John’s Blog

October 6^th, 2008

Dear Friends,

After a whacky week where we saw the stock market fall and a commitment by Congress to spend $700 Billion to rescue the banking system, what’s next?  With this being the political season anything can happen.

Bottom line there is enough blame to go around to all of the parties including buyers of homes they could not afford, mortgage brokers, investment bankers, the Democrats for pushing for affordable mortgages allowing Freddie and Fanny to run amok, and the Republicans for not taking a stronger stand for regulation and oversight.

I fear it will take much of 2009 to recover from this housing meltdown now that a Trillion dollars of tax payer money has been tapped.  For those of you keeping score, this is the 6^th housing market bubble since the Civil War.  When will our leaders see history?

The carrier market continues to struggle with the most notable example being Yellow Roadway who has tapped out their lending capacity.  They and other carriers are doing their part to keep the unemployment roles growing as unemployment stands at 6.1%

On a positive note, Ryder has made acquisitions of Transpacific Container Terminal Ltd. (TCTL) and CRSA Logistics Ltd. (CRSA). This strengthens Ryder’s operations in Canada and Asia.

Jacobson Companies has purchased Dixie Warehouse Services as this group continues their growth by bulking up with a respected company Louisville company.

After the very public rail crashes President Bush will sign a Rail Safety Bill this week.    This bill will set new hours of service standards for railroad workers, require the phased-in implementation of positive train control technology and reauthorize the Federal Railroad Administration with a $1.625 billion budget.

One of the exciting projects Wagner is working involves developing a network of crossdock centers to consolidate and distribute merchandise for a major retailer using our extensive truckload carrier base to provide line haul. 

If your company has a supply chain challenge in 2009 please consider talking to the experts at Wagner.  With our network of Distribution Centers, fulfillment expertise, contract packaging capabilities, and transportation flexibility and depth, we have very good tool box of service to work from.

Have a great week!

John Wagner Jr