It is the state of our economy today. It is the state of oil prices today. There is simply no way around things like this happening. Today Jevic Transportation announced that it will close its doors after 27 years of service in the trucking business. Jevic was an employer to more than 1,000 people. Jevic's headquarters were in New Jersey. 
Jevic's CEO David Gorman said that the company had no choice but to shut down its operations with high fuel costs, increasing insurance costs, and tightening credit markets hurting its business badly. Slumping freight demand in the current economic downturn also played a large part in this move.
We haven't necessarily seen a lot of this kind of news thus far, but trust me when I say there will be plenty more of it. When you look at all the factors working against these transportation companies, it really is amazing they are holding up as well as they are. All of the top transportation companies have had to become masters at keeping their costs as low as possible just to stay alive, not necessarily make any money.
I am concerned that while most companies are doing their best at keeping their overhead as low as they can, they simply cannot control the skyrocketing price of oil. Airliners have to raise prices or they will fall apart quickly, and transportation companies have to raise prices as well. The problem for these companies is they simply don't have much pricing power whatsoever because of the poor demand for their services.
Surging costs and no pricing power equals lots of trouble for transports. Jevic Transportation may have been of the first, but it won't be the last to close its doors.
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