Moving to WEL Companies: Wanted to thank the top leadership at WEL Companies for giving us the great staff to work with. Eric and Ashley have been even better than we thought they would be. Like in the Olympics, I would give them a perfect 10 as a score! The future looks bright! Thank you so much to our customers that came with us, which was 95%! What a privilege it is to serve you!
This month’s timely topic: I thought about writing about the freight market, but decided not to because it really has not changed that much. Shippers want everything cheaper; carriers are struggling to find reasonably paying freight; everybody has seen a huge reduction in shipments for the most part. The latest trend, which is a never-ending reoccurring thing, or a big circle (what goes around comes around) has shippers in total control. But also, as always happens, shippers drive the rates down, thus causing carriers and drivers to leave, which causes the rate to rise in the future big time, again. This should begin to happen (higher rates) in the next 6 months. Very predictable.
I could discuss the St. Louis Cardinals, but it is too depressing. How about my beloved St. Louis Blues new season starting with so many question marks?
So, what did I decide to write about? Sadly, war.
Now we not only have the Ukrainian/Russian war, but this past weekend Israel was attacked by terrorists. For me, I had felt for a long time that with so much information available to most countries in the world (people) things would get better (everyone would get smarter). In the U.S. we have our share of problems that stem from many people wanting and believing that their way is not only the best way to do things, but the ONLY way. In 2023 I would have thought that the world would be smart enough to figure out that war and terrorism does not work. Never has. I pray for the safety of the hundreds held hostage, and those that have died. I also pray that this ends soon.
Oh, almost forgot to mention that on September 28th WEL STL (Al Hursey, Brad Reinhardt) and Raymond James (Ed Henrichs group) fed around seventy-five Veterans lunch at Arlington Greens in Granite City, IL. This was our second time doing this and the food was impressive. Big shout out to former Emerson Electric Executive Steve Dale for coming up big for this event. He spent around 7 hours cooking, setting things up, and doing anything that we needed. Mitch, from Raymond James, and my wife Kathy were big helpers too.
So, that is it have a great rest of the month,
Thanks AL
Al Hursey, President WEL STL