Press "Enter" to skip to content

Truckers to Slow Sioux Falls Commute Thursday as Tariffs Help Double Trucking Firm Closures

If you have any way to get to work in Sioux Falls other than I-29 and I-229, take it Thursday: it sounds like we got us a convoy….

Truckers say they plan to hold a demonstration Thursday during the morning commute on Interstate 29 in Sioux Falls.

The drivers say they are concerned about automated trucks, down-sizing in the industry, and other problems facing them.

They also say they are generally disrespected for the important role they play in the nation’s economy.

…The protest was organized largely through Facebook on a group called “The Disrespected Trucker.”

…The group plans to drive at about 45 mph during rush hour on I-29 and I-229 in Sioux Falls Thursday. The group will stop in Mitchell as well, before finishing at the state capitol in Pierre Friday [Todd Epp, “Truckers Say They’ll Demonstrate During Morning Commute on Interstate 29,” KELO Radio, 2019.10.01].

The trucking industry is having a hard time. According to one industry report, trucking firms closures (like LME back in July) are way up this year, due in part to tariffs:

More trucking firms have shut down during the first six months of 2019 than in all of 2018, a result of a softer freight market and the broader effects of tariffs on imported goods, a freight market expert said.

“Tariffs are terrible taxes,” Donald Broughton, principal of Broughton Capital of Missouri, told Transport Topics on Sept. 5. “They are one of many if not the largest negative factors in our economy.”

Broughton believes tariffs are partially responsible for the decreased freight demand, and coupled with lower spot prices, have contributed to the trucking firm failures.

In the first half of 2019, he said 640 freight companies closed their doors. On average, these companies each had about 30 drivers, resulting in 20,075 trucks being pulled off the road. Compare that to 2018, when freight was booming. During the first half of that year, Broughton said 175 companies closed — each averaging about nine drivers — taking 1,550 trucks off the road. For all of 2018, 310 trucking companies closed, Broughton said [Jim Stinson, “2019 Trucking Company Closures So Far Have Doubled All of 2018,” Transport Topics, 2019.09.05].

Go ahead and protest, truckers… but you might want to turn those red Trump caps backwards to acknowledge one concrete source of the disrespect and economic pain you’re feeling.

9 Comments

  1. jerry 2019-10-02 16:56

    Chubby’s recession is upon us, we better be paying attention. We have no senate representation in Washington and our lone house member seems to be pining away for something, the Red Sparrow perhaps. How can they stay quite about the lawlessness going on right in front of them. Just say no boys.

    Good for the truckers, finally, at long last, someone who has had enough. When will farmers do the same? As long as they’re getting bribed to keep their mouths shut, probably until the government well runs dry then and only then will we hear from them. Look for truckers and steel, as that has fallen and can’t get up, to demand bailouts.

    “U.S. equity markets on Wednesday were ensnared in a two-day tailspin that has pushed the benchmark indexes to one of the worst starts to a quarter since the 2008-09 financial crisis.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.86%, was down more than 500 points, or 1.9%, at 26,078, with a two-session skid of more than 3%, representing the worst start to a quarter since the last three months of 2008, when the Dow slumped 19.4% in the fourth quarter, according to Dow Jones Market Data.”

    Impeach Chubby and the rest of the trumpian mafia so we can get a grip on our economic woes. Time to boot the EB5 guy as well as he is worthless as teats on a boar to address economic issues.

  2. Owen 2019-10-02 18:34

    Hopefully just west bound on 90 and north bound on 29

  3. Moses6 2019-10-02 18:57

    Do not worry remember Trump said as long as he was president everything would be ok .Certainly do not believe these two called failed senators who can’t deliver total health care for veterans.Do you ever hear these two joker senators talk about balancing the budget any more.Where is the guy Dusty who talks all the time were still waiting.

  4. jerry 2019-10-02 19:24

    Tariffs bankrupt steel manufacturing in Louisiana and Tennessee. More and more of the same self inflicted Chubby/Rounds/Thune recession and let’s not forget Dirty.

    “A gauge of U.S. manufacturing showed the lowest reading in more than 10 years in September as exports dived amid the escalated trade war.

    The U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers’ index from the Institute for Supply Management came in at 47.8% in September, the lowest since June 2009, marking the second consecutive month of contraction. Any figure below 50% signals a contraction.

    The new export orders index was only 41%, the lowest level since March 2009, down from the August reading of 43.3%, ISM data showed.

    “We have now tariffed our way into a manufacturing recession in the U.S. and globally,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group.”
    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/01/us-manufacturing-economy-contracts-to-worst-level-in-a-decade.html

    We’re digging deeper and deeper into some bad crap kiddos. Weekly readers are on their way to the rural folks mailboxes. Wonder what lies Rounds/Thune and Dirty will have for us to choke on.

  5. Debbo 2019-10-02 20:41

    LME keeps running scams, filing bankruptcy, then reappearing under a new, debt-free name. They don’t pay the drivers the back pay they’re owed. Scummy and scammy as can be.

    In the meantime, good luck truckers. The GOP is NOT on your side. They’re the sword in your side, while Economic Eunuch is the knife in your back.

  6. jerry 2019-10-02 21:24

    Chubby promised that China was suffering more so than here in the US. Turns out he was lying his arse off once again with the full knowledge and support of Rounds/Thune and Dirty. Trade wars and tariffs are being paid for by American consumers, not by China. China seems to be doing okay, are we?

    “Collapsing US export orders dragged down the widely-followed National Association of Purchasing Managers’ index for industrial production to the lowest level since 2009. Two days earlier, China’s Caixin manufacturing survey reported a second month of modest improvement. The two surveys show that China is suffering less from the effects of the trade war than the United States, quite the opposite of what President Donald Trump has insisted during the past year.”

    Get it? Chubby lied and the economy died. But where is Rounds? Where is Thune? Why aren’t they defending the interests of South Dakota and the rest of the nation? Who is paying them to look the other way? Whatever one may think of China, they always paid their bills for what they purchased from the US, and they purchased a lot from South Dakota.

  7. jerry 2019-10-02 21:29

    Get ready to rumble with the EU now on even more tariffs.

    “The US has been given the go-ahead to impose tariffs on $7.5bn (£6.1bn) of goods it imports from the EU.

    It is the latest chapter in a 15-year battle between the US and the EU over illegal subsidies for planemakers Airbus and rival Boeing.

    The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling will mean tariffs on EU goods ranging from aircraft to cheese, olives and jumpers from 18 October.

    Brussels has threatened to retaliate similarly against US goods.

    What happens next?
    US trade officials said the tariffs would be set at a 10% rate on aircraft and 25% on agricultural and other items.” https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49906815

    This has been going on for 15 years regarding Boeing and Airbus, but the rest on the list, nope. What will the EU tariff the US, we shall soon see.

  8. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2019-10-03 05:19

    Owen if the truckers only slowed traffic west and north from Sioux Falls in the morning, they wouldn’t reach nearly as big of an audience. In the morning, they want to be in the SF inbound lanes.

    KSFY says they are meeting in Canton and heading to Pierre. Hmmm… since they are protesting federal legislation, going to Pierre seems like a waste of fuel.

Comments are closed.