Diesel Prices * USA - Cripple Trucking Firms

Jobs are gone. Benson International's 78 flatbed trailer plant employees by August unless the company can find a buyer

Cadiz,KY,USA -The Paducah Sun, by Joe Walker/Red Orbit (Dallas,TX) -15 June 2008: -- Having run three plants in his hometown, Donnie Holland has seen a lot of economic ups and downs over the past four decades... But the low point came June 6 when the president of Benson International had to tell his 78 flatbed trailer plant employees that their jobs are gone by August unless the company can find a buyer. Sales have dropped 80 percent over the past 18 months amid soaring fuel and metal prices and a slumping housing market... Trucking capacity has declined by about 3 percent because of the loss of many firms and decisions by others to sell or idle trucks, said Clayton Boyce, the association's vice president of public affairs... Holland said aluminum costs have jumped 40 percent this year, spurred by speculative trading and heavy demand from China and other emerging nations. Some steel products have risen by 48 to 100 percent since Dec. 1... Boyce said demand for flatbed trailers has declined dramatically because flatbeds carry most of the materials for the slumping housing market... (Photo: Benson International's: Platform truck body 84-1)