Tractor Shortages

[mred2]

We have had f250's on order for some time. Dealers are listing used trucks for $10 to $20,000 more than they would have sold for 5 years ago. 1/2 tons, yes, bigger, NO!
A friend building a house was told that the bath tubs would be 3 to 4 months. My boss ordered a new refrigerator, it has been over 6 months. While things are better in places, a long way from being back.
If you have one to sell, do it. If you want to buy, I am not sure. My son thinks that truck prices will come back down by summer. I know that the price on new trucks is going up.

 

[Torvy]

The pricing problems are layered. The thing that could be handled quickly, if there was an will to correct the problem, would be to unload the ships. It would take intervention on the federal level and likely use of military trucks and loading personnel to handle it. It would be expensive.

When a serious backlog like this happens in a private sector environment, the regular process will usually be set aside to address the problem. Overtime, suspension of some rules, do whatever it takes. The thing is, continuing to do what you have always done only has x amount of capacity. Since the docks are clearly way behind, the old process can never catch up.

The inflation will take longer to handle, but better to have expensive tractors on the lot than to have no tractors on the lot.

 

[rScotty]

Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update

Gasoline and diesel fuel prices released weekly.

www.eia.gov

Breakdown of current prices by region.

Thanks for posting that. It shows that gas and diesel prices are stable - not at all what the news media would have us believe. i.e. a slight upward trend in costs but not at all what one hears on the news.

Sometimes I wonder if we are all living in one world and the news media another.
rScotty

 

[IndyJay]

Wow...

 

[crazyal]

In 2008 lots of companies got caught with way too much inventory ($$$$$) sitting on a shelf or lot unsold in a recession just at a time when they needed the money. So they all followed Toyota's lean manufacturing or "just in time" manufacturing. The concept is you only have enough inventory to build what you can in a given short time period. For example you wouldn't have 6 months worth of seat inventory for a tractor. Instead you have a couple days worth and a supply chain that will deliver seats at a pace that matches your production rate. So when the supply chain tightened companies didn't have the depth of parts to weather it.

 

[Torvy]

Thanks for posting that. It shows that gas and diesel prices are stable - not at all what the news media would have us believe. i.e. a slight upward trend in costs but not at all what one hears on the news.

Sometimes I wonder if we are all living in one world and the news media another.
rScotty

You do realize that is only the last 2 weeks, right?

 

[IndyJay]

And that the "year ago" figure was price, not percent? A 50% jump is not what I would consider "stable". I do agree though that the news media is not reflective of the real world that we are all living in.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Thanks for posting that. It shows that gas and diesel prices are stable - not at all what the news media would have us believe. i.e. a slight upward trend in costs but not at all what one hears on the news.

Sometimes I wonder if we are all living in one world and the news media another.
rScotty

??

Regular unleaded gasoline now costs an average of $3.41 per gallon, an increase of 61% from the $2.12 average 12mo ago. One of the largest 12mo jumps in price ever.

 

[Hay Dude]

Interesting charts, but they don't say where those prices were taken. Our diesel costs less than that.

My point is that it is normal for people to think that the entire rest of the country is experiencing the same things that are affecting them locally.
And it's just not so.

rScotty

rScotty,

National average retail gas and diesel prices
Source: US Retail Gas Price

 

[jyoutz]

Trucking was deregulated in the early 1980's; up to that point it was high wage Teamster driven. (no pun intended)

Seems like truck driving is pretty high pay today. I saw a billboard on I-40 recently advertising driving jobs for $80k to start. Walmart is paying $100k.