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CHICAGO (Reuters) - FedEx Corp's (FDX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Friday reduction of its profit outlook because of high fuel costs and weak demand is a bad omen for small U.S. trucking companies that have been hammered by both.
Rail is the most efficient way to move cargo. If it hadn't been for useless unions and mob bosses, the US would have a well-developed rail transportation system for cargo and passengers. I don't at all feel sorry for truck drivers.
It was General Motors, Firestone, and the oil companies that acquired the streetcar systems throughout America and had them replaced with bus systems so they could make a huge profit.
The streetcar systems were very popular since the population tended to be more concentrated in urban areas in the 20s and 30s.
Quote:
In 1922, according to GM's own files, Sloan established a special unit within the corporation, which was charged, among other things, with the task of replacing America's electric railways with cars, trucks and buses.
A year earlier, in 1921, GM lost $65 million, leading Sloan to conclude that the auto market was saturated, that those who desired cars already owned them, and that the only way to increase GM's sales and restore its profitability was by eliminating its principal rival: electric railways.
At the time, 90 percent of all trips were by rail, chiefly electric rail; only one in 10 Americans owned an automobile. There were 1,200 separate electric street and interurban railways, a thriving and profitable industry with 44,000 miles of track, 300,000 employees, 15 billion annual passengers, and $1 billion in income. Virtually every city and town in America of more than 2,500 people had its own electric rail system.
The Streetcar Conspiracy - How General Motors Deliberately Destroyed Public Transit (http://www.saveourwetlands.org/streetcar.htm - broken link)
Ridership in my little corner of the Country also fell dramatically after WWII...
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