Expert details the impacts the ‘Great Trucking Recession’ will have on Americans

‘All the trucking companies right now are in dark times’

America’s trucking industry is in a dire state, which is bad news for the American economy because it serves as an indicator of the mood of consumers and their pocketbooks heading into the holiday season, one expert warned.

Post pandemic, there has been a surplus of trucks and drivers compared to the amount of freight that needs transporting. As lockdown spending slowed and the cost of living continues to rise, more truckers are fighting for the same loads, which results in a “dogfight” between truckers and trucking companies, JKC Trucking Vice-President and Co-Owner Mike Kucharski told Fox News Digital.

“Everybody’s calling this the great trucking recession, and it’s true because all the trucking companies right now are in dark times,” he said. “This is not a good time to be in the trucking industry. Just to paint a picture, the trucking industry is the engine that drives the American economy forward. We’re fueling growth [and] prosperity by transporting goods to where they need to be and when the engine breaks down or stops, it works like a heart. When that ceases to be, it brings the entire economic system to a halt.”

Yellow Corporation, for example, which is one of the nation’s oldest and largest trucking companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August, laying off 30,000 employees. Convoy Inc., a Seattle-based trucking startup that was valued by investors at $3.8 billion just last year, shut down last month.

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