Truckers tuned to National Public Radio’s Morning Edition program Wednesday heard a newsy repetition of the reality they’ve been coping with for more than a year in reporter Frank Morris’ “Economic slump hits nation’s truckers” story from KCUR in Kansas City. In the story, veteran truckers Dee Jones and Mac Shepherd weighed in on the status of trucking and freight while waiting at an Oak Grove, Mo., truck stop. “I’ve been doing this for 32 years,” Shepherd told Morris, noting that he had never seen freight this bad.
Bob Costello, economist with the American Trucking Assocations, was called on for analysis throughout, including in Morris’ sage wrap-up: “Economist Bob Costello cautions that overall, freight shippers are in for more pain as the logistics system, developed to serve a nation of wealthy free spenders, continues to shrink.”
Perhaps those wealthy free spenders out there are learning some lessons from the rest of us. –Lucinda Coulter
