Excerpt from an email I received today:
"GM is building new convertibles with no frame holes for chain. Based on conversations he is convinced that GM will go 100 percent tie downs in the next 3-5 years."
Tie down chains for auto transport trailers seem to be going the way of the Dodo bird. Then again, they might reappear, like the ivory-billed woodpecker down in Arkansas.
Screw actuator trailers, the movement toward wheel strap tie-downs instead of cluster chains in the auto transport industry, auto transport companies leasing on drivers as owner-operators-- there is quite a bit of structural change going on in the car industry.
If you look at the auto transport industry against the backdrop of all the structural, macro-economic change, it gets dizzying just trying to keep up with it all: rising US budget deficits, rising interest rates, regional housing economy bubbles, nascent inflationary trends, and stubborn trade deficits as Americans buy more and more foreign-made products.
A lot of the dynamic is counter-intuitive: corporations are off-shoring and down-sizing in growing numbers. The job-loss recovery talked about in the (insanely liberal media) is a reflection of structural change, not cyclical change.
Toyota is poised to pass GM as the largest automaker in the world.
A lot of these jobs aren't coming back. Period.
On the other hand, companies like Toyota and Subaru and Honda are expanding their capital investments in the US, optimizing their supply chain and distribution web logistics by having cars manufactured here. Some jobs are being created.
We're going to experience an acceleration of the rate of change as the economic system responds to the stimulus that the developments in information technology have created: ever more liquid pools of capital and labor that can be harnessed in a productive manner.
Pessimists have viewed this as "Labor in separate nations being forced to compete in a race for the bottom." We've seen some of this, as the toy industry moved from the US, to Mexico, and ultimately to China. Same thing for the textile industry.
On the other hand, what doesn't get noticed is the amount of revenue brought home to the US by consultants as a result of global trade.
It probably doesn't comfort the GM worker's wife to know that consultants who used to make 200,000 a year are now making 500,000 as a result of these structural changes in the economy. However, this money will keep circulating in the economy in various ways. The consultant might hire her husband's new landscaping company. The formerly out-of-work auto worker will buy trailers and equipment for his business start-up.
One thing is for sure: this kind of change is fertile ground for even more change. It seeds the ground for further changes, some of them good, and some of them not-so-good. Call it the landscape of future change.
Then there's all the cyclical change: interest rates, fuel prices, consumer confidence and new-car sales. These are the "trees" close to us that sometimes obscure our view of the forest-- or still further, the landscape of future change.
Not to worry, though. Americans have always been innovators. That's one thing that never changes.
TheBostonChannel.com - News Archive - Truck Carrying SUV Gets Caught On Bridge
TheBostonChannel.com - News Archive - Truck Carrying SUV Gets Caught On Bridge
Skidpin just emailed me this... THIS IS TOTALLY why I don't miss living on the east coast!
Skidpin just emailed me this... THIS IS TOTALLY why I don't miss living on the east coast!
Rush Truck Center of Nashville - Inventory
Rush Truck Center of Nashville - Inventory: "2004 Peterbilt 387 Caterpillar C15 435 70' Raised Roof FRO16210B Call!
U90145 2004 Peterbilt 387 Caterpillar C15 435 70' Raised Roof FRO16210B Call!
U1285 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 63' Raised Roof FRO16210C Call!
U1279 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 63' Raised Roof FRO16210C Call!
U90177 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C-15 475 63' Unibilt sta 18 Speed Call!
U90176 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C-15 475 63' Raised Roof 18 Speed $89,000
U90170 2004 Kenworth T600 Caterpillar C15 475 86' Studio RTLO18913A Call!
U90178 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 63' Raised Roof RTLO18918B Call!
U90161 2003 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 70' Raised Roof RTO16910C-AS2 Call!
U71992 2003 Peterbilt 379EXHD Cummins ISX 475 63' Raised Roof FRO18210C Call!
U72020 2003 Peterbilt 379EXHD Cummins ISX 475 63' Raised Roof FRO18210C Call!
U90196 2003 Peterbilt 378 Caterpillar C15 435 Non FRO16210C Call!
U90127 2002 Peterbilt 378 Caterpillar C15 435 Non FRO16210C $54,500
U90154 2002 Peterbilt 378 Caterpillar C15 435 Non FRO16210C $54,500
U90183 2002 Peterbilt 387 Caterpillar C15 435 70' Premium FRO16210B Call!
U150079 2002 Kenworth W900L Caterpillar C15 475 72'AERODYNE/AER FRO16210C Call!
U90185"
U90145 2004 Peterbilt 387 Caterpillar C15 435 70' Raised Roof FRO16210B Call!
U1285 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 63' Raised Roof FRO16210C Call!
U1279 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 63' Raised Roof FRO16210C Call!
U90177 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C-15 475 63' Unibilt sta 18 Speed Call!
U90176 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C-15 475 63' Raised Roof 18 Speed $89,000
U90170 2004 Kenworth T600 Caterpillar C15 475 86' Studio RTLO18913A Call!
U90178 2004 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 63' Raised Roof RTLO18918B Call!
U90161 2003 Peterbilt 379EXHD Caterpillar C15 475 70' Raised Roof RTO16910C-AS2 Call!
U71992 2003 Peterbilt 379EXHD Cummins ISX 475 63' Raised Roof FRO18210C Call!
U72020 2003 Peterbilt 379EXHD Cummins ISX 475 63' Raised Roof FRO18210C Call!
U90196 2003 Peterbilt 378 Caterpillar C15 435 Non FRO16210C Call!
U90127 2002 Peterbilt 378 Caterpillar C15 435 Non FRO16210C $54,500
U90154 2002 Peterbilt 378 Caterpillar C15 435 Non FRO16210C $54,500
U90183 2002 Peterbilt 387 Caterpillar C15 435 70' Premium FRO16210B Call!
U150079 2002 Kenworth W900L Caterpillar C15 475 72'AERODYNE/AER FRO16210C Call!
U90185"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)