What key economic indicators affect trucking? What are they telling us?
Clowdis: The key is consumer spending. People are replacing the RV and mountain home purchases with things they absolutely need, such as a new water heater or refrigerator. Consumers are scared. As a result of consumer debt, the savings rate has jumped from 2 percent in 2008 to 5.2 percent in the second quarter of this year. I expect people are going to put even more money in their savings accounts in the fourth quarter, and spend less during the holiday season. For the trucking industry, this pent-up demand is key to coming out of the recession. When consumers return to the stores and start saying, “I need to buy Nikes instead of Keds,” the people who ship these goods will start to reap the benefit. Larkin: Some of the key indicators include retail sales, savings rates, industrial production, housing sales and auto sales. They’re all telling us that we’re on the bottom. We also can’t expect a huge robust recovery around the corner, especially because consumers haven’t returned to the
