- Six trucking companies have folded in 2019.
- That has left more than 2,500 truck drivers unemployed.
- After a hugely profitable year in 2018, this year has seen retailers and manufacturers moving less, according to the Cass Freight Index.
Rates in the spot market, in which retailers and manufacturers buy trucking capacity as they need it rather than through a contract, sank by about 18% year-over-year in June. That has caused truckers like Demetrius Wilburn, a Georgia-based driver, to find themselves unemployed.
Wilburn bought his semitruck four years ago after years of working as a company truck driver. But amid rock-bottom rates, Wilburn wasn't able to make a payment one month — and his truck was repossessed.
"I was only six months away from paying it off," Wilburn told Business Insider. "I'm trying to transition back into law enforcement now — don't want to ever drive trucks again. Definitely not worth it."
The Lexington, Kentucky-based owner-operator Chad Boblett told Business Insider that some truck drivers were seeing a "bloodbath" in just how low rates had become.
PS: Don't bother writing your congressman either. He doesn't care, unless your name is Moshe Finkelstein.