THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

Hi there all you wonderful people involved in this wonderful trucking industry. You will probably have noticed that this magazine is a little ‘un’ - only 48 pages plus covers which puts it down in the FleetWatch history books as one of the smallest magazines we have yet published. I think our launch magazine was about the same size – and that was some 15 years ago. On the one hand it makes me extremely sad – and more than a little peeved off with those who caused the global downturn. On the other, it endorses the point that FleetWatch is a true trucking magazine which aligns itself with the industry in every respect. What am I talking about you may well ask?

Well, since the overseas banking community decided to throw out the window all the traditional rules associated with risk taking while selfishly and irresponsibly delving into deals solely designed to line their own pockets and boost their bonus cheques, this industry has, in line with the global hardships brought on by the actions of those despicable little banking people, walked a hard, hard road. We all know how truck sales have fallen off the cliff this year. We also know how trucking volumes have dropped in line with reduced market and consumer demand for – well, for everything. I could go on and on but we all know the adverse impacts that have accrued around the world since September last year when the filing for bankruptcy by Lehmann Brothers in the USA brought on a tsunami of bank closures. While all those banks came out OK as they were given multibillion dollar/Euro bail-out packages by their respective Governments (paid for by taxpayers, the very clients they fiddled) - or via loans raised from the Middle East – the ordinary ‘man and company-in-the-street’ were left to deal with the horrendous ramifications of their actions. And the ramifications have been dire.

I have always been totally open and honest with our readers and I’m not about to change now. In our field, with truck sales down, marketing budgets have been slashed and one can’t really blame companies for taking this route. Although, I must say, some companies have been absolutely foolish in this arena as you cannot, no matter what – stop all communication with your customers. When the market picks up, as it will eventually, those companies are going to find themselves on the edge. We, being in the media game, have felt the impact of these ‘slashes’ and the size of this current edition attests to this. Over and above the slashed marketing budgets, we have also felt the impact of late payments and of course, non-payments, all of which has impacted on our cash flow. So, like many companies out there, my main task of late has been to keep the company going in the face of reduced revenues and pretty dismal business conditions. My love is being out in the market reporting on this wonderful industry. Instead, I have been chasing money. Do you recognise this? That is why I say FleetWatch is a true trucking magazine which aligns itself to the industry in every respect. When the industry as a whole suffers, we suffer. When it blossoms, we blossom. Just two weeks ago I had a long chat to a transport operator who is in a situation many of us find ourselves in. In a nutshell, he has had to raise money in the face of reduced revenues brought on by the recession and put his personal properties up as surety so as to keep his company going and his people employed. He is just one of many operators who are facing the same scenario. Cash flow has become a critical lifeline in an economy where cash is hard to come by.

So where to from here? Just fight on with everything you’ve got. It’s not easy but if there is one piece of advice I can give you to spur on your fight, it is that “it is not your fault”. No-one in the trucking industry caused this downturn. Blame for that can be laid solely at the feet of international financial institutions – the very people we are supposed to trust as responsible custodians of our money. So if you are living each day on the edge, please do not sit forlornly with your head in your hands telling yourself you are a failure. You are not. I say this because another operator I spoke to – well, more listened to – confided in me that he was going through extremely hard times and felt he had failed himself, his family and his employees. I asked how it had been up until the end of last year. He said he had been doing fine. I pointed out to him that what he was then facing was not his failings but the failings of others (read international banks) who had imposed on the world economic conditions which he – along with the rest of us – now had to deal with.

I was able to give him this advice because I too have been where he was. Not long ago I was sitting in my office one night thinking back on the wonderful years we have had in adding value to the industry since launching FleetWatch and how the good times had fallen off the cliff this year. We, in fact, had a record year last year. I was thinking of ways how I could have prevented the decline and I myself started to feel like I was a failure. My son walked into my office, sat down and said: “Mom tells me things are rough for you at the moment.” I looked at him and said: “Yes, they are boy. It’s a rough patch”. He looked at me and said: “You’ll get through it dad. Just don’t think you have failed.” I got tears in my eyes. It was as if he had read my mind. I stood up from behind my desk and gave him a huge hug. That simple sentence from my son acted as the spur for me to fight on. So please know that while this current edition might be a little ‘un, it pretty much reflects the general state of the trucking industry but we are fighting on to continue adding value to the industry we all love. I know there are others out there in trucking that are facing the same circumstances and I urge you to do the same. Fight on with everything you’ve got. We’re in this together.

Patrick O'Leary
Managing Editor