Commercial development projects with longer lead times are still keeping some truck operators busy. Even that sector is slowing down and is projected to weaken considerably in 2009 in most U.S. markets.

This fall, instead of hauling lumber to home improvement stores and housing sites in the Pacific Northwest, owner-operator Dave Bicheno of White Swan, Wash., transported fresh pears six days a week to a cannery in Oregon. Transporting pears paid well – better than 2x4s – but by the season’s end in November, he had planned to go back to delivering building materials, which is down by 50 percent this year.

Tulsa-based Melton Truck Lines runs 1,000 tractors and more than 1,750 flatbed trailers, primarily carrying industrial products like raw steel and machinery. Over the past two years, the company’s tractor productivity dropped 10 percent, says Russ Elliott, a senior vice president. “In 2001 and 2002, there was a decrease, but we’ve never faced a sustained period when we’ve had two 5 percent drops,” he says. “We’re definitely in a longer and more painful trend than we’ve ever been in.”

The construction-led freight slowdown in North America, heading into its third year, is hurting owner-operators and carriers alike. Now that the sharp slump in homebuilding in recent years has triggered the credit crisis and accompanying recession, truck transportation likely will decline up to 2 percent in 2009, the worst performance since 1982, says Noel Perry of FTR Associates, a transportation consulting firm. The result of three years of declining Class 8 truck loadings and two years of lower Class 8 ton-miles “puts strong pressure on the carrier base,” he says.

Freight volumes overall are decelerating, but it’s a mixed bag for different freight segments, says Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Associations. While dry van shipments are contracting year over year, tankers are benefiting from the popularity of biofuels and hazmat shipments turned down by railroads, he says. Flatbed carriers are seeing many fewer building material loads, although metal products and heavy construction shipments have taken up the slack, carriers say.

“It’s a continuation of what we’ve seen the past two years,” says Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association. “We won’t see any improvement until we see an improvement in the overall economy. A lot of that hinges on when the housing industry not just rebounds but ceases to deteriorate.”