What are everyone's thoughts on the economy? Since our industry is an indicator industry I thought I would see what everyone is experiencing over the last several months. We are definitely up over last year and we are hoping that this is a sign of things to come...what are you all seeing? thoughts? Care to share??
Economy
- Thread starter PackRat
- Start date
Pablo
Site Supporter
10
Death of a thousand cuts
little by little, every customer is re-bidding lower prices, customers going out of business, general business slowing down, customers re-sourcing over-seas. In general, it sucks. Stable but slowly trending downwards. I'm starting to fear the double dip everyone's been talking about.
little by little, every customer is re-bidding lower prices, customers going out of business, general business slowing down, customers re-sourcing over-seas. In general, it sucks. Stable but slowly trending downwards. I'm starting to fear the double dip everyone's been talking about.
Freight Broker
Well-Known Member
30
My volumes are up however sales are down due to shorter lanes, and lower revenues per load.
Negative
Thankfully , I am an optimist, so I will not despair. I beleive the Canadian economy is slowing down, and the politicians do not want to admit it. In Quebec they are already talking about raising the price of Hydro Electricity, as this is a cash cow and is state owned. This will bring them over 1 billion this year. Another indirect tax , for the highest taxed region in North America.
I am sure the hardest hit areas are Alberta and Southern Ontario, hence that is why we are seeing slower payement from both brokers and carriers based there.
Apparently the staff in the unemployement offices in Quebec are overwhelmed and cannot cope with the new claims. I wonedr what it is like out west?
I beleive things will start turning around early next year, not before.
Thankfully , I am an optimist, so I will not despair. I beleive the Canadian economy is slowing down, and the politicians do not want to admit it. In Quebec they are already talking about raising the price of Hydro Electricity, as this is a cash cow and is state owned. This will bring them over 1 billion this year. Another indirect tax , for the highest taxed region in North America.
I am sure the hardest hit areas are Alberta and Southern Ontario, hence that is why we are seeing slower payement from both brokers and carriers based there.
Apparently the staff in the unemployement offices in Quebec are overwhelmed and cannot cope with the new claims. I wonedr what it is like out west?
I beleive things will start turning around early next year, not before.
MontrealTrucker
Site Supporter
10
I agree, things are getting worse in Quebec. I was shocked yesterday, a Canadian carrier submitted a rate of 2700 cdn for a tarped load from Montreal to Dallas, TX for my customer. The customer jumped on it but still asked me If I could match the rate. Why are carriers coming in here and quoting these kind of rates and hurting everyone else in the process. My message to all carriers that are coming into the province of Quebec and quoting shippers and brokers under 1.80 per mile for flatbed freight is stay away from this market. The damage you are doing to other trucking companies is significant. The economy is bad enough out there, we don't need you to make it worse.
I use the Chrysler yard in town here as an indicator of whats going on, there main yard has more DCX trailers parked then on the road (3 shifts working). At 1 point in time my drivers would have to wait to drop a trailer you can play road hockey now.
The mini van storage yard is less than a 1/4 full, and the general drop yard only has a slected few carriers. On a better note the mold shops are slowly ramping things back up
alot of good places went bankrupt, they just could not hold on any longer.
Were still @ 14% UI highest in the province !
If we all stick together and watch out for the bad ones we'll be ok
JUST ME
The mini van storage yard is less than a 1/4 full, and the general drop yard only has a slected few carriers. On a better note the mold shops are slowly ramping things back up
alot of good places went bankrupt, they just could not hold on any longer.
Were still @ 14% UI highest in the province !
If we all stick together and watch out for the bad ones we'll be ok
JUST ME
loaders
Site Supporter
30
Like others on this post, our volumes are down 25-30% from last year. The regular shippers have become irregular and the sporadic shipper is virtually non-existant. Long term customers with long term rates in place are asking for rate reductions due to increased quoting and declining rates from the competition (both other brokers and carriers). We are weathering the storm by eliminating all discretionary spending, not quoting any new rates to our customers without having at least 3 current, rock solid quotes from our suppliers first and checking the creditworthiness any new customer before we do any business. In other words "battening down the hatches". I firmly believe that there will be a few more months of turmoil and a sluggish economy before we see signs of solid recovery.
scmc logistics limited
New Member
1
We definitely are better than 2009 and 2010. But still economy is recovering at a very very slow speed. Canada's main export is with the U.S.
If the U.S. gets a sneeze then Canada gets the flu. Trucking industy mainly deal with these exports - we see direct impact of slow down. Hopefully things will get better soon and we will see more loads posted for us on link.
If the U.S. gets a sneeze then Canada gets the flu. Trucking industy mainly deal with these exports - we see direct impact of slow down. Hopefully things will get better soon and we will see more loads posted for us on link.
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jeepnut2010
Member
5
I know of a carrier that does double drop freight for less than that....because they have company drivers. !