This Editorial appears in the Sept. 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today. The political bickering that has engulfed much of the federal government over the past months and months is apparently weighing heavily on the nation’s economy.
Several stories in this week’s Transport Topics include mentions by economic analysts, trucking executives and other industry officials that the political warfare and lack of policy direction is discouraging businesses and consumers from spending and — in another case of unintended consequences — encouraging fleets to buy fewer trucks and trailers and related equipment than they otherwise would order.
Even with this rancorous tone in the national debate, fleets continue to buy notable numbers of new trucks and trailers, owing at least in part to the 32 consecutive months of year-over-year freight growth, as noted in American Trucking Associations’ widely watched monthly tonnage index.
These days, bad news from the supply industry is sometimes pretty good news. Take our story on page 1 noting that heavy-duty truck orders nosedived by 23.4% in August, compared with a year ago.
But the order total of 16,200 for the month was a lot stronger than July’s 12,925 orders. And most truck manufacturers are more than happy to see domestic order intake at the 16,000-a-month, or more than 190,000-a-year, level during this period of tepid economic growth.
“The good news is that the wheels are not falling off” new truck orders, one key analyst told us about August’s results.
We can only wonder what would be happening in our industry if there was less of a feeling of governmental gridlock — and the resulting worry about the near-term direction of the nation’s financial policy.
One of the clearest examples of the logjam that has nearly frozen the federal government is the soap opera that we all witnessed in Congress, as legislators danced around trying to get a new highway bill passed. So, it’s interesting to note in our story on page 43 how both major political parties are now taking credit for getting the bill signed into law.
We can only continue to hope that the politicians get better at separating their roles as policymakers and leaders and their roles as candidates running for office.
The nation’s economy is too important to us all to have it held hostage in the partisan political wars that our federal election campaigns have turned into.
