How to Make Yourself Recession-Proof!
How to Make Yourself Recession-Proof!
The BEST way to weather a Recession
is to have a Recession-Proof Job!
It might SEEM like there are two huge elephants
in the living room for a job like this...
Road Rat Recession Gas Prices
Neither of those elephants would be a welcome guest in the living room, but the good news is that Road Rats have proven to be immune to ill effects from either one. Prior to the one we are now in, two other significant recessions occurred over the last 20 years, and due to the factors listed below, people kept right on delivering brand-new vehicles at a brisk pace during those without even noticing them.
And – many folks have expressed concern over the possible adverse effects that skyrocketing and/or erratic gas prices may be having on the RV and specialty-vehicle manufacturing industry, and upon the drivers who deliver the vehicles for them, to dealerships and customers.
No one is totally immune to these economic factors, because we all have to spend more for goods and services when inflation rates go up. But as far as their jobs are concerned, Road Rats, very serendipitously, are virtually unaffected by recessions and fluctuations in gas prices. For these reasons:
1. This job deals only with brand-new vehicles. Never with used ones. And the folks who purchase brand-new RVs are people who have no problem affording the fuel to run them. (It's like the old saying, "If you need to ask how much it costs to drive, you can't afford it.") Thus, the upper-middle-class and wealthier folks who can afford to buy brand-new RVs are continuing to do so at a brisk rate, and one that has not been adversely impacted at all by the higher gas prices. In fact, it is very noteworthy that -- even with the national average price of regular unleaded gas at $3.61/gallon and rising, as of May 5, 2008, a CNN poll found that fully 39% of the American people still regarded gas prices to present them with "no hardship." That percentage of the population equals more than 117,000,000 people. In light of that, it's easy to see why the sales of brand-new RVs are feeling little or no impact from this.
"Today, a record 8.2 million RVs are on the roads in the United States. There are as many as 30 million RV enthusiasts, including renters, nationwide, according to RVIA estimates.
"Long-term signs point to substantial RV market growth because of favorable demographic and ownership trends, according to a University of Michigan study. The number of RV-owning households is estimated to rise 8 percent by 2010."
-- Recreational Vehicle Industry Association
Excerpts from the article,
RV sales up, campgrounds booked
despite high gas prices
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY, July 6, 2007
Americans are defying high gas prices and jumping into gas guzzling recreational vehicles for their summer vacations.
Two of the largest owners and managers of RV campgrounds in the USA said their lots are booked this July Fourth vacation week and much of the summer.
Sales of RVs have shot up 22% in the past three calendar years. Last year 390,000 RVs were sold, the most in 28 years, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association.
RV parks say changes in how the vehicles are used along with a rise in ownership among affluent people is driving higher sales. The average cost of a new motor home is $260,000, says Richard Coon, president of the RVIA.
"When you're talking about motor homes, those people don't care about gas prices," he says.
Jerry Gelinas, vice president of marketing for Thousand Trails, which manages 81 campgrounds across the country, says customers tend to be baby boomers, retirees, and young families with a healthy amount of discretionary income.
Felix Kramer, founder of the California Cars Initiative, which promotes energy efficient vehicles, isn't surprised gas prices aren't scaring off RV owners.
"In terms of the percentage of people's annual income, expensive gasoline is not all that much," Kramer says.
Alex Kouris, 38, [paid $800 for the diesel fuel his 34-foot RV consumed on a trip]. "You kind of get used to it, so you kind of budget it in," he says.
Excerpts from the article,
RVers give it the gas
By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY, March 21, 2008
PERRY, Ga. -- At the nation's largest gathering of recreational vehicle enthusiasts, talk inevitably turns to the versatility of Velcro and the challenges of toilet maintenance.
One topic that isn't getting much focus ... is the meteoric rise in gas prices. Hard-core RVers, which include many of the 8,000 attendees at the four-day Rally 2008 ... will tell you that an RV isn't just a vehicle. It's a lifestyle. And a little thing like $4-a-gallon gas isn't going to put the brakes on a way of life.
With the first wave of 79 million baby boomers poised for retirement, industry experts are betting that boom times are on the horizon.
"As baby boomers age, they clearly want more than their parents had," says Mike Schneider, president of Affinity, sponsor of the rally, and owner of RV-related clubs and publications. "Their parents were do-it-yourselfers. But they are the do-it-for-me generation."
Matt Martinez, a motorhome salesman from Knoxville, Tenn., [showing a Prevost-body coach that sells for $1.6 million] said that buyers "have made their money, and they're going to enjoy it."
2. Society needs, and always will need, a steady stream of replacement specialty vehicles. So the market for new school busses, ambulances, armored cars, UPS delivery vans, etc., etc. will always be strong. How do those new vehicle customers cope with the higher fuel prices? We're already seeing them coping well with that, by passing on their fuel surcharges to end customers of their products and services. Businesses can't do without these new vehicles as their older ones wear out, so they keep right on buying them. And they, in turn, are compensating for the gas-price debacle by passing their costs on to all the rest of us. And thus, there has been no impact at all on the production rates of specialty vehicles, either.
3. The points above make it clear that the North American driver workforce, which has pretty consistently been comprised of 100,000 or so full-time and part-time drivers, will continue at that level. (With the usual 5,000 new jobs opening up every month due to the retirement of drivers out of that one-third of the workforce who are age 65 and older. Nothing has changed.) That having been said, this third point deals with the way almost all of these drivers are paid: by cash advances (non-taxable expense money) that cover the fuel outbound – no matter how much it costs! – and the return transportation from the run. (At the end of each run, the remainder of that money is returned to the company, along with the receipts for the fuel and return ticket expenditures. After which the drivers receive their take-home pay, based upon the number of miles that they drove.) And for that reason, these drivers are totally unaffected by the higher fuel prices and the recession in the course of their work, and these jobs remain accessible and secure.
So much for the elephants in the living room. They were never there in the first place, for the RV and specialty vehicle manufacturing industry, and its drivers. And they probably never will be.
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