DPA Auctions strives to build strong relationships of trust with our clients. We are a family business and our goal is to treat our customers like family—with honesty, respect, and open communication. The way we see it, when our customers succeed, we succeed.
2020 presented some serious obstacles for us all. As much as we wish we could wave a magic wand and make everything all right, we know that in life, it is often the greatest challenges that bring us the greatest opportunities.
We strive to assist truckers as best as we can to achieve success. It is our hope that the information we’ve gathered here will shed some light on our national pandemic’s impact on the trucking industry.
COVID-19
As of February 1, 2021, the CDC reported over 26,000,000 cases of COVID and nearly 440,000 COVID-related deaths in the US.
COVID’s impact is reinventing the way we live and conduct business. Some changes that we thought would be temporary are likely here to stay.
Employment
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 22 million jobs were lost at the beginning of the pandemic. Only around 12 million have been recovered thus far.
- 88,300 truck drivers lost their jobs in April 2020 alone. It was the largest loss since the bureau began tracking in 1990.
- The transportation sector gained nearly 47,000 jobs in December, marking the seventh consecutive monthly increase after four consecutive decreases.
- With 2020 numbers still preliminary, trucking employment was down 42,100 jobs for the year.
(It’s worth noting that these figures don’t reflect private fleet employment numbers, which fall in the private fleet’s main business category. For example, Walmart and Amazon drivers are counted as retail employees.)
Truckers’ Contribution as Essential Workers
Overcoming early challenges, truckload carriers adapted quickly and kept America stocked with necessary goods. Truckers continue this vital service as the pandemic wears on.
Truckers are also playing an important role in the distribution process for the COVID vaccine.
In May 2020, the government announced “Operation Warp Speed,” a public-private partnership initiated to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID vaccines.
On December 13, 2020, a convoy of trucks loaded with the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine departed from a Pfizer manufacturing plant in Michigan and headed to airports and distribution centers.
Yet, despite these significant contributions, truckers often remain the unsung heroes among essential workers. Our team at DPA Auctions recognizes your valiant efforts and commends each and every one of you for your dedication and service.
When will truckers be eligible to receive the vaccine?
The Centers for Disease Control assigned transportation workers to the third group (Category 1C) of COVID-19 vaccine deployment. The category includes:
- People aged 65—74 years
- People aged 16—64 years with underlying medical conditions, which increase the risk of serious, life-threatening complications from COVID-19.
- Other essential workers, such as people who work in transportation and logistics, food service, housing construction and finance, information technology, communications, energy, law, media, public safety, and public health.
However, each individual state determines “who’s up” next. The states are also responsible for the distribution of the vaccine.
COVID’s Current Impact on Trucking
According to economists at MacKay & Co., COVID’s lasting effects on the economy — from more companies embracing remote work to more consumers embracing last-mile delivery — are not going away. The firm predicts that the first quarter of 2021 will not be as good as the rest of the year. But, the predicted strength at the end of 2021 could balance out the weakness from the start of the year, which will bring trucking and other economic indicators back up to 2019 levels.
Slow-and-steady truck transportation employment is on the rebound for both local and long-distance sectors; and prices are continuing to firm because of the increased level of freight.
Convoy’s Annual Freight Insights Report
According to Convoy’s Annual Freight Insights Report, 2020’s freight data shows how the transportation industry is tied to the economy, society, and consumer behavior.
The data traced the domino effect of COVID-19. As people stayed home, they ordered more things online, so retail warehouses and distribution facilities had more shipments to fulfill, which then led to more trucks picking up and delivering these goods.
Convoy’s report also showed the difference of COVID’s impact between the goods economy and the services economy. Consider food spending trends—spending at restaurants and bars declined, reversing a decades-long upward trend, as grocery spending steeply rose after years of sluggishness. Restaurants and bars never fully recovered, even as parts of the country reopened throughout the year.
The goods economy, on the other hand, sharply rose from March onward. With people taking fewer vacations and eating out less, household savings rates soared and people shifted their spending to things instead of experiences.
Spending less on services and more on goods is a boon for the transportation and logistics industry.
Driver Impacts
- Due to the pandemic, fewer commercial driver’s licenses were issued to new drivers as social distancing limited training and testing in 2020.
- The pandemic pushed some drivers out of the industry.
- Trucking has found more labor competition in construction, manufacturing and last-mile delivery, which all have fewer regulations on workers.
Be on the Lookout
Experts are watching five forward-looking indicators for the trucking economy:
- Single-family building permits
- Single-family housing starts
- Gasoline prices
- Diesel prices
- Class 8 retail sales
Construction is a truck-intensive activity that has a large multiplier for the rest of the economy. For example, when you build a house, you furnish the house, and you move into the house – all of which cause Truckable Economic Activity (TEA).
According to the Census Bureau, housing permits issued continued on an upward trend in September (the latest data available), which marked the third straight month of 2020 where more housing permits were issued than the same month of 2019. Housing starts in June through September 2020 also outpaced the starts over the same period in 2019.
We are Here for You
As we mentioned, the greatest challenges often bring us the greatest opportunities. DPA Auctions makes owning your own truck an affordable option as you seek to advance your trucking career. We have a highly educated team of advisors available to assist you all along the way as you consider purchasing a truck at auction. Just give us a call, 800-492-9090.
Check out our blog post: Benefits of Buying/Selling Used Trucks here. [insert hyperlink: www.DPAauctions.com]
For more information, call us today at 800-492-9090 or Contact us.