December data is in from Cass Information Systems, and it looks like the year ended on a grand whimper.
After a modest pick-up during the first half of 2008, freight expenditures and shipments dropped in the second. The final months took an increasingly steep freefall, as you can see from the Cass chart:
www.cassinfo.com/frtindex.html
January is historically slow for trucking, so don’t be too surprised if things get worse.
