How's Business?

Personally, we aren't spending.  Saving hard for enough eggs to make an omelette....j/k.

It'll get better...or not...who knows.  I retired in 2021.  I set it up so I wouldn't owe anybody anything.  Utilities, food, gas, health insurance...that's it.  I wish I had done that in my good earning years.

I've seen this cycle before...until folks start throwing themselves out of tall buildings...I'm not gonna worry too much.  Good luck.

People are spending less. I just started with a new company 6 weeks ago. We have had no capacity for a while, we sell everything we produce and have for years. A good chunk just opened up through SKU rationalizations and the market starting to soften. Won’t hurt us as our margins are still solid and often increasing . Our Research and Insights team show a decrease in dollars spent in our segment but prices are up. Average order price has not decreased much due to inflation but average order count has. Quick Service restaurant is down a little, full service restaurant has taken a fairly large hit. Retail is still solid as people are eating at home more often. This trend will continue according to our research and forecasted stats. 
Last year there were very little trucks available for transport, very different situation than now where it’s not an issue. That’s always telling in CPG and other industries. 

Coal biz is booming. Busiest I’ve seen in 15 years. 

I went to Lowe's last week for something and it was definitely the most empty I have ever seen one of their parking lots. It was a random week day in the afternoon, but there were like 5 cars there. Can we call it a recession yet? 

We,ve been in a recession for aprox 2 yrs. Freight volume is way down and rates. My pal is a broker with the trucking co and brokerage there the biggest in the world. They pay people to study futures of everything. Word is this is long term. I hope your not struggling now because it will become worse. My pal said a lot of co.s r going bankrupt this wasn’t news to me. Biden gave a lot of money away to the black& brown movement, grants to start a buisness. Slow process but there going bankrupt. Not much talk of a trucker shut down in Chicago yet. But if it doesn’t improve it will happen. The only city that has ever went on strike & had changes happen. Fuel surcharge Chicago tanker co.s said to the ne . We get this or you don’t get anything. Fuel surcharge history. 

Prof...why the hell don't you buy your own truck, brokers license, and authority.  Put all that money in YOUR pocket.

By now you know or have had sex with everyone in the industry.  Unless you're the guy that wipes his Johnson in a girl's hair when you're done...you should have PLENTY of friendly connections.

Cattle prices are down and beef is up, explain that one to me. 
 

The meat packers are worse than the MOB!

They could show you better than explain but it involves your pants down around your ankles and you bent over the tailgate.

“Canadian River Beef Cooperative”, my next venture! 

Go for it pard.

I,m pulling the plug in March or April. I need back,neck and knee surgery. I hope to be healed in 6 weeks or so. Then race  Profeshenly haha mid June to late sept. File for my authority in that time, trk prices should keep falling. I got dot,d again yesterday by a sr officer. I hate going threw the I was trained by Captain Jack Johnson at Michels pipeline etc a few examples of my maintenance schedule,etc . Email my logs to him. Now I drove from atl to Ny. 989 mi straight and my reset ovr the weekend which I never did. I drive 7 days a week. Happened at a place where there’s no truck parking. I was looking up the town on my atlas . To get my story straight if he asked. I dropped the trl and bt to a vacant lot to spend time with a women. Logged off at trl drop site. A lot of phone calls to my Gorgeous Eastern European Elog chic to get it rt. During the week. Felt like my arms where broke and my ears where ringing from the beating on i70 b4 the inspection. We also talked about the changes out here. The 3rd world country drivers oh man. The officer says show me your fire extinguisher and they want to start a fire. They know absolutely nothing. I think he preferred to inspect a guy that says I do a trl pm every 3 months . I don’t think the once a yr at An AI is enough. 

I thought the whole purpose of e-log was to stop the cheatin'?  I remember having to run 2 log books.  I was usually to tired to remember which one was which.

Buddy always told me if you ever come across a crashed semi, grab the log books and run (mail them back to the company).

He always ran two log books- Followed him from WI to AK. We made that drive in 3 days. 

We had a duramax and trailer so never stopped at the weigh scale. Got to AK and the local cop chased us down at the grocery store and chewed us for not stopping at the scale. Had to go to the local med facility in Tok and get a medical card. 

My day job is down to an absolute skeleton crew, they've probably let about 70% of employees go including long time employees of over 20+ years.  So, in short, not well at all.  I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to last but we'll see, I'll survive either way.  

My side business is still rolling along, I haven't really noticed a slow down in orders aside from right after the holidays but it's not like it's a huge money maker or anything.  Business for my friend's company is booming right now as well so it really seems to be effecting certain segments of the market more than others.  I don't know what the future holds but the stock market seems to think that the worst will be over in the next 6-8 months.

Business is good for us, but slowing down in our field. Trucking otr chemicals. Locked into a dedicated customer with old school drivers, paper logbooks, and pre-emissions trucks. We've been the #1 trucking company for the customer because our trucks don't break down from newer exhaust system bs, and we simply do what we are supposed to do on time. I wouldn't like to be without a good trustworthy business relationship right now.... 

I'll also add that since early 2020 I've witnessed the container ports in Port Newark NJ only running 1st shift hours during a so called "supply chain crisis". They fucking us all on purpose every which way with supply and demand bs.

Buy shit that makes money and holds it's value if you can pay cash because inflation is killing idle cash. Also buy as many dirt bikes as you can for the sake of mental health.

Mega carriers pushed for Elog to put smaller co.s out of buisness. It didn’t work. I hv my own ez pass it’s deactivated & within reach. I switch them on the windshield. Haha so there’s no matching tolls on date & time. If I ever get a time stamp on Bol. Mr clean and a qtip takes care of that. That’s a old school trick.  I don’t use a credit card. I learned that from a In. Driver that had a wreck in Wi. They matched his personal cc to a pack of cigs and a Red Bull. In court they stated that he was Fatigued. A retired guy didn’t hv his glasses on driving a tour bus rolled it on i90. The trk came ove the hill & hit the bus laying sideways. I used to run a stack of log books. Tanker job Chicago to the ne. Every time I left Chicago I grabbed a diff log book or deleted the last trip. Pretty easy to cheat back then. My Elog gal during the week said something new. Send pic of Bol. I said it’s time stamped but don’t worry I,ll take care of it. With mr clean & a qtip. She has no idea what mr clean is. She never heard of a Native American or Indian either. I ran into 1 Indian ovr the yrs. He said he’s log book exempt legally. No man can tell me where or how I travel on my land. I thought that was interesting. And got me thinking hv a meeting on the res and offer 4% of the ld. In exchange for Native American status and a discount on leased land. I could offer employment. Build the buisness in 3 yrs then sell it. The customers , contracts r what’s worth the millions.  Pretty tough to make it without a plan. Insurance alone 38k + 90 days till the ld pays. Quick pay is avail but you loose 5%.   Cheese leaving Wi. Pays good. All kinds of loads go to the caves in Mo.

F the ports people r too lazy railyard same thing . I went to port Newark with a tanker 04- 07 then to Canada . Time is money last co I did a walk away lease only 3k a week. It’s ovr 200 per hr if you ran legally. I didn’t of course. I give them 2.5 hrs then make my calls & leave. I don’t sit for free.  Broker might say I,ll pay 80 per hr. I just laugh and say that doesn’t pay 1/2 my bills b4 I make a dollar. Do yourself a favor loose this customers #. You can do  better than this.  I did alot of lds that where already late, pu at 17.00 then run all night.  It’s tough to make a Buck out here. 

With everyone of means fleeing states like, california, new york, and other over regulated states, business for me is off the chart good.

The upper end housing market here is insane.

Our builder has contracts well into 2025.

We're cranking out about 3 a year, with incredible fit and finish trim work, and custom cabinetry. 

The builder doesn't even bat an eye when an invoice is given to him every other Wednesday. 

Red states !!

I was involved in the growing scene for a pretty long time during the profitable years before it went legal. It's sad to see what it has turned into now. The people who were pushing for it to be legal are now out ridiculous amounts of money and kicking themselves in the ass. 

I,m Ny. Now people say it’s not good. You know it’s bad when there kid napping people. I got up at 3.30 am because the illegals quad double parked in front of our parking row. Pilot did nothing lastnight because of the kid nappings. There not allowed to go beyond the fuel island at night, this is common in America now. So I hv to bang on side boxes at 4am to wake them up and tell them to move. 1 driver - illegal is yelling who bang trk ? He says suck my fing dick I,ll blow your fing head off. I say you don’t hv a fing dick. Get the f out Now. Little pussy wouldn’t get out. So I kept banging on his trk. Calling the State Police on his illegal azz. He,ll wonder why I,m getting pulled ovr and told to get my chest on the ground and searched. Ps all there trks are smashed up.

I made my delivery back at the pilot. Fueled took care of a few clerical duties. Then called The Ny. state Police. Told the officer of the death treat, etc the co name, trk#, dot# and that I looked them up. Safety rating is extremely bad, with 23% out of service for Elog violations. Co is from Cleveland so I,m sure there in Ny. Often. She asked if he was here , a trooper would be dispatched. I said he is gone but he will cross the state line eventually.  I,m sure you did buisness with this co b4 being that the oos is very high. She thanked me for the information & being Profeshenal about the ordeal. I said set him up he,ll be threw Ny. Again. We don’t need trash like that out here. She laughed that I made so easy to get a dangerous carrier off the rd. Hv fun idiot with a smashed up trk . Maybe next time don’t threaten to blow someone’s head off. And double double park in front of a parking row. When there was paid parking spots avail at 23.00. You parked at 20.00 & there is another ts 800 yards away. 

Heard on the news today that there is only 1 (legal) parking spot for every 10 trucks on the road.  Since the govt mandates work/rest time...they are looking at spending money to build more parking for you guys.

A key point in business and in life is to adapt and change.  There are curveballs coming at us daily.

Hope business is well and prosperity to all.

Probably worse than that. Tn. Is the only state that added any parking. And the only st that gives citations for doing 30 min breaks on the shoulder. They never look in there mirror when pulling off the shoulder& pull into traffic going 75. I was happy to see the St.Police doing something. . But the parking fines for being on abandoned property is bs. There is rarely a  free parking spot.  I pay to park a lot. I just talked to a cool black driver here . He & his daughter r team driving in her trk. A driver opened there door his 2 pit bulls attacked the guy. My phone always gives me local news info. Up st ny. Is bad. Kid nappings people disappearing, 2 guys with 91 robberies.it’s basically a refugee camp out here now . Illegal drivers causing trouble, throwing crap bags out, steeling. Out west it’s so bad there is crap everywhere. Out here we catch them doing that we throw them in there own crap. Not a good scene out here.  

Look no further than the stink tank consortium of Davos to understand how and why economies are floundering.  An economic summit of elite morans trying to one up each other on who can be the most unhinged.  A circus of climate guardians that leave a bigger carbon footprint than most small cities. Lol...Save us Al Gore! 

But to digress back to the thread subject matter.  As a business owner, we have fared well through the last few years and will probably continue to do so.  Mostly due to a solid and diverse customer base.  But we're not immune to slow downs by any stretch.  It seems I spend as much time now at managing finances as I do to generate new business.  Having not been approved for any of the bail outs through the pandemic, we just recently took a stab at one of these free hand outs, Get-Refund.com.

For those of you that employ at least five people, if I remember correctly, it available to you.  In short, it's left over money from the Covid based Care's Act, and funded through what is called the "Employee Retention Tax Credit".  It's not a loan, so there's no pay back, and say you could get refunded up to $28k per employee.  Signed up last summer, took about 9 weeks, but got it, over $250K.  Less the pretty steep cut they take.  On top of what we already had squirreled away for the rough times, we're in a little better shape.                  

Sorry bud, but you have no idea what my money numbers are on this. It's a pain in the ass at times, but we are paid very well for it. 5 years and we haven't hauled a single broker load since 2017. Sorry if you had a shit experience there because most do. If it didn't pay you well then yeah f that shit. We're paid a higher than normal rate for simply doing what we're supposed to do when we're supposed to do it. The large companies can't compete with our level of service. I'm not going to shit holes for nothing.

Guess why I’m fishing instead of working....

 Commercial plumbing is slow AF right now. 
Material is through the roof though and, there’s shortages for a lot of materials we use. 
Quality for a lot of components have changed as well. Shower valves and, sink  faucets that had brass or, stainless internals are now plastic. 
 

Knock on wood we've been steady. It seems like people are staying home more and are much more willing to spend money on their backyards. I'm lucky enough to have a solid customer base built up (I started it in 1980). The service side isn't "Killer" money after expenses but it's consistent money. And there's always something breaking somewhere so the repair side has a steady flow of work. The good money is in the repairs. More pools on service = more shit breaking = more repairs to do. Owning a pool is like owning a boat, except you can sell or sink a boat. That big concrete hole in the ground isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I know there's a lot of my customers who would gladly give away their pools for free. But lucky for me they're pretty much stuck with them.  

Port Newark with the tanker wasn’t bad . Except for when a ld wasn’t ready we do our tanks down the st and visited our girlfriends. Port authority said never again, they watch everything. W2 jobs pay nothing. That’s why I work for 1099 Chicago Eastern European co.s. It’s all broker freight & not good customers but the pay is much higher. I bid & got 2 million to transport the worlds strongest horizontal drill rig from new London,Ct. to Phily airport. A huge strike in Phily & nj., nyc all unions shut the pipeline project down. All the unions negotiated wages steam fitters- mechanics 78.00 for 1st 8 hrs then ovr time. We had 3 world record projects in the area

slmost 3 billion on bids. I figured 2 mil they would pay & they did. I didn’t want to retrain men for the 2nd project . So I walked the men into the survey trl and had a meeting stating positive aspects of these men & that there going to all 3 projects. They where happy about this & became better workers. They knew we did not get the union rate & calling us pussys etc. I said your rt 6 of us refused to leave the air port Ramada until we got our double time. They said who ever is starting this is fired. We said all 6 of us are equally involved. Etc I said watch your mouth I,m the 1 paying the mob 250k a week. Probably the reason I was never given my own rig. Men don’t fight like that for wages anymore.