my dad is an independent truck driver and I know right now its very hard for him, he owns his own truck and flatbed, but subcontracts from landstar, he always said the winter times are always slow, but not as slow as the past years have been, not only the fuel prices , the econ has gone to shit, he was telling me, while searching for loads 500 mile rad of columbus ohio, there would be at any given time around 500-700 loads, for the last 12 months only 20-30 loads at a time, which is horrible for him because the prices per mile are sometimes the same as 3 years ago when the prices of fuel were in the 2$ range. he said the only good loads are running from the westcoast to FL areas now.