NEW YORK — Looking for signs of economic recovery? Try counting the trucks on the road.
Trucks carry almost all the manufactured and retail goods in the country. Many economists gauge how fast assembly lines are running, and how much consumers are buying, by the volume of goods hauled by trucks. But the most recent earnings reports show trucks are not carrying enough yet to indicate recovery is near.
Slow consumer spending and stalled manufacturing activity took its toll on truckers in the first three months of the year. Nearly all major trucking companies reported lower first-quarter revenue and falling profits as the recession continued and shipping demand slid. Many cut their fleets because of soft demand. Werner Enterprises Inc., for example, said it trimmed an additional 4 percent of its fleet of over 8,000 trucks in the first quarter. Many said more cuts will come.
In the first quarter of 2009, about 480 trucking companies went under. That’s less than 1 percent of the nation’s total freight capacity, which still leaves too many trucks competing for fewer shipments, according to analyst Donald Broughton of investment bank Avondale Partners. More than 3,000 trucking companies went out of business last year — taking seven of every 100 trucks off the road.
Broughton said that more trucking companies will inevitably fail if the economy remains weak. But the pace of closures needs to speed up, he said, to allow other trucking companies to get a bigger slice of shipments and to raise prices again.
Analysts think that the number of trucks on U.S. highways will continue to slide until supply is more aligned with demand.
by the associated press
Trucks carry almost all the manufactured and retail goods in the country. Many economists gauge how fast assembly lines are running, and how much consumers are buying, by the volume of goods hauled by trucks. But the most recent earnings reports show trucks are not carrying enough yet to indicate recovery is near.
Slow consumer spending and stalled manufacturing activity took its toll on truckers in the first three months of the year. Nearly all major trucking companies reported lower first-quarter revenue and falling profits as the recession continued and shipping demand slid. Many cut their fleets because of soft demand. Werner Enterprises Inc., for example, said it trimmed an additional 4 percent of its fleet of over 8,000 trucks in the first quarter. Many said more cuts will come.
In the first quarter of 2009, about 480 trucking companies went under. That’s less than 1 percent of the nation’s total freight capacity, which still leaves too many trucks competing for fewer shipments, according to analyst Donald Broughton of investment bank Avondale Partners. More than 3,000 trucking companies went out of business last year — taking seven of every 100 trucks off the road.
Broughton said that more trucking companies will inevitably fail if the economy remains weak. But the pace of closures needs to speed up, he said, to allow other trucking companies to get a bigger slice of shipments and to raise prices again.
Analysts think that the number of trucks on U.S. highways will continue to slide until supply is more aligned with demand.
by the associated press
This is really a good sign of having these trucks on roads. When we think of the trucks we always got in our minds the bucket trucks which sometimes dubbed as the cherry picker. This is true where this equipment really helps in jobs where height is the matter. It seems that this is one of the best equipments I have ever knew.
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