Freddy Lazo left a restaurant work for a bigger paying trucking about two and a half years ago. But the way in which President Trump’s trade war takes place, he thinks he could soon have to return to waiting tables.
“It’s really super slow,” said Lazo, looking through the mainly empty trucking site of Big Blue Box from the Blue Company in New Brighton.
A drop in work is to be expected in this industry from time to time, although in normal times, it is generally in short and quickly followed by a business boom. Looking at the horizon, however, more difficult moments can wait for us.
Since the “Liberation Day” on April 2, when Trump has announced prices around the world, many retailers have suspended the orders of patio furniture, barbie dolls, candles and everything that happens on the rail of coastal ports in giant shipping containers, that Lazo Trucks with final destinations through the Midwest. Although Trump has interrupted the so-called reciprocal rates, the 145% tax on Chinese imports and a 10% tax on imports of most other countries remain, as well as a deep uncertainty.
Lazo is an independent entrepreneur, which means that if he does not drive, he is not paid. It also means that it is not eligible for unemployment benefits to mitigate the pain of lost income. Fortunately, he has already paid for his old platform and was able to use his savings. However, a prolonged slowdown would mean that he or his wife will have to find another job to support their five children.
“If it continues … I must certainly find a different way to earn money,” said Lazo.
Big Blue Box vice -president, Ted Longbella, said they were aimed at moving around 120 containers per day – Big Blue shipping containers, as its name suggests. Toys, windows and games enter. Scrap, grains and dairy powder come out.
He has kept an eye on the number of virgin navigations, when an ocean navigation company cancels a planned trip, because he tells him what the demand will look like in the near future.
He is like a taxi driver who looks at the airport’s panel arrivals and looks at a flight after another canceled. There are passengers who still need walks at home now, but very soon, the airport will be empty.
There are more than 56,000 semi-camonnetal drivers and 18,000 other light truck drivers in Minnesota, according to the State Department of Employment and Economic Development, which means that generalized layoffs and income reductions could undulate throughout the economy.
Pacific ocean carriers canceled travel at a faster rate than during the COVVI-19 pandemic, according to Freight Finder Flexport. The company reports that more than 25% of the weekly transpacific service loops were canceled at the end of April and early May, against 24% in the same period in 2020.
The cargo of the Massive Port of Los Angeles, which managed nearly 20 million containers in 2024, was down 35% in early May at the same time last year.
To prepare for the upcoming drop, Longbella said that he had put his seller’s hat to find new companies to occupy his 140 employees and independent entrepreneurs – and prevent them from leaving to work for competitors.
He said the Minnesota truckers will really feel the effects of prices around June, when the wave of goods that have been ordered from panic before the Liberation Day turns into a net.
This aligns with a chronology of agitation of Apollo Global Management, which predicts empty shelves by the end of May and layoffs in trucking and retail trade in early June. A recession could follow shortly after.
The situation could be worse if companies had not diversified their suppliers after the COVVI-19 pandemic to be less dependent on China. Many companies have been able to switch to suppliers from other countries and is now responsible for goods before the break on reciprocal prices Les elevators on July 9.
However, it is not only the imports that suffer.
“We usually do a lot of soy van throughout the year, and they have slowed down since pricing uncertainty,” said Longbella.
Trump administration officials are expected to meet Chinese representatives this weekend in Switzerland, which could help lead to an agreement that reduces the prices on China that the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described as an embargo. Even if Trump soon sets out his arms in the trade war – an unlikely scenario and the best of cases – the truck and retail industries will always feel aftershocks.
“On the other side, the request will be crazy,” said Longbella.
This will give the power of maritime companies to increase prices as they did during the pandemic. The challenge for truckers is to go to the other side.
“Truck companies have to pay their bills in one or two weeks,” said Longbella. “Many companies will unfortunately have made their doors, because many trucking companies are on the body.”
