Need a dispatcher to help you find loads?

Got this email yesterday from someone who has a new dispatch service:

Hi Steve. Would you help me promote my business some how..I am looking for carhaulers to load..Do you know of anybody that is looking for a dispatcher..Please tell them to visit my website for contact info at
www.debsautodispatching.com

I would appreciate anything you could do to help..Thank You Deb Kraus

Halfway through the 7 lean years.

Remember Joseph's interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream of seven fat cows and seven skinny cows? Well, for those of you far removed from Sunday School, let me remind you that he said the Pharaoh's dream foretold of seven fat years and seven lean years. Thanks to Joseph's economic prognostication, the Pharaoh was able to put aside enough grain to feed his people during the seven years of drought.

Our seven years started about 2008, possibly a bit earlier. If our long, tough slog out of the economic morass of the Great Recession is anything like biblical times, then we've got approximately three years left of slower growth. That means, come 2015, we should be approaching some semblance of economic normality.

Coincidentally, other people anticipate a similarly slow slog uphill out of the economic swamp lands. The Detroit Free Press has a good article in which they quote Lacey Plache, senior economist for Edmunds.com Plache's takeaway from all the economic news? In 2015, we'll see auto sales hit 16 million. That puts us halfway through the seven lean years.

Or as I like to call them, Seven Learning Years.

Low profile car hauler strap idlers for e-track

Coming soon to an Autohauler Supply warehouse near you!

If you can find a lower profile idler for horizontal e track, I'll eat it with steak sauce.

Where to find cars to haul.

Don't go to the ports... at least not right now. Talking with friends on west and east coast, I hear reports of declining volumes of cars to haul. Toyota's last ship until God knows when came into the west coast and that is (supposedly) the last full ship they'll send until late July early August at the earliest. I spoke with a car hauler who used to pull new cars out of Baltimore... he is now pulling auction freight down in Virginia. Guess it's a good time to be a used car dealer... this trend at least corroborated today by Automotive News, which reports values jumping to record levels for used cars. Some dealers keeping trades to sell on their own lots, but I bet you can expect a lot of dealer trades as the summer selling season heats up. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average trade value for a Toyota Prius jumped $3775. Well, I guess finally the used car dealers are getting some good karma after the horrible luck they had with "Cash for Clunkers".

StrapBusters! Infomercial about carhauler wheel straps.

OK this is blatantly commercial, but it's pretty entertaining.

Auto transport dispatcher

Need help finding loads for the backhaul?  Check out Carla's new website
Carla has been an auto transport broker for quite a few years, and it looks like she is taking on drivers to help with dispatch.  If you're spending too much time filling spots on the trailer, you might want to give her a call.

Allied goes out in a blaze of glory?

Car hauler catches fire on I-94

Two things that are amazing to me.  #1:  The age of Allied's trailers.  #2:  The fact that the F-150  at $40-$45,000! is still the best-selling vehicle in the US with gas up around $4 per gallon. 

Expect summer shortages for Japanese automobiles

AutoNews Now (4/4/11)

Click link for today's broadcast from AutoNews. I was reading in another publication that one of the biggest bottlenecks to vehicle assembly right now are control modules that are manufactured at Japanese tech plants. They need constant, clean electricity... and the "rolling blackouts" happening in Japan right now make it difficult, if not impossible for them to get up and running. There may be problems spreading wider beyond assembly plants of Japanese automobiles, as some domestic cars rely on components sourced from Japan.

The biggest repo job in history.

GM recovers 1,700 vehicles after dispute with hauler | detnews.com | The Detroit News

GM recovers 1,700 vehicles after dispute with hauler
Robert Snell / The Detroit News

Detroit— General Motors Co. has recovered more than 1,700 vehicles that were allegedly being held hostage by a car hauler, the automaker said today.
I know this is serious business, but some of these shenanigans are so outrageous it just makes me smile.

GM finished recovering the new Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks and Camaro coupes, worth almost $47 million, earlier this week, company spokesman Dan Flores said.

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The "rescue" was disclosed 10 days after GM sued Georgia-based Allied Ltd. in federal court in Detroit. GM wanted immediate possession, arguing the vehicles could depreciate in value and dealers would be deprived of valuable inventory.

Ford outsells GM; Hyundai and Kia sales waaaaaay up.

Auto sales up with economy, but buyers downsize | AP Business News - The News Tribune

The trends lifted U.S. sales of new vehicles by 17 percent from a year earlier to 1.25 million, a healthy rate that shows the auto industry's slow and steady recovery remains on track. The monthly sales pace, adjusted for seasonal differences and projected out for the year, came in at 13.1 million. That's higher than last year, but still far below recent boom years when car sales hit 16 million a year.

The March 11 earthquake in Japan had little impact on sales, although automakers said supplies of some cars could be tighter as spring progresses.

Hope industry execs are paying attention-- the companies that have invested resources in developing high quality, affordable  fuel-efficient cars are reaping the benefits.  (Ford's plant that produces the Focus used to build trucks.)  Sales of expensive gas guzzlers loaded with options are slowing... in some places anyway.  I was talking with a driver the other day who said almost all the vehicles he delivers in West Virginia are trucks worth $40,000 or more.

Waves and troughs in car hauler load volumes ahead.

GM, Toyota models delayed by hauler dispute | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Buyers of certain Toyota and General Motors models are facing unexpected waits as automakers reassign transport work after terminating contracts with an Atlanta-based carhauler.

Cassens, Jack Cooper and United Road are picking up a lot of this freight, which means a huge wave for them and their sub-haulers.  However, according to information from today's Automotive News,  I would expect slow-downs a bit later.    Port traffic will slow because of the Japanese situation (everybody expected that)-- as well as for Japanese-owned assembly plants in North America that rely on some parts from Japan.
Honda is cutting hours by 50% at assembly plants in AL, OH and IN.  Subaru announced cuts at Lafayette, IN plant of 50%.  Toyota's 18 Japanese assembly plants are closed until April 18th, and there is no guarantee they won't extend those closures. 

Allied transport holding cars hostage? Or is Yucaipa folding this hand?

GM, Chrysler sue Allied over "hostage" vehicles - CNBC

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co and Chrysler Group LLC have sued Allied Systems Holding Inc , accusing the auto hauler of "holding hostage" more than 2,400 new cars and trucks.

GM, in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, charged that Allied had breached a contract under which it provides car-hauling services for the U.S. automaker.

"Defendant is holding hostage 1,704 new GM vehicles, with an estimated value of $46.6 million," according to the lawsuit. "It simply has no claim to the vehicles; they are GM's property."

In a separate suit, Chrysler said Allied was holding about 700 of its vehicles.

Allied, which calls itself the largest auto transporter in North America, could not immediately be reached for comment.

If this was a poker game, looks like both the union and the automakers are saying: "Call!"  So is Yucaipa going to fold, or do they have an ace up their sleeve?

I'm wondering if the recent spikes in fuel cost precipitated Allied's demand for increased load price, and if GM and Chrysler's refusal caused Allied to unilaterally offer their employees 20% less. Switch of metaphors... Are the chickens finally coming home to roost, viz, unsustainable load pricing vs. increased fuel cost?  Or has Yucaipa, the company that owns Allied,  looked at assets and liabilities and concluded that now is the best time to exit the auto transport industry?   To crib a line I read recently in The Economist.  "If something can't go on forever, it will stop."

Allied labor trouble isn't going away soon.

According to Automotive News, the trouble at Allied stems from Chrysler refusing a fee increase to haul cars.  Representatives say the problem isn't going to be resolved any time soon.  See video here from Automotive News here.

Ford's Alan Mulally worth every penny of 33 million dollar pay package.

According to the Automotive News: "After taxes, Mulally received $33.4 million."  My opinion, he's earned it. 

"Ford earned $6.56 billion in 2010, the most since 1999. New models such as the Fiesta and redesigned Taurus sedan helped 2010 U.S. sales rise 17 percent, outpacing the industrywide gain of 11 percent"

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110317/RETAIL01/303179721/1254#ixzz1GyBp83Ro