivers are losing jobs due to the economy. For those of you who are still on the road, what do you feel? Do you have enough loads to haul? Will this industry keep goind downhill?

Thank you in advance for your insights.

It's still chugging along. You saw a stint where everyone and their brother bought a truck and started competing during the whole covid mess. For many companies that you've seen go under, it was bad business decisions that wound up biting them in the long run.

Profits have gone up in the industry but the profit margins are still very low compared to other industries so it will always be high risk in that regard but as a driver, there's still money to be made because products have to be moved.

Information flies in your face so fast that if you dwell on it all the time, everything is bad, the world is ending and the doom factor is off the charts. Take a breath, relax and realize that with every post made, there's a reason behind it. Much of that is fear driven, to get you to believe that big gubbament has all the solutions and a small study of history proves that just isn't the case.

It's still chugging along. You saw a stint where everyone and their brother bought a truck and started competing during the whole covid mess. For many companies that you've seen go under, it was bad business decisions that wound up biting them in the long run.

Profits have gone up in the industry but the profit margins are still very low compared to other industries so it will always be high risk in that regard but as a driver, there's still money to be made because products have to be moved.

Information flies in your face so fast that if you dwell on it all the time, everything is bad, the world is ending and the doom factor is off the charts. Take a breath, relax and realize that with every post made, there's a reason behind it. Much of that is fear driven, to get you to believe that big gubbament has all the solutions and a small study of history proves that just isn't the case.

Thank you for your insights. Company driver is what I'm looking for.

The two big drivers right now are lower freight levels and too many drivers. In 2024, freight levels were about what they were in 2015. The problem is that there are about 70,000 more CDL drivers and trucks on the road today than there were in 2015. You could park 1,400 trucks on the side of the road in every state and still be able to move the available freight.

The figure in the above paragraph is for regular CDLs. There's something called a non-domiciled CDL not included in that number. What's that? That's a CDL issued to someone who doesn't live in the state where the CDL was issued. As a Washington resident I can't just get a CDL in Oregon or Idaho, they'll send me packing back to Washington BUT if I were in the country and NOT a US citizen they can't send me back to Haiti or Ukraine to get a US CDL. Normally, there aren't too many of these because of the pesky must speak English requirement. The previous administration relaxed that requirement and trained a few of these drivers at government expense. How few? Try 300,000 non-domiciled CDLs issued since 2022. Normally, there would be less than a tenth of that many. The new administration has brought back the English proficiency requirement and allows DOT officers to place drivers out of service if they can't communicate in English. They still have a ways to go. As of July 31st, only 1,500 drivers have been placed out of service for this.

Finding a driving job isn't a problem. Finding a full-time driving job is, at least in the PNW. I've heard several stories from drivers who apply for a full-time job, get hired and run 50-60 hours a week for a month. After the month, their manager will take them aside and tell them some silly story why the run they've been doing without issue for the last month is no longer available, but don't worry - you're a good driver, a safe driver and we like having around because you're easy to get a long with - so we've got another run for you. The problem is the new run is only 20-25 hours a week!

I'm also seeing new things in driver job ads. Things like, "no more than 3 employers in the last 2 years" or, "no job hoppers". More, "on call" driving jobs (even for company drivers). One driver told me he was hired by a temp agency for a small outfit that was going to to ramp up from 6 to 100 trucks a year by year end. Two months later the temp agency let him go because the company wasn't paying them.

Your mileage may vary. The most important job is the one you have. Looking around, things are far from normal and won't be getting back to normal any time soon.

Trucking is still here and always will be.

We’ve been in the toilet the past 3 years now. All the so called experts have termed it the great freight depression. Then you have the ATA screaming driver shortage in the same breath they say rates are down due over capacity. Both cannot be true.

Companies are going out of business at a rapid pace, but still new carriers are coming online. Big carriers are reporting loss’s several quarters in a row.

How long this can endure no one knows, but brokers are touting positive earnings. In a nutshell brokers are becoming the bigger players. Now they are using AI and not even trying to negoaite with carriers any more.

If they curtail the foreign drivers and companies hauling for pennies and brokers have to start being transparent with their rates then maybe things will start to turn around.