Even with a persistent year-over-year driver shortage, rising wages, and all the work they can handle, Joe Biden managed to upend the chances of many truckers to buy their own rig.
Trucking industry experts put the current trucker shortage over 61,000 with shortfall estimates in the coming years as high as 175,000. Given the supply and demand nature of the freight hauling sector, truckers have enjoyed rising salaries with some nearing six figures. Years of hard work and saving positioned many to make the leap into owner-operator status and have the ability to negotiate higher rates with freight carriers. That was until the Biden Administration got seemingly every economic policy move wrong. What many call “BidenFlation” is making the cost of a big rig impossible for some go-getters.
“The overall average retail selling price of every sleeper tractor reported sold set a record for the third month in a row,” J.D. Power Valuation Services reported. “We still don’t see much downside for retail pricing in upcoming months, assuming economic conditions remain stable.”
Sleeper rig prices that were more than six years old and topped 450,000 miles spiked to nearly $75,000 in August. A comparable semi-truck in August 2020 sold for only about $32,000. Although it may seem like a leap or political bias to point fingers at Joe Biden for crushing the American dream of hardworking truckers, the facts cannot be ignored. The escalating cost of used heavy-duty vehicles has its roots squarely in the massive semiconductor shortage.
Car, truck, SUV, and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers have suffered supply chain disruptions that forced work stoppages and furloughs. The U.S. has grown dependent on foreign companies for the technologies used in today’s vehicles and semi-trucks. A massive shortage of new trucks coming off assembly lines prompted the cost of used models to surge. The White House has basically sat on its hands as nationwide supply chain disruptions create untenable inflation and shortages. A recent report from a trucking industry resource indicates the magnitude of the problem.
“Trucks 4-6 years old brought 86.5 percent more money at auction from January to July this year compared to the same period 2020. Monthly appreciation has averaged roughly 4.8 percent in 2021,” CCJ Digital reportedly states. “Retail pricing is now at a post-Great Recession high with monthly appreciation of 3-5 year old trucks averaging 1.8 percent per month across-the-board and increasing to 5.3 percent for trucks with fewer than 500,000 miles.”
The Washington, D.C., elites Joe Biden’s handlers enjoy lattes with have no clue about the struggles of working people trying to build a lucrative business of their own and provide for their families. That’s largely why left-wing economic and tax policies drove semiconductor manufacturers overseas in the first place. Now that the semiconductor issue has evolved into a supply chain nightmare and across-the-board inflation, Joe Biden’s handlers are concerned about his underwater job approval polling numbers.
In recent weeks, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently talked a big game about employing the Defense Production Act to force private-sector companies to make semiconductor chips and begin righting the ship. But despite uncontrolled inflation and people like hard-working truckers seeing the cost of owning a rig getting further out of reach, Joe Biden continues to do nothing.
