Weathering the storm in trucking

Timothy Dooner

2 years ago

Welcome to the WHAT THE TRUCK?!? newsletter. In this issue, surviving a bear market; home sale decline hits freight; Starlink comes to your truck; getting ready for F3 and more.

It’s bad, now what?

Cycle low — As we enter a Christmas without a peak season, the rate race to bottom has only accelerated. In fact, October is shaping up to end as one of the worst performing months in an already down year. With ocean volumes in the toilet and retailers still bloated with inventory, hope of an uptick anytime soon is out the window.

How you can help — The next few months are going to be tough. Bankruptcies are going to accelerate, layoffs are incoming and the trucker vs broker wars are heating up. With that in mind, on WHAT THE TRUCK?!? we’re looking for guests who can advise on ways to weather the storm. If you are the following, email me and we’ll see about getting you booked on the show:

Can speak on how carriers and truckers can get their costs in order
Has roles to offered displaced and laid off employees
The importance of getting good MPG and lowering fuel costs
A business development expert on maintaining and growing relationships
Someone who can provide advice on mental health, stress, anxiety and depression

If any of those sound like you, or you have a pitch of your own on how you can help in this market email me here.

Drop in home sales = drop in freight

Hot water — When houses are bought and sold it’s a boon for furniture and appliance markets as those houses need to be filled with those goods. The problem? High interest rates have stuck a shiv in the side of US home sales which declined for the eighth month in a row in September. CNN reports, “Sales of existing homes – which include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – were down 23.8% in September from a year ago and down 1.5% from August, according to the National Association of Realtors.”

“In key countries across the globe, we saw double-digit demand declines.” – Joe Liotine, Chief Operating Officer at Whirlpool

Caught in a whirlpool — Knowing the above puts a little more context to Whirlpool’s woes. “We aggressively reduced our inventories by $300 million compared to the second quarter with a 35% reduction in global production,” the appliance maker said on an earnings call last Friday. “Across our key marketplaces, we faced market contractions of 10% to 25% during the quarter and expect similar declines in most countries as we move through the fourth quarter.”

Starlink coming to your cab in December

High speed at high speed —While everyone is distracted arguing over the merits of Elon’s twitter takeover, Starlink announces that their service is coming to moving vehicles in December. Servicing vehicles isn’t anything new for Starlink, as they added both parked vehicles and maritime service earlier this year, but now they’re adding motion.

But it won’t be cheap —Staying connected comes with a hefty price tag. You’ll need a $2,500 satellite dish and to pay $135/month in order to tap into Musk’s space data.

Begun the Star Wars have —Nearly a year ago Russia demonstrated its ability to shoot down satellites when a Nudol missile took out one of their own. Now, the war in Ukraine and SpaceX/USA’s use of satellites has Moscow rattling its interstellar sabres. According to Yahoo news, “Konstantin Vorontsov, senior official of the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated that Russia may regard Western commercial satellites as legitimate targets if they are used to help Ukraine in the war.”

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F3 is almost here

Destination Freight Alley — In just a few short days nearly 3,000 supply chainers are going to descend upon the Scenic City for a festival like none other, F3. Here’s a few last minute things you need to know:

Weather — The forecast for the event looks as fantastic as our foliage which is in full bloom. Mornings and evenings can be a bit cool, so bring a sweater or light jacket as our evenings are filled with outdoor activities, experiences and concerts.

The app — Jump in the app store on your phone and download a copy of the FreightWaves Events app. In that you’ll be able to see a map of where everything is, the companies involved, who’s speaking, who’s demoing, and the agenda. Once you download it, fill out your profile and you’ll also be visible in the attendees list.

WTT at F3 — Live events are an amazing time for us to connect with the supply chain community and we intend to take full advantage of that. Not only will we be live on the FWTV stage all three days, but The Dude and I will be all over the event doing side interviews, capturing the atmosphere and of course we’re always willing to take pics with anyone who likes. If you want to meet with us there and set something up in advance just email me here.

WTT Friday

It’s our Halloween show featuring NASA — With F3 next week, there won’t be a WTT on Monday … which also happens to be Halloween so we’re bringing our costumes to Friday. On the show we’re talking to NASA about its Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator. What the heck does that mean? The LOFTID is a crucial component to deep space logistics and how NASA plans to land people on Mars.

Plus, we’ll hit on getting a trucking job in a down market; the importance of procurement agility with UberFreight; scary trucking stories to tell in the dark and more.

Catch new shows live at noon ET Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWavesTV, FreightWaves LinkedIn and Facebook or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player.

Now on demand

Is gig work killing people? F3 preview and trucking trick or treat