We Love Trucking No Matter What This Cycle Throws at Us

Trucking has always been a tough business, but this year it's felt like someone’s been shaking the foundation. Rates tanked. Insurance premiums climbed. Horrible accidents were nationalized, spotlighting shady CDL practices, HOS violations, and on and on. Brokers are folding, freight apps are glitching, and small carriers are fighting to stay alive in a market that barely blinks when they shut down.

If you’ve felt exhausted, frustrated, or ready to say “forget it”… trust us, you’re not alone. Every trucker, fleet owner, and dispatcher we know has hit that wall at some point this year. That feeling doesn’t mean it’s over though. It means you’re still in the game.

Remember Why You Started

We didn’t get into trucking because it was easy. We got into it because we wanted control over our time, our money, our future. We want to build something that nobody can take away.  Our country relies on this industry.

The market might be broken, but our drive isn’t. The good carriers, the ones who care about safety, reputation, and compliance, you’re still the backbone of this whole thing. If you’re still standing right now, that’s not luck and we all know it.

Control What You Can

You can’t fix rates, you can’t change diesel prices, we can’t control insurance prices.  All we can control our side of the street. Check the numbers. Cut what isn’t serving you. Negotiate renewals early. Tighten up hiring. Your compliance and your safety program are levers you can pull. That’s how you build stability in an unstable market.

Block the Noise

Every day there’s a new headline predicting the end of trucking. Ignore it. This industry isn’t dying. It’s changing. The players who adapt, who stay sharp, who treat their operation like a business… we already own the next cycle. The ones who spend all day complaining on Facebook? They don’t. Don't let everyone else’s fear mess with your focus. You don’t need to match their energy. You need to manage your own.

Keep Perspective

Every correction in trucking feels like the end. Then the market resets, and the strong ones rise. We’ve watched it happen for over 15 years, the recessions, nuclear verdicts, rate spikes, fraud waves, all of it. The industry bends, but it doesn’t break. If we’re still learning, still showing up, still finding a way to move freight and protect our team, we are winning. You don’t have to fake positivity. Just keep moving forward, one mile, one load, one renewal at a time.

What We've Lived Through

The Post-Recession Rebuild (2009–2011)

Freight was slow, credit was tight, and insurance carriers were cutting limits left and right. The fleets that survived learned how to run lean and smart.

The Oil Spike and Mini-Boom (2012–2014)

Diesel hit the roof, freight was hot, and everyone thought it would last forever. Then the floor fell out overnight.

The ELD Gold Rush (2017–2018)

The mandate hit, capacity tightened, and spot rates exploded. Carriers were adding trucks faster than underwriters could file forms.

The 2019 Freight Recession

Rates crashed, carriers collapsed, and insurance carriers started pulling back hard. Everyone got a painful reminder that safety and cash flow mattered more than hype.

The COVID Spike (2020–2021)

PPE, panic freight, and Amazon boom freight made millionaires overnight. Then came the fraud, staged accidents, and a flood of new MCs who had no idea what they were walking into.

The Great Reset (2022–Now)

Rates dropped, underwriting went digital, and the market started cleaning house. The carriers who treated trucking like a business are still standing. The ones who didn’t are gone.

We’ve seen highs to crashes and the same truth stands, trucking always resets. It never quits, it simply cannot.

Truck U Take

Positivity in any industry isn’t pretending things are fine. It’s knowing you can rebuild even when they’re not. We’ve seen this cycle before, and we’ll see it again. The people who adapt, document, and stay focused are the ones still standing when everyone else quits. And for the record, we don’t care what anyone says, we love trucking.

Jess & Natasha

If you want help reviewing your insurance, planning for renewal, or making sure your coverage still makes sense in this market, call us. We do this every day and we are here for the carriers who refuse to quit. You can reach us at 254-294-7798 or info@trucku.biz.

This post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice, insurance advice, or a substitute for calling your agent. We are good, but we are not psychic. Policies vary, laws change, and courtrooms get weird. Do not make decisions based solely on something you read on the internet, unless it is from us, in writing, with your name on it.

All opinions are our own and do not represent the views of any carrier, employer, or underwriting department that occasionally wishes we were quieter on LinkedIn.