when you stop or slow your buying the trucks have fewer things to haul, and that's what we see here and much larger than history would predict;

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania — Two months ago, 30,000 truckers at Yellow lost their jobs when one of the nation’s oldest and largest trucking companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Last week, Convoy, the digital freight broker that was supposed to reinvent the wheel and disrupt the truckingindustry in a positive way, also abruptly shuttered its doors.

These kinds of closings by both freight carriers lay bare the uncertain state of trucking, an industry that is an indicator of the mood of the consumer and also the beating heart of our economy. 

“In my opinion, this industry is heading in the wrong direction, and when trucking and supply chain freight is heading in the wrong direction, so is the country. I am just not sure that people understand there is a problem,” said Rick McQuaide, who runs a freight company in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, as well as in Florida.

“The damage started when people went on a spending spree during COVID. The government was giving out cash, and people started ordering things in a way they have never done before,” McQuaide explained.

As a result, McQuaide said, new trucks were on the road to meet the consumers' needs.

Beginning last year, that need started to recede when consumers' spending spree started to ebb, and, as a result, several different things have happened in the industry, beginning with too many trucks in comparison to the amount of freight that is available.

That, McQuaide said, hits the truckers and truck companies hard: “The economy is slowing from its frenzy, people aren’t buying anymore, which means there are more trucks on the road than there are loads, and it's forcing the rates down.”

McQuaide said his company's rates are about 20% lower than last year.

“In other words, last year, we go from Pittsburgh to Allentown, maybe $1,200. This year, we're lucky to get $900,” he said, adding, “You have more truckers fighting for the same loads that exist now, and that's driving the rates down.”

Truckers are making less than they did in per-mile peak earnings, McQuaide said.........more...........