TRANSPORTATION COSTS ARE DOWN-WILL THE ECONOMY FOLLOW?

摘要

Manufacturers are always looking for a way to lower costs, and right now, with the trucking industry caught in a slump, 2008 should see some of the lowest pricing for transportation since the recession at the start of this century. While the price breaks represent good news for manufacturers, the underlying cause for the lower costs is reduced volumes of freight, i.e., less stuff is being made that needs to be transported. And that's not-so-good news. As Bill Zollars, president of trucking company YRC Worldwide, told CNBC recently, the current "soft economy" his company operates in has all the look of another recession.