This is America's Trucking Network with Kevin Gordon.
Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this. I guess basically first workday of the year, the new year for a lot of people. Well, of course you in the trucking industry, and it's just another day for you, because a lot of people didn't have the time off because they're keeping the wheels of the economy flowing. Also first responders, police and fire, hospital workers, food service employees, hotel motel workers, store clerks, convenience store employees.
All of those worked over the holiday.
And I hope they got a few compliments from people stopping by and saying, hey, thanks for being here because we're out having fun and you know, we need gas, we need to go to the hospitals and stuff like that.
That.
So again, hats off to all the people that work. But also, this is the ninth to day of Christmas. Because the Christmas season, the twelve days of Christmas are not the twelve days before Christmas. It's the twelve days after Christmas. And we've talked about that on this program numerous times now. This is like the first day after in my opinion, well, it seems like.
This has been one of the most unusual weeks.
You know, there are times when you have a holiday that falls on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, and people will say that, well, it feels like we've had two Mondays this week, because you know, they're off on Wednesday and then they come back into work on Thursday. They had the Monday and then now Thursday. But this holiday, or this Christmas season was kind of unusual because with Christmas being on Thursday, and then of course New Year's Day being on Thursday as well, some.
People took off that Friday.
And people were trying to cram in there final week of vacation, and they time that so that they could get that in before the end of the year. And it just seemed like some people and some businesses, like they are companies, they didn't know what to do with that time period in between. Do you just say, okay, because we're going to come back to work on that Monday after Christmas and then be there Monday Tuesday, and then half a day on New Year's Day or something
along those lines. So it's been kind of a topsy turvy period of time. And I can't tell you the number of people I've talked to that when you get into conversation with them because of their mind being that, Okay, my day off or a day off is like a weekend, and then you ask them what it seems like a lot of people were confused as to what day it was. They said, oh, yeah, today's Today's Tuesday. It's not Monday,
it's not whatever. And I think it was just because the way the holiday fell on a Thursday, and then some people again taking off on Friday, then coming back in on Monday, and then you know, the short work week.
So at some point, like I said, a lot of people, I can't tell you the number of people that I talked to that they would be in a conversation and they go, well, okay, well I'm going to schedule this for well wait a minute, I can't schedule this for Wednesday, because that's that's New Year's even most people won't be off.
And even some businesses and people that I tried to contact to get something scheduled should they were actually off for almost the entire well they kind of closed business on that Wednesday before Christmas and we're off the entire week.
You know.
Again, some people in the retail business, I don't know how people do that, but you know, there were a lot of people that did. I'm just you know, just ranting here because it's been kind of a confusing time, and like I said, there's a lot of people I've talked to that kind of seemed like they were off in terms of kind of figuring out what actually what
day it was. And one of the stories I've seen that kind of piqued my interest talking about looking back in the rearview mirror, and everybody wants to look back on twenty twenty five and try to, you know, draw some of some sense to it or or kind of summarize it or whatever. But one article I read, the title of it was how Trump overturned decades of US
policy in twenty twenty five. And like a lot of stories, and as you heard me talk about on this program, there's a lot of stories that when you see the headline and then you dig into the story itself, they kind of approach it with a certain I guess intent where they want to make a particular point and it
tends to be somewhat negative. But then within the conversation or within the story itself, there are gems or certain things that you pick out and you say, well, wait a minute, this isn't kind of flowing with what they are trying to get across here, and let's just kind of explain that when we get into this.
Okay, they say.
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has overturned decades of US trade policy. See building a wall of tariffs around what used to be a wide open economy. Well, right off the bat, my question is really trade and balance from World War Two. Now, tariffs in the early days of our country was the driving force of income to this country. There was no income tax prior to until right around World War One, and really got solidified after World War Two. But tariffs
generally brought in a lot of money. After World War Two, with Europe being decimated, Japan decimated, and a lot of countries around the world being decimated because they were on the battlefield there, America was at a diss of Us was at an advantage because our factories hadn't been blown up. We were and we had the ocean between us and
where all the conflict was going on. And so it was a heyday for American business because no factories in Germany, a lot of destroyed in England, of course, in China, Japan and so on, So we were making money hands over fist. Now as those economies started to build up, they started we started allowing them or when they put tariffs in to kind of protect as a protectionist situation for themselves. They wanted to keep their economy going, and
they wanted their goods to be competitive. They were a little bit more expensive than ours, so they put up these trade barriers to slow down some of our goods coming into their country. We did not put tariffs on their goods coming into our country, so they were a lot more competitive. Some of their prices were even cheaper, and so people had alternatives to buy, which by them buying these foreign goods, then built up the economies in
these other countries. Well, this went on for obviously for decades of where this protectionist policy of keeping our goods out of their country or making our goods that much more defensive. For instance, you hardly ever saw any kind of an American automobile in Japan. You didn't have any Ford f one fifties. If you look around Europe, a lot of people are driving taxi cabs that are Mercedes Benz, which are luxury items here in the United States, but
they were relatively inexpensive there. You don't see American cars on the roads in Europe. Now, granted some of them are a lot more narrow, but you look at the Mercedes Benz, they're not all that narrow. So if they can negotiate those streets over there, so can American cars. So a lot of our goods, again, we're being kept
out of these areas artificially because of terrace. Donald Trump comes along, looks at the trade deficit we have with all these different countries and says, you know, what we're at kind of an unfair advantage or a disadvantage because these countries are charging X number of dollars and we're not charging any. On Liberation Day, he put up the various props and showed all one hundred and eighty countries.
He had them.
You know, listen out. You know four different things that he showed. They were like a folders or a placards or whatever that you could hold up. But he showed each one of those and showed each one one after the other, showing what they charged on our goods coming into their country versus what we charged on their goods coming into our country, and the numbers were astronomical. Charging thirty five percent tariff on our goods going into certain countries,
we charging hardly any going into ours. So he decided and said he was going to level the playing field. We're all for free trade, but we're also for fair trade, and so started increasing the tariffs on their goods coming into our country to level the playing field and to basically reciprocal tariffs. Now, of course, all hell broke loose at that point in time, and people were saying this was going to throw us into a recession, unemployment, rapid inflation, and so on.
But those and when they in this article.
As soon as he says that they used to be a wide open economy. And my question is, as I've been explaining, is a wide open economy for who? Not for our goods going into these countries, but for their goods coming in. And so again, that was a negotiating tool to get them to lower their terraces on our goods going into their countries, and to a large extent that has been successful. Continuing on here, Trump has argued that a steep new import taxes are necessary to bring
back wealth that was stolen from the US. He says it was by a narrow He said, well, narrow America's trade deficit, old trade deficit, and bring manufacturing back to this country. It was out of balance when we realized how But anyway, we'll pick this up on the other side. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's truck a Network, seven hundred WLW.
Here's your trucking forecast for the Try State and the rest of the country and the Tri State. Overnight, mostly claudy, the low down to twenty three, a mostly sunny sky. Friday, a high of thirty six. Going into the weekend. Saturday, mostly claudy highs again in the upper thirty sunny Sunday, a high of thirty seven, and for those finally getting back to workers school Monday following the holiday, sunny and warmer. The high year fifty. Nationally, the West Coast scene more
wet weather to start the new year. Meanwhile, much above average temperature scene from the northern Rockies, through the plains and into the lower Mississippi Valley, while below average temperatures are expected from the Upper Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes region and the Northeast. Like effects, no expected into Saturday downwind of lakes Erie, Ontario and Eastern Superior.
I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network seven hundred WLW. Continue our conversation from the previous segment, talking about this story how Trump overturned decades of US trade policy in twenty twenty five. For the most part, in my opinion, it's been a good thing. And of course we'll see some of those numbers coming up. But I was talking about how, you know, are you that bringing manufacturing back to this country.
We saw during the pandemic when all of a sudden, you know, businesses were shut down, restaurants were closed, and everybody was buttoned up.
People were unemployed people.
You know, some people could work from home, but your restaurant workers are manufacturing a lot of that.
Sort of stuff. Those businesses closed down.
And when we saw how much of our goods were manufactured and brought in from China. You know, when you're going through the store, I don't know how many people pay attention to where goods are coming from. All they care about is they walk into the store, stuff's on the shelf, They buy the stuff. But when we started seeing how much medical equipment face mask gowns, that personal protection equipment had come from China. How much of our
medicines came from China. That kind of woke people up to like, what the hell are we doing because they tried to deny it, but it was obvious that where the coronavirus had come from COVID nineteen. You know, of course they try again. They tried to deny it, but it was pretty clear where it came from, to the point where people are asking about, Okay, this is a country that started this pandemic, and yet they're the ones that are profiting by this because of all the goods and all the.
Stuff that we're buying from them.
So the thought at the time was that we need to start redomiciling a lot of our manufacturing and bringing that back to the United States so they're not so dependent upon other countries to keep our wheels of our economy flowing. So they go into this and they start showing the teriff rates remain elevated throughout twenty twenty five
and so on. And they go into this and they're talking about twenty twenty five per data per the Yale Budget Lab, and they go through some of the numbers November's effective terif rate was nearly seventeen percent, seven times
greater than January's average, the highest scene since nineteen thirty five. Now, let me just make a quick point here, all right, If the tariff rate was nearly seventeen percent, and this was charged on across the board on goods coming into the United States, if that was inflationary, and if it was going to cause rampant in a tremendous inflation, why wasn't the inflation rate around seventeen percent. Our inflation rate at the latest reading is at two point seven percent.
As I said from the beginning, because going back to my studies of economics when I was back in school, they talked about tariffs do not necessarily lead to inflation. They are a revenue generating tool for a country and to try to balance out trade as far as exports and imports. Now, as far as that is concerned, again, at a seventeen percent rate, our inflation rate is his own. And what is causing inflation is out of control government spending.
When they start issuing checks that don't need to be issued, when they start subsidizing things, and when they start this was an inflation reduction Act, which was nothing more than a payoff to the green energy or the climbiness as I call them, to try to bolster green energy and basically categorize and put in place the Green New Deal that was being proposed a couple of years before, or as I refer to it, the Green News Steel because it's a transfer of wealth from one sector of the
economy to another. But again, when you're looking at this, the seventeen percent across pretty much on average rate of tariffs,
our inflation rate was at two point seven percent. What happened and what had been being talked about by certain people like our friend Phil Flynn with Price Futures Group, Kevin O'Leary, Shark Tank Cudlow, Larry Cudlow from Fox Businesses and a very few handful of people around the country talking about tariffs we're going to be we're not going to lead to inflation and the fact that it levels
the playing field. Now, when you look at how that is done, you look at the manufacturing country overseas that has very low hourly wages, like in China, their average hourly rate is between five dollars and seven dollars an hour. They don't have any benefits, they don't have any vacation time or whatever. So their cost per hour is about
five to seven dollars. In the United States, our average annual rate hourly rate across the board, averaging every industry is around thirty seven and a half dollars per hour. Now that includes the fact that we've got certain things in terms of vacation pay and benefits and that type of thing, and so just on par the labor costs here are a lot higher. The manufacturers over there have a large margin between what they manufacture the item for
and what they can sell it for. They're concerned about them keeping market share so that they don't price themselves out, so they ate some of those tariffs. The exporter that has some of the business and then shipping those overseas, they absorbed some of that tariff. Then on the other end, you got the importer that again wants to sell these products and keep the goods flowing, they absorbed some of
that tariff. Then you have the wholesalers or distributors that again looked at that and said, well, you know, we've got a pretty decent market share.
We don't want to overprice our products.
And then them.
Sit on the shelves a lot longer, and.
So that goes to the they absorb some of this tariff, and then you've got the retailers again concerned about market share, keeping customers in their store as opposed to going to another store. They cut some of those things. Walmart absorbed some of that, and yet you saw the profits of these companies still going up, and we've reported that on this program. So again at a seventeen percent rate. Why is interesting? And you know the point of this is to kind of trash what was done as far as
the Trump administration was. But within their article, there are things that if you read between the lines, like I'm doing that, that shows that a lot of the stuff that they were saying was crap. Again this line, November's effective tariff rate was seventeen percent, seven times greater than January's average, and the highest scene since nineteen thirty five. Well, again, we're not seeing that in the seventeen percent inflation rate. And so where did that money go? Where was it absorbed?
And I just explained that Trump's higher tariffs, as they say here, are certainly raising money. They've raked in more than two hundred and thirty six billion dollars this year through November, much more than in the year's past, but they still account for just a fraction of the federal government's total revenue. And see this, this is one of those things that we started hearing about when Doze was going into effect and started to go into some of
these agencies and cut money. They're saying, well, you know, this is overinflated, and we need to cut this budget here in this agency by a billion dollars. And people would say, well, a billion dollars, that's just a small fraction of the revenue. Well as somebody I forget who it was, but they were on one of these talk shows one time. I'm talking back during the time of a Johnny Carson. It was a senator or a congressman or whatever. He says, you know, a billion here, a
billion there. Pretty soon you're talking about a lot of money. Well, I'll tell you what for me, A billion dolls would do a whole lot of good for me. I'm sure a billion dollars would do a pretty good for you. But again, it's a small fraction of the economy, or a small fraction of the government spending. But with a government spending being as out of control as it is. Any cuts that we can make is a good thing.
And to pull back some of that and put more money in the pockets in the American public, that is a good thing. So again saying, oh, well, it's just a small fraction of the budget, Well, like I said, a billion here, billionaire, pretty soon it adds up. US trade deficit, meanwhile, has fallen significantly since the start.
Of the year.
The trade gap peaked to a monthly record of one hundred and thirty six point four billion in March, as consumers and businesses hurried to import foreign products before Trump could impose his tariffs on them. The trade gap narrowed to fifty two point five fifty two point eight billion, almost eighty billion dollars less, according to the latest numbers, seventeen percent ahead of January. Let me see, but you're
to date. The deficit was still running seventeen percent ahead of January twenty ahead of the January to September twenty twenty four numbers. Growing economy, consumers buying more would have accounted for that, and why that is the seventeen percent increase. And then they start getting into these stories and you know, later on or actually will pick this up, but they start it almost seems like they're making excuses for and being fans of and protection is for China. We'll get
into this coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's Trucking Network. Seven hundred WLW is.
The last game of the season and the Bengals are looking to finish with a win. To do it, they have to beat the Browns. I have some comments about Cleveland, but I probably shouldn't share them. Will Zach Taylor's team pull off the Battle of Ohio the Bengals Battle of the Browns. Get the call live from Dan Hort and Dave Levin. The game kicks off at one VM, with
coverage starting at nine AM Sunday. Stream for free on the new and improved iHeartRadio app or on seven hundred WLW, home of the Best Bengals coverage.
Hey y'all, this is Aaron Tibbitt.
Being in the music business, traveling working late doesn't do great thanks from my team, but I found that's staying active and making time to work out helps keep my energy where it needs to be to perform my best. No matter what you do or where you are, make time to stay in shape, You'll feel better and have the energy you need to accomplish your goals.
This message rocked you by the US Air Force. I'm jumping in with my clothes off.
Most party fouls are pretty dumb, but if you decide to drink and drive under age, you could lose your license and your freedom. Learn more at Ultimate partyfoul dot org. Brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the AD Council.
I'm a FLII fighter, a teacher, I'm a farmer. I'm a barber, a waitress, a mom. We're all part of your community.
Every day we move in and out of each other's busy lives. It's easy to take for granted all the little moments that make up our every day.
Some are good, others not so much, but that's life. It's when you experience a moment of uncertain something or someone's behavior that doesn't seem quite right.
These are the moments to take a pause, because if something doesn't feel right, it's probably nuts.
It's not about paranoia or being afraid.
It's about standing up and protecting our communities.
One detail out of time, because a lot of little details can become a pattern.
We we we We trust our instincts, just like you should, because only you know what's not supposed.
To be in your every day.
So protect your every day.
If you see something suspicious, say something to local authorities.
Excuse me, I know you have a nine o'clock so I'll keep this short. I'm a business suit in the back of your closet. You wore me nearly every day before your office went quote casual. I used to be the CEO of your closet. Now I'm just that one intern no one ever talks to. I always thought you'd circle back with me, get granular, keep me in the pipeline.
But nada, nothing. Don't you remember the McKittrick presentation. You spilled coffee on me and I still looked amazing during the breakout talk back Q and A. So I think it's time for me to move on. I've got a great resume and I absolutely crush it in interviews. Okay, let's make this a clean break shift the paradigm. The only thing I ask is that you think outside the box here and do this. Take me to good Will where I can really make a difference.
Your donations to Goodwill create new jobs, training, programs and education assistance for people in your community. To find your nearest donation center, go to Goodwill dot org. Donate stuff, Create jobs. A message from Goodwill and the AD Council.
Some things in life are preventable.
Ooh, gas station sushi.
Yuh, that's preventable. I'm just gonna tell my boss what I.
Really think of him.
Oh, that's preventable. Hmmm, maybe a face tattoo would look good. That's preventable too.
The Colorectal Cancer Alliance wants you to know a lot of things in life are preventable. Colon cancer is common and deadly, but that's also preventable.
Oh my gosh, it's a bear.
Let's get a selfie with it.
Also previncable.
The Alliance is doing its part to end colorectal cancer. Now do yours get involved, And if you're forty five or older, talk to your doctor about the colon cancer screening options available to you.
Betch I can eat fifty hot dogs in an hour. Preventable.
Actually, runner, I'm representing myself.
Good and Colorectal Cancer dot org to learn more. That's Colorectal Cancer dot org. And together we can save lives.
Hey running Jack no no no, no, no.
No no, Live from those seven hundred W l W.
I'm Kevin Gordon.
Before we get to some of these other things, I want to touch on, you know, what's going on as far as the energy markets are concerned, and the Energy report from our friend Phil Flynn was very spot on in some in terms of some of the things he was talking about in terms of what Donald Trump has
been doing. Not only well, you know the article that we've been covering talking about how Trump overturned decades of US foreign policy, but what he's also done is actually put us back on a level of where we are going to be energy dominant and what that is going to do. And as I've talked about on this program numerous times, you look at what has done as far as energy prices. Energy prices go across the entire segment of this economy. I don't care what business you're in,
there is energy involved. Obviously in the trucking industry, manufacturing with electricity. Even if you're in an office what white collar attorney's accountants, you depend on energy because of keeping the lights on, people transferring, you know, people traveling, salesman deliveries and so on based on gasoline, so energy cuts across all sectors of the economy, and if the energy prices go down, those are going to be very good and those things are going to be going to be
very good for the economy. One of the things that started off as far as Phil Flynn's Energy Report was talking about how we are moving towards an area of energy independence back when what we were back in twenty twenty. So again that was recognizing something that needed to be done. But looking at oil and gas prices real quick. West Texas Intermedia crude is at fifty seven dollars and forty
five cents a barrel. It's down fifty cents on the day, but just since January the twentieth, when Trump took office, West Texas Intermediate crued is down nineteen dollars and forty four cents a barrel, down twenty five percent. Brent krude, currently at sixty dollars and ninety cents a barrel, is down nineteen dollars just since January the twentieth, or a
twenty four percent decrease. Looking at gasoline, current national average across the board is two dollars and eighty four cents for gasoline three dollars fifty seven cents.
Again, across the board.
Average US for diesel, looking at a year ago, gas prices are down twenty cents. They're down seven percent from this time last year. So if you're talking about your family budget and your gas that you're gassing up your car with is now down seven percent, and in some areas.
Even more than that.
I know in my neck of the woods here or where I live in Campbell County, gas prices are extremely low. They're low compared to the two dollars and eighty some cents. I think they're down now around I think, well, in my neighborhood right now, the gasoline is at two dollars and forty eight cents, So that is down from two dollars and eighty some cents at the beginning of the year. Diesel to night let me see, two sixty nine is
down considerably. And again if you're paying attention to gasoline prices, and I'm you know, when I look at just in my neighborhood, the fluctuation of gas from the highest to the lowest. Sometimes if you pick up those apps that tell you where the cheapest gas is, you can save a lot of money, because there's sometimes when I look at these numbers and gallon and gas in one part and just this is just in my zip code. This isn't the entire county that I live in, it is
just the zip code. Those prices can fluctuate by about thirty cents a gallon, So again that is something that needs to be paid attention to when we look at energy prices, When we look at gasoline prices compared to where they were back in twenty twenty, we are seventeen cents. Let me see, we were seventeen cents higher than we were back in twenty twenty, which again that's a six percent increase, but that's a six percent increase going back to five years ago. So again, energy prices are moving
in the right direction. A truck tonnage nudges up zero point two percent higher in number.
Again, this is very good.
American Trucking Associations ATA seasonally adjusted to higher A four higher truck tonnage index rose point two percent sequentially after falling one point nine percent in October and point eight percent in September. In September, Federation said December twenty third, November ata's index came in at one twelve point four, up from one twelve point two in October. Pluminary figures
had shown a two point one percent decrease. But again, as the truck volume starts going up and starts inching up, maybe we can start seeing an end to this tonnage and truck recession that we've been in now for more than three years. Going into some of the numbers a little bit further, the index based on twenty ten or twenty fifteen as one hundred nudged up point three percent lower year over year compared with November, but again is heading in the right direction bringing up some these numbers.
According to ATA American Trucking Association's chief economist Bob Costello, November tonnage reading continue to point to a constrained freight market. Despite the smaller sequential increase, the index was also down from the year earlier, the second straight year over year decline.
In addition to challenging volumes, more capacity appears to be leaving the industry after a prolonged freight downturn and increased government enforcement measures targeting unqualified drivers and non compliant carriers. So as the capacity goes down, those rates should start seeing a little bit of an uptick and then the tonnage for those left in the industry and the good
ones left in the industry. I mean, we have talked a lot about some of these CDL mills, some of these people that are not qualified to be out on the road driving an eighteen wheeler, an eighty thousand pounds piece of equipment, and they can't read road signs, they can't read where they are, they're not even really proficient at being able to handle that kind of equipment. That's
got to be good for overall. Let's see we talk about in here in terms of certain volumes in the capacity and in certain areas where it is up only see meanwhile, for higher freight shipments as measured by cocks by what was the number here by cast Freight Index rows zero point seven percent for the month. The shipments fell seven point six in October. Now, what they're talking about coming into this year frigid December weather might affect
some of these numbers. But according to ACT Research senior analyst Tim Denauur, some of these items might affect Freight Transportation Research Associates FTR Transport Intelligence data for the whe weekending December nineteenth showed a much stronger spot market than usual. Drive in spot rates posted their best year over year comparisons since February of twenty twenty two. Meanwhile, flatbed spot rates, the key indicator of industrial and construction industry demand.
Posted their largest year over year.
Increase since mid twenty twenty two and reached their highest level since April of twenty twenty four. So, again, within certain segments of the trucking industry, certain components, some of these rates are going up, the spot rates are going up, and as that, hopefully that continues on into twenty twenty six and we can finally put this truck recession in the rearview mirror.
That would be a good thing. Let's see.
Again, there are certain companies that are not doing really well. FedEx is kind of lowering their expectations. There's been some switch in terms of what they are doing as far as their business outlook and business components. They have lost some major contracts to other people, and so when you do that, of course, your bottom line is going to be adversely affected by that. We're not going to have time to get into pending home sales. But let me just say that, certainly, let me just give it a
thumbnail sketch. Month over month pending home sales because of interest rates coming down, and is if stress that one of the things holding back our economy is higher interest rates. With interest rates coming down, people have more affordability of getting into homes and actually being able to afford homes. Month over months saw a three point three percent increase in pending home sales and gains in all four regions
of the country. Year over year, two point six percent increase in pending home sales, and that again crossed all sectors, all segments of the country. So a lot of good news starting off twenty twenty six, and hopefully we can keep the moment. I'm going well, folks, that does it for us? Stay tuned for Red Eye Radio at the top of the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon. America's Struck A Network seven hundred WLW