Over the past few years literally all of us have been affected by the contracting economy in one form or another whether that is due to or employers cutting back our hours, pay freezes or worse pay cuts and the dreaded laying off of staff.

Being a truck driver during all of this must be particularly hard right? Yes and No, there have been areas of the industry heavily affected by the economy taking a hit such as consumer goods such as new TV’s and expensive purchases folk can live without.
In general people still need to eat food, clothe themselves and their families and go to work. These areas are doing well.

Most of the industry have adapted to the new trading conditions and are just waiting for the other routes to become viable again. When this happens everything will be good again.

With the continuous increase in fuel prices coupled with cut backs and a slower economy many truck drivers might be considering a sharp change of direction into what they might consider a more reliable career.

Big transportation companies have plenty of resources at their disposal which can be used to bring down the overall costs of doing business to counter balance the price of fuel, reduced demand and other mentioned factors.

These tactics might include:

Negotiation of the price per gallon of fuel, fuel prices are negotiable when you are a big company, buying big has its benefits. Some might even buy by futures allowing them to arrange a price in the future with a supplier if agreed there maybe loss or savings made. The same tactics are applied to the actual products shipped discount can be arranged at both ends of their network.

Savings have been made with improvements in truck efficiency, previously it has been a technique considered non-viable due to the price of fuel being so low. With the price of fuel only on the increase these technologies are now worth consideration.

Trucking companies have also the opportunity to pay a lower rate to those straight out of truck driver training, which will increase as time goes on increasing the wage to match that of the more experienced drivers.

In general truck companies have managed to pull through as they have resources at their disposal these are just a few that might be implemented by the businesses as a means of cost saving in a time of recession and ever increasing fuel prices.

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