Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
Domestic freight volumes are down or slowing rapidly. See trucker, railroad, airfreight stock charts.
Oil price is soaring. In inflation-adjusted dollars, crude $/bbl is approaching highs of the 1970s OPEC oil shocks.
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These two are directly related, imo.
One of my areas of businesses is heavy trucking. I've been telling my friends and family for some time now that their way of life is going to take a drastic change as transportation costs continue to increase.
Look at how many products rely on transportation - virtually everything, from winter strawberries in Maine to WUR valves for an old 911.
Already, every transportation company is passing along the fuel costs to the customer in the form of fuel surcharges. As fuel continues to go up, end item costs will go up. Some manufacturers are trying to mitigate the damage by shipping less frequently, and by making sure that a truckload is a FULL truckload when they do ship.
No too far into the future, I predict that we will see a decline in businesses that rely heavily on shipping - businesses like Amazon. Already I hear people talking about certain items being cheaper locally than having to pay shipping on an internet order.