Trucking Is This A Dying Industry Or A Thriving Industry??

This is a question i have been asking myself alot lately. I have been doing this for Almost 14 years now,it's pretty much all i have known since i got out of school. In my area that was one of the most common jobs to do other than paper mills and logging when i was growing up but the economy and rising costs have began to really put a strain on it now with the increase in prices and the decrease in pay for the job that is done.

It seems now a days the big companies are trying to cut the costs but keep the product moving without giving enough thought to how it moves. The Big companies are feeling the crunch but do not take in consideration that the little guys are feeling it as bad if not worse. This isn't right but it is the way that this industry is going and there seems to be nothing that can be done about it. Local truckers and owner-operators traveled to D.C. to try to get someone to hear them out but it seemed to end up in a way being a waste of time and money because fuel prices lowered for a short time but are slowly creeping back up again, and they never seemed to get down where they should have been to begin with.


Yes the fuel costs dropped but along with those so did the pay. I'm not sure how the figures were done there but it ended up still with hardly any profit left over for the little guy once his bills were payed,but the big businesses need not worry because they had cut the throat of the smaller business enough that they still made a decent profit at their expense. I have seen many give up their trucks and dreams because of this myself included. My wife and i did this because that is how i was provided for growing up and i wanted my family to have the same chance i did , but about the same time we got into business things took a turn for the worse. It became a struggle just to find good work and keep your head above water.As things got worse and a few years of digging and scratching and pretty much starting our life completely over i knew it was time to duck out and go back to driving for someone else.

Things haven't got much better but there are alot less headaches as far as trying to keep the truck going,but long hours and decreasing pay have me wondering if it is worth it anymore. I'm not sure with all the paper mills and lumber mills closing and cutting back what is going to be left for the upcoming generation but it is scary! This is why i wonder is this once sought after line of employment is starting to die out, because it doesn't seem to be picking up and the future isn't looking real promising either.