Episode 295: Join us as we take a look at how the trucking industry has evolved over the past couple of years with Charles Bowles Director of Commercial Truck OEM & Strategic Initiatives at Commercial Truck Trader. We'll explore trends in buying and selling trucks, including the pandemic's impact and current supply chain challenges. Discover changes in the sales environment, depreciation effects, and how dealerships are adapting.
Show Notes: Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com for complete show notes of this episode and to subscribe to all our content.
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FinditParts: Are you looking to purchase heavy-duty parts and get your commercial vehicle repaired? Get access to the largest source for heavy-duty truck and trailer parts in the United States and Canada. Buy your parts from FinditParts.
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Episode 295: Join us as we take a look at how the trucking industry has evolved over the past couple of years with Charles Bowles Director of Commercial Truck OEM & Strategic Initiatives at Commercial Truck Trader. We'll explore trends in buying and selling trucks, including the pandemic's impact and current supply chain challenges. Discover changes in the sales environment, depreciation effects, and how dealerships are adapting.
Show Notes: Visit HeavyDutyPartsReport.com for complete show notes of this episode and to subscribe to all our content.
Sponsors of this Episode
FinditParts: Are you looking to purchase heavy-duty parts and get your commercial vehicle repaired? Get access to the largest source for heavy-duty truck and trailer parts in the United States and Canada. Buy your parts from FinditParts.
SAMPA: Looking for suspension, steering, and 5th wheel parts? Buy now from SAMPA.com
Disclaimer: This content and description may contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, The Heavy Duty Parts Report may receive a commission.
Special Offer:
Sign up for our weekly email so you never miss out on an episode: Follow the Show
You're listening to the heavy duty parts report. I'm your host, jamie Irvin, and this is the place where we have conversations that empower heavy duty people. If you look at the trucking industry, over the last 12 months, we have seen a very dynamic, very challenging situation in the industry. There has been so many factors that are contributing to making this really an unprecedented year in many ways. I'm really excited about our conversation today because we're going to talk to someone who's really done some in depth research on the trends, on what's happening in the trucking industry, especially related to the purchasing and selling of new and used trucks and the implications that has on the industry. Tune in at the end of our conversation as well, because there's some great bonus content where our director, diana, cut more, jumped on the call with Charles and I and we had an extended discussion. So if you want to really hear some more great Information, just make sure to listen to our episode, but also there's some great bonus information for you at the conclusion of the episode. So let's introduce our guest.
Speaker 1:My guest today is Charles bowls. He's the director of commercial truck OEM and strategic initiatives of commercial truck trader. Charles was instrumental in the launch and growth of commercial truck traders position in the industry. He works with top executives at some of the world's largest companies and often presents at national events as a subject matter expert for our industry. Charles, welcome to the heavy duty parts report. So very glad to have you here.
Speaker 2:Jamie, thanks for that introduction boy. I sound a lot better than I am.
Speaker 1:Hey, you wrote the bio so I just have to read it. So, charles, as I mentioned in the intro, this has been a challenging year. It's been dynamic. There's a lot going on in the trucking industry right now as we come to the close of twenty twenty three. We're recording this right now, in mid November. So how is the industry changed over the last twelve months and what impact is that having on our industry, but maybe on the north american society at large?
Speaker 2:That is such a broad question and I love talking about this. I talked to a lot of people about it Dealers and manufacturers. We're seeing Changes that you know I'm an old man and we're seeing changes that we've never seen before in the industry. What I think the most significant is the impact of what the pandemic had in terms of how we get our goods and how they're delivered. I think that's a big one. But also we've also seen a lot of supply chain challenges. We've seen inventory challenges and we're just over the past twelve months, which is what you just refer to we're seeing A tremendous bounce back in inventory on dealer lots. On our site commercial truck trailer we've seen inventory grow forty eight point six percent Over the same period last year, so a significant growth. You know what they're still a dearth of. You know heavy duty, new A day cabs and sleepers, but we're seeing a significant number of used units come back on the lot.
Speaker 1:So what would you say? Is is driving that trend where we're seeing so many more used vehicles on dealer lots.
Speaker 2:It's a couple of things. One, sadly, is inflation and interest rates. Money is very expensive now. So you know the small operators particularly spot rates are continuing to drop, are having some real chitin one. Contract rates are dropping too. So we're seeing a confluence of a lot of challenges for very small Owner operators. But also we're finally seeing a ramping up on the new side.
Speaker 2:But they're all pre orders. They barely hit a dealer lot. You know these are ones that Business has ordered six months, eight months ago have finally come in so they've been able to get rid of some of their older units. But you know that brings us to that point that we're seeing a lot of people hold on to vehicles a lot longer. So you know that's really good for parts and finance. We see a lot of vehicles that are are much older than we've seen coming into auction, coming in wholesale and even coming into retail. So that's really requiring a lot of additional work on that, back in on the parts, on the service, to get them up to speed so that they can then resell them.
Speaker 1:So, if the supply chain is catching up on new vehicles and the bigger fleets are finally getting those ones that they ordered as much as a year ago, and we also see everything going in the wrong direction, right, inflation's going up, spot rates and contract rates are going down. We've seen a lot of companies small ones going out of business, some big ones, and all of a sudden now all of this volume of trucks shows up at all these dealership lots. What's the sales environment like right now is? Is these dealerships just holding a lot of inventory, or are a lot of these trucks selling quickly, like what's going on there?
Speaker 2:That's such a complex question. I was at the use truck associations national convention last week in San Antonio and what we're hearing is just just all kinds of stuff across the board. You know, the biggest challenge we're facing right now is as the inventory comes back. We've got residual values problems. We've got people who bought high and ended up it's not worth what they paid for it. In some cases by the time they bring it back from the auction they may be upside down on some of these. So it's a real challenge.
Speaker 2:I think what the smart dealers are figuring out is I need to determine what my specific demand is and go after that. There's really not a lot of spec buying right now, particularly for use, because anything that sits on the lot is likely to appreciate a little bit more than it has. So I don't think we've hit the bottom on depreciation. But first, I'm not an economist, but I don't think we've hit the bottom on depreciation and valuations. I think it's coming soon, but we're seeing more of the inventory come back to the deal a lot. The prices are going down but we still see demand. So it's kind of a weird dichotomy of different patterns going on simultaneously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the other thing that people have to remember is in these down cycles, it feels like everything is down, but that's not always true. There can be specific vocations where there's still demand and things are actually going up. And so, yes, it's true, over the road, trucking and spot rates and contract rates are down. So for that particular segment, which is a very large segment of our industry, that's all down. But there might be areas where there's trucks can be re-rigged for different vocations and then there's demand there. So you're right, it's never just a one-size-fits-all situation. You're exactly right.
Speaker 2:And what we've seen, regardless of the pandemic, is dump trucks are like the energizer bunny the demand just never goes down. I mean, it's just crazy how you know the larger dump trucks, sevens and eights they just the demand is always there. We're also seeing what I find interesting on our site and one of the interesting points about our site is we have, you know, a little more than 3,000 dealers on the site. You know with you know, several hundred thousand vehicles at any given time, but we have 2.2 million visitors a month. So we get an idea really of what the demand looks like. And what we're seeing is really interesting.
Speaker 2:Day cab interest is just exploding, the opposite of what we're seeing on the sleeper side. The past couple of months we've seen sleepers kind of diminish in demand. But what we've seen is a real growth in day cabs and we measure that by not the amount of inventory but when somebody searches and they get you know how you, if it's commercial, truck, trader, truck paper, wherever it is, and you see search results. When somebody then clicks on a specific vehicle, that registers increased intent and that's what we look at. That's a vehicle detail page view and we're seeing significantly higher ones for day cabs than we have in a while. I mean it's 28% growth in interest from September to October, just in day cabs. It's amazing. Do you have any insight into that? I could certainly use it in my job.
Speaker 1:Day cab yeah, why the interest in day cabs? So I mean, obviously that is a move away from long haul trucking, right? So that tells me that there are people that are interested in more regional trucking opportunities and so they're looking to get equipment to be able to satisfy that need. And so maybe that is a reflection of look, the spot rates are down, contract rates are down on long haul trucking. I'm now going to go after a specific vocation in my regional area and so now I don't need a truck with a sleeper, so I'm going to look at something with a day cab. From my perspective of being in the industry, that's to me the logic behind that tracks with the activity.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm glad I'm going to use that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to steal that from you as a matter of fact, you only have to give me credit once or twice, and then it's yours.
Speaker 2:You know that makes perfect sense when we're talking about middle mile and last mile. In terms of demand, we still have enormous demand right now for the delivery sector, in smaller classes of vehicles particularly. You know that just has not abated and it just continues to grow. We're seeing, you know, everything from the low cab forwards or cab overs to just the conventional medium duty trucks that they're used for box trucks or delivery trucks that demand is continuing to grow as we're seeing these big shifts in how people are buying now.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, and the other thing too is long haul trucking. There's a lot of cost associated with that. There's a lot of miles, a lot of maintenance, a lot of fuel, different insurance needs. There's also the different regulations depending on what state you're operating in. So I could also see, if I was a trucker right now, saying, look, if I can find a regional opportunity where I have to do less travel, maybe I make a little less total but I spend a lot less. And so then in the net the net for me is actually income for my family. I can see why that trend is growing, because that just makes a lot of sense to me. You know, the maintenance costs and the fuel and everything associated with it is so high right now and there's just not enough demand. Like you say, the rates are all down, so it's just everything's in the wrong direction. So to me that makes a lot of sense why people are looking at those additional opportunities to try to find ways of making money Actually making money, not just, you know, having revenue, but then having costs that are exceeding that revenue. That makes a lot of sense. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:Today we're back from our break. Before the break, charles, we were kind of talking about the volatility in the market in trucking, the way that the last few months have gone. There's so many pressures. There's so many things that are happening in the industry Spot rates and contra rates, down costs at all time high. You were talking about some of the trends in used trucks and where that's going. But your organization has put together a comprehensive consumer report I wanted to talk about that. You've released this report at Commercial Truck Trader. I wanted to talk first of all about the methodology you use to collect the data. Then we'll talk about the key findings in this report. First of all, tell us a little bit about what the report is and talk a little bit about the methodology used to collect the information.
Speaker 2:We collected the information from consumer surveys on the site. It's from the 2.2 million average monthly visitors that come to the site and choose to take part in the survey. That gives us some information. That way, it's a significant amount of information. In addition to that, we can also watch buyer behavior on the site and that gives us additional deep insights into it. It was interesting the takeaways that we've gotten, jamie. It's so fundamentally different than what it was in 2019 in some cases. If you'd like, I can just share a couple of the takeaways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was interested in that. So you're collecting the data from the users on your site. You've put together this consumer trends report. So there were some very specific key takeaways, like you say, that were significantly different than in the years past. Let's talk a little bit about what those were.
Speaker 2:One of the ones that is so fundamentally different is how buyers interact with dealerships. Now it used to be that a buyer would almost always go to a dealership or almost always contact the dealership by phone. Now many, many buyers are doing most of their research online, whether it's at a dealership website or a third party website like commercial truck trader. But by the time a buyer contacts a dealer, they've really gone down that sales funnel. That buyer journey is pretty much cemented. At that point They've talked to three or four dealerships or researched three or four dealerships before they've contacted the one they're going to buy from. What's different is that the telephone, which used to be such a large part of our business just a few years ago, is now moved aside, and it really is email.
Speaker 2:Email is the way that many of the buyers like to interact with a seller. They prefer it even over texting. People are so concerned about things like their problem. We offer phone calls and texting and so on, but people are so concerned about their privacy, or they just don't want the pressure of somebody contacting them back, that they use email as that form of getting that additional research without actually having to have that Direct 101 interaction. That's so different than it was just several years ago. It's not only in the Class 8. It's really in the Class 3 through 7. We're seeing many, many conversations discussions formulated via email, where they'll talk about everything up to the final price via email and then they will actually contact the dealership. They're really looking for a convenient and hassle-free way of shopping and they want to do it on their own terms now, which is such a change from the way it was just several years ago.
Speaker 1:In 2019, I spent a lot of time talking about the importance of building out the ability to. You want people to be able to find, you, learn about. You have all this content on demand so that they can educate themselves. I pointed to a McKinsey study that showed that B2B buyers were progressively becoming more comfortable buying larger and larger dollar amounts via a complete digital sales channel with little to no in-person communication with the supplier. And then the pandemic hit. I think a lot of the people that were holding on to the old way were forced during the pandemic to do it differently. I think a lot of them realized that there was a big upside to doing it this way.
Speaker 1:In some ways, I think the trucking industry caught up to where the rest of the world, but other industries had already gotten to by 2019 during the pandemic. This is no surprise to me. I believe that most companies they are missing a lot of opportunity by not creating that easy to access information. You have to provide people with all of the information they need to evaluate their choices and their decisions and make it easy for them and make that content on demand 24-7 so they can practically binge watch it if they want to. Then to your point, when they're ready to make a decision, then they'll contact you. By the time they've gotten there, they're ready to buy and they already have established a relationship with your brand and your company, your dealership. Whatever the case may be, this is a huge opportunity for many, many companies, both on the part side and on the service side and on the truck side, to be able to transform the way they do business.
Speaker 1:One of the things I hear about from a lot of people is, especially those that are very comfortable with the traditional way. Is there worried about not being able to have as close of a relationship with their customers because of this perceived distance that the digital sales channel creates? That is not been my experience. One of the most common things that happens when I go to a trade show and I meet someone that I've been working with online for maybe months or even years Is they like, give me a hug.
Speaker 1:You've created such a comfort level with that individual over time that when you finally do meet in person, like they're ready to like, they already have a relationship with you. What's your experience been? Does that resonate?
Speaker 2:with you. Oh, very similarly. And you know, given the hugs and stuff, I've kind of try to stay away from those much, but you're a really big guy, you can probably push him away. But since we've all started to work remotely in many situations, you know, our relationships are now built via internet, via Zoom, via all these other methods, and what I've seen is it really hasn't diminished relationships at all. And I know from the work I do and I work a lot at the manufacturer level that it is actually such a blessing to be able to just hop on a call via Hangout and actually talk to somebody and do business that way. So I think we're seeing it throughout different parts of the industry.
Speaker 2:Now, in terms of a dealership and how they interact with their customers, one of the most important things that we know from empirical data is that buyers aren't just looking for price. Price is, you know, it's important to post a price, but really they're also looking for that parts and service and really it's that maintenance aspect, particularly on the used side of the business, that's really important to a buyer. Downtime is just money out of the pocket right away. So you know when we see the best practices at dealerships when they're posting listings for units, they really focus in on several things. One you know the vocation or the application or the job associated with the vehicle.
Speaker 2:Obviously that's how people search. You know they search for. They don't search by brand like you would think they do. They don't search by make models so much. Particularly up through class seven, in some cases class eight they search for that job or that application Dump truck for sale near me, landscape body for sale, austin, texas, that way.
Speaker 2:So in a lot of cases they're focused on that first and foremost. But then the secondary things they look for are finance and parts, service and maintenance. They're really critical and service contracts are another big part, particularly on the used side of the business, that are really important to buyers. So you mentioned something a second ago that goes along with this. If you don't really have a good presence online and it doesn't matter whether you're on commercial truck trade or a truck paper, wherever you are if you don't have that presence, you're going to lose eight out of ten of those possible people that are out there buying, because eight out of ten have already established a relationship with you and you didn't even know it with online listings and they've chosen to contact you after that. So those are the people that have made their decision and gone to you. If you don't post properly online, then you lose eight out of ten of those potential buyers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and my experience has been, you know, in our consulting company we work with manufacturers and we work with distributors and dealership groups. My experience has been that you can front load the relationship building process that used to have to happen after we physically met. Now you can front load that before you ever meet them in person and they can have this relationship and this desire to do business with you because you've done a great job of showing them the value of what you're offering. And then they finally do meet in person and they're ready to do business. So it front loads the relationship building, but it also primes people to be ready to purchase and then you can do more deals quicker, which is really good for everyone at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:That's such a good point. And the old school way of not putting a lot of information or not putting price and say, well, they'll call me and then I can work into a program for them. They're just not going to call. When you put on a listing call for price, what you're really saying is don't call me, they're not going to call. And the same thing is true if you don't put information about your parts and service department you know their hours, the bays that you have. All that information is critical to these men and women who are buying these vehicles because this is their tool and every day they don't have that tool is a day that they lose money. So when they're searching and looking, researching through that buying process, it is critical to have that information, additional information other than simply the information about the unit. You want that parts and service, you want your hours, you want all that and finance. You want all that information because that's how they're searching for you.
Speaker 1:In one of the other key findings of the report, you mentioned demographics. How are demographics shifting and what are the implications?
Speaker 2:I didn't think in my lifetime I would see that 33% of the buyers on the site were women. I just didn't think we'd get there that fast. I know there's a large number of women who are over the road and class 8 drivers, but a number of them is now really growing. It's really great to see because it really changes the whole complexion of the industry. It becomes just more open, diverse, place, and I think that's good for everybody. That's one of the big ones. Also, we're seeing in many cases not necessarily class 8, but larger classes of vehicles.
Speaker 2:People are buying for different kinds of uses. I'm not sure why somebody buys a Class 6 pickup truck, but they'll buy one. I live on a farm and I have a Ford Maverick pickup like the smallest pickup truck in the world and, by the way, it took me 10 and a half months to get that thing. When I ordered it it was the first new truck I ever got. I paid $23,000 for it a year and a half ago. The residual on it now is like 32. I don't know what's going on. It goes back to what we talked about in the first part of this conversation is that the prices are just doing this right now.
Speaker 1:Well, I live in Alberta and if you don't have an F-250 or larger, you don't even have a truck, at their opinion.
Speaker 2:That is funny. But it goes back to the other point. I do have a 1995 F-150. It can still climb a tree, but it gets lighter every year because the rust around the fender is just. That's right.
Speaker 1:Talking about those demographic shifts, I think it's very important. At our company, we are focused on human flourishing. That's our goal. It's like if heavy duty people flourish, then they take care of society and then everybody wins. To see this growth in having women join the industry, that's a wonderful thing, to your point. We need more of that. Do you think that? Also because the demographics are shifting and remember too, we've got a lot of baby boomers who are going to be hanging it up really soon Do you think that that's having some implications on the way people are buying and how these trends are going? Do you think that's part of the driver behind it?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. As you start to look at the complexion of the buyers nowadays, you see a dramatic change. Obviously you're seeing younger buyers, and younger buyers bring with them a whole different skill set and a whole different way of looking at not only how they buy vehicles but what the professions they choose to be a part of. In the trucking space it's no different. We're seeing people that have chosen that. It used to be many years ago that being an over-the-road trucker was one of the last things you wanted to do, because it was a very hard job. You're away from home so long and it's physically demanding. Those are much more comfortable nowadays. The companies have gotten the message that we need to treat our drivers better. You're seeing a lot of those changes which are bringing a whole different type of person into the industry. It's so welcome because we still have our old school folks like me and that's great. But we also have younger, more sophisticated folks.
Speaker 2:If you're not in the industry, don't realize how sophisticated people who drive trucks are nowadays. They have to be very adept at understanding computers. They're away from home all the time. They're doing a lot of their business over computers. Their entire dashboard now has got many components that are computer-related and they just have to understand all that. It takes a special kind of training to get to that point.
Speaker 2:We're seeing a higher level of education in many cases. We're also seeing a shift to actually more women in it. We're seeing businesses treating them better because they understand retention is so critical. We saw, I guess, 2019 on some real challenges getting people to get into the trucking space as drivers, because that old connotation of how difficult it is and how it's just a struggle to do it is really not the case anymore. We're slowly seeing that change. That's a very long answer, jamie, but I'm very excited about seeing those changes because it's going to help us grow, not only just in this industry but the nation as a whole, because we'll have people who are very good at this and very good at logistics, very good at moving things and bringing all kinds of new ideas to the market.
Speaker 1:We've just scratched the surface of this year's Consumer Report. If people would like to get their hands on a copy of it, what's the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 2:I have a very long URL. Unfortunately it is pagescommercialtrucktradercom. I'll say it one more time. You may have to pause and go back and write this down Commercialtrucktradercom All one long word thing.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, make sure that the links are in the show notes so people can just do one click and get right to that Consumer Report. You've been listening to the Heavy Duty Parts Report. I'm your host, jamie Irvin. We've been speaking with Charles Bowles, director of Commercial Truck, oem and Strategic Initiatives at Commercial Truck Trader. To learn more about Commercial Truck Trader, visit commercialtrucktradercom. We'll also have that additional link that'll take you directly through to this year's Consumer Report. Charles, thank you so much for being on the Heavy Duty Parts Report. I really enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2:Jamie, thank you. I learned a lot from you today. I've got to come back and just listen to this.
Speaker 1:So our episode officially concluded. But after we stop recording, diana, our podcast director came on and we were discussing these shifts in Demographics and we wanted to give you a little bit of bonus content. So, diana, welcome to the heavy-duty parts report.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Jamie.
Speaker 1:You just attended a show in Texas. What was the show?
Speaker 3:So it was the women in trucking accelerate conference. It was in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole. It was beautiful hotel and to my knowledge that was the best attended women in trucking show that they've had so far. Easily over a thousand women were there and that reminded me of what you had just said, charles, that 33% of buyers are women now, and that just made me so happy that I was there networking with, I'm sure, some of those women, and that's such a huge change. So it kind of got me thinking. There have been a few changes in the industry in the name of efficiency that have made the industry more accessible to women. Just a few that come to mind are power jacks and lift gates and in the name of saving money, they've actually opened up the trucking industry to women. So that was really great to hear that that's being reflected both on the driver and on the buying side.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, diana, what's what's also Interesting is how truck stops now have. They have changed and evolve. They have dog parks, they have all kinds of Amenities that you know. You think about the grizzly old guys that look like me that we're doing this. You know, before that's, that's a whole different thing. Now, I mean, they're so family friendly. The truck stops of Nowadays are just so different and just there's. They're so welcoming and I think that's also Been a response to the fact that we've got a different type of driver. Now We've got we've got people who are family oriented, not that the others weren't, but we have those that are Women, are demanding certain things. We have younger millennials who are demanding certain things. So you're right, I mean, the the shift is is always market driven. You know, nobody does these things just for the fun of it and just say, hey, I think I'm gonna be good. Maybe not all the time, but really they are seeing, by adding a dog park to a travel center, it changes and grows their business significantly.
Speaker 3:You're absolutely right. I mean, there are so many husband and wife teams out there, people who are bringing their dogs on the road and cats on the road Although I don't think that any truck stop has a cat park yet I'll be interested.
Speaker 2:You know that goes back to that old expression. How would we herd them into that part? You know you're so funny.
Speaker 3:Um, okay, and then, since we're talking about these changing demographics, it also brought up something else to me, which is that this move away from the phone call in person thing you kind of mentioned that you know, younger millennials Sort of had a great time during the pandemic, which is that we were relying on websites, on email, unless on phone calls and in person, to make transactions. Now, like I'm almost 30, now that the younger millennials are really coming up into Middle management, into buying positions, I don't see that trend stopping anytime soon.
Speaker 2:Oh well, let me ask you a question. Yes what is your phone number for your landline?
Speaker 3:I actually do have a landline. I just set it up two days ago.
Speaker 2:You are such a rare creature, why?
Speaker 1:did you do that Just second, before she answers that I just got rid of my landline after having one for like 20 years. So okay, the world has flipped upside down now.
Speaker 3:But it's not a traditional landline, it's a VoIP voiceover internet protocol landline. Okay, and it cost me three dollars a month and I wanted it Just because my mother lives with me. I wanted to have an actual phone that can ring and I actually it came with like a real desk phone. I'm having a great time.
Speaker 1:So you're just accommodating a baby boober, though, with this decision right, it wasn't for your mom, you wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's my only reason.
Speaker 1:Fair enough.
Speaker 3:And then there was something else that you and you had mentioned, charles. So my daughter's dad is a truck driver, has been for almost 10 years, so I have personal experience or sort of somewhat personal, indirect personal experience With the industry. And when you said that the interest in daycaps are exploding and sleepers are decreasing, you asked Jamie, why do you think that's happening? I had two thoughts on that.
Speaker 3:Oh good specifically from September to October. That was when the news of yellow going out of business really, like you know, permeated the the media, and Yellow had something like 9% of the market share. So I could definitely see how some fleets are clamoring for daycaps to try and take over their share of that LTL freight. Do you think that that might be a reason?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really good observation and we hope that they do, because if those things just push back into the market, man that's going to depreciate and Decrease the residual values on a lot of vehicles and would just be in that State for several more months trying to work out of it. That's a really good observation, diana, and I agree with you on that and then there was another thing.
Speaker 3:So when my Daughter's dad was first getting into the industry, he did some temp work, and yet there's there's very little temp work happening on sleepers, right. That doesn't really make sense for those companies to use contract labor. That's not an owner operator for that. So I'm wondering if, with the economy looking as dire as it is, if More companies are going to rely on that temp work for their daycaps and they're trying to Grab some used trucks in order to rely on some cheaper labor on their end, I wonder if that could be a reason.
Speaker 2:That that could be as well. I mean, yeah, I think that's a good question, yeah, I think that I think that is a possibility. And it's interesting when we talk about the economy because, although inflation is going up and and you know, interest is just, you know, crazy right now, we still have so many people buying and even though we saw the reports, you know target Walmart, I think their earnings reports are down. They still, I think, beat expectations, but we're down, which reduce stock prices and things. We're still seeing a lot of confidence. People have a lot of confidence. You know, houses are still hard to get right now because two reasons for that, you know. One is there's just not a lot of supply, but the other side of that is that people don't want to sell because then if they have to buy something, it costs more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah so, but overall, we still still see people going out to dinner, we still see people buying clothes at Walmart, we still see the Foodline grocery store or Publix or whatever just has lots of people buying stuff, and so it's. It's kind of interesting how all of these things are, are so different than what we normally thought of when we look At the economy on a macro scale and it's I'm not sure you know what to make of it other than we just ride the wave.
Speaker 3:And something that Jamie, if you want to chime in here, that Jamie always says is the trucking industry is Is somewhat resilient to whatever the economy feels like this, because people got to eat, people got to wear clothes, you know.
Speaker 1:Yep, we're the backbone of society. So, and especially on the independent service side and part side, that's a great opportunity for us. When we do go through down cycles, because people hang on to equipment longer than they have to service and maintain it More so then that creates more demand on aftermarket products and and on Independent service channels, so that can be very good. Oftentimes we start recovering from a downturn in the economy much faster than the general economy at large.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, thank you guys for letting me put in my two cents.
Speaker 2:And if you're a technician you've got all the opportunity in the world right now in part service Industry. I mean, they are claiming that's. One thing I heard at the use truck Association meeting Last week was that it's just so hard to get hold of technicians. You guys out there, you were gold.