Dear Friends,

While all eyes are turned to those things political and hurricanes, oil prices dropped again and diesel fuel continues is slide in price.

The economic news is not very upbeat although there are encouraging signs as inflation eases due to a drop in the cost of oil and other commodities. With the inflationary troubles in Europe, the US Dollar is gaining a little strength which helps in holding down all commodity prices from food and metals to energy.

The export market has carried the US through this downturn and that could change as the world economy weakens. If the US economy is to recover quickly it will come from a continued drop in these inflationary pressures.  The faster the drop, the faster the economic recovery.

From a transportation standpoint, we are helped by the unexpected increase in orders for durable goods which increased 1.3% in July which translated to a 4.4% year over year increase in the July ATA Truck Tonnage Index.  A decrease of 0.3% from June which tells me that the stimulus checks have been spent.

At Wagner, we are very busy with seasonal fulfillment business picking and shipping several thousand orders per day to stock the shelves for Santa.

We have also signed a lease in Denver and are busy installing Red Prairie and getting our new GM, Mike Bressman up and running.  Mike comes to Wagner from Shaw Industries where he was a Regional Operations Manager and Tibbet & Britten/Advantage Logistics rounding out his resume.

Our Transportation Logistics Group is working on a number of very interesting projects involving pooled transportation to compete with LTL on retail distribution.

I want to thank our associates in Jacksonville FL who weathered Tropical Storm Fay and are mopping up the debris and water quickly restoring service to our valued clients.

Please keep Wagner in mind should you have any upcoming projects as we continue to have capacity in our network.

All the best,

John