Future Planning

I'm leaning strongly towards going into OTR trucking, and think I've decided on what school to go to in a couple months. Probably have a preference for tankers based upon much reading. Hopefully I'll be able to find a company that will take me on fresh from school. Now one of my criteria when picking companies I'd like to apply to includes their financial stability.

Silly as this might sound as it seems drivers are in huge demand now and projected to continue to be, sometimes recessions and possibly worse happen. I would hate to be a rookie or 1-2 yr newbie and be facing a layoff/termination should the economy tank again. There were and still are millions of construction workers who were caught in this situation in 08 who probably didn't think this would happen.

For those that have been around a while, are there a) companies, and b) sectors that you think would endure a hard economic down turn better than others? And, the opposite question would be what companies and sectors of trucking might you expect to fail or reduce employment, or cut back on miles/pay ?

Glennb

Holy cow I completely missed this one somehow and so did everyone else! Man, I'm really sorry Glenn!

Glenn, you really have very little to worry about. Even during the lowest of the recession in late 2008 and into 2009 trucking companies were still hiring. They weren't hiring as fiercely as they had been but there was still plenty of work available.

The union companies are the ones struggling the most and there aren't very many left. As always, union jobs are some of the best jobs and they definitely have the best pay but the business model has seemingly become unsustainable. So if you took a Teamster job you might make great money for the next 30 years or you might be looking for a job in 30 months - there's no way to know.

But pretty much any major trucking company is safe financially. A few years ago a good size flatbed company went out of business and made a mess for a bunch of their drivers but that kind of thing is extremely rare.

I don't think there's a "safe sector" in trucking because the competition is so fierce and it's pretty easy for the industry as a whole to adjust to big changes in the economy. So you might think hauling food would be safest in a downturn but every trucking company in America that isn't hauling food is also thinking the same thing. And the ones who are hauling food are always looking to expand. So any opportunities that present themselves quickly wind up having a ton of competition.