North America is fighting the terror that is the COVID-19 horror of 2020. In hindsight, we probably saw this coming a year ago this month. And did nothing to stop it. For shame… Luckily, the holiday season is approaching, and if there’s anything good to come from it, it’s a likely cure! (Or at least a limited edition vinyl press of The Cure’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.) This could be a great Christmas!

This is supposedly a merry and bright way of yuletide cheer. However, it could be helpful and it could be hurtful. This has the potential to make way for disaster in the food chain of supply chains. Don’t you wish Christmas truckers only had popcorn chains to be afraid of?

That’s the chilling message given by Paul Kroes. He’s the market insights leader for North America’s Thermos King. For years, they’ve condensed transportation industry data from several sources to indicate a challenging fourth quarter for a bothersome 2020.

The leading causes are 80,000 fewer drivers than last year and holiday hoarding, which means less stock on the shelf due to a combination of holiday demand and factories still recovering from shutdowns could cause consumer panic. Furthermore, holiday gatherings could spread the infection and create the need for more shutdowns.

Usually, when push comes to blow and there’s no bust but only snow, most carriers can only have a little distance to really go. And it’s not the extra capacity to handle the holiday crunch that’s got the industry fatigued. Yet, you know trouble is about to go down when months of waging war on COVID-19 becomes something like a “severe imbalance,” which spot rate data still staggeringly supports. Just look at what happened before! The last time spot rates were overtaken by contractual or fixed prices, trucking was experienced a never before known “Trump bump” in 2018, once the administration overtook the tax cuts that simply swept the nation.