Transport trends good and bad
Unfortunately for the industry as a whole, the fuel surcharge is a burden shared by everyone from the trucking company or owner operator, to the dealer or manufacturer and ultimately by the customer.

"All of the leading transportation indexes point to increased freight demand. Orders for shipping containers, drivers and trucks are all increasing," Partridge says. "This presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to keep prices down for our customers as prices increase. The opportunity is being able to provide service when resources are stretched."
"There are so many advancements in medical technology and equipment, we just have to stay on top of them, and find the safest way to move, install, and de-install them," says Steve Lewis, owner of Brandon Transfer & Storage Co., a full-service medical mover.
"I have noticed though that more animal clinics are getting sophisticated equipment such as MRIs."

Gibson is also seeing more of a demand for environmentally friendly ways to ship goods.

"Our industry has a very negative environmental impact so we're constantly searching for ways to [reduce] our carbon footprint," Gibson says. "There are more innovative methods of packaging that avoid propylene-based products and are entirely biodegradable. We are studying methods to build reusable crates to impede the need for new lumber which, in turn, reduces cost to the customer for new crates."

Jeff Knapp of Industrial Craters and Packers believes the availability of lumber will continue to be an issue in the crating business.

"The economy the past few years has depleted the number of operating lumber mills. In past slowdowns these mills would temporarily shut down or go to minimal operations; this time they went out of business," he says. "Also, dealing with international market demand, all of August and September, every call to lumber brokers/suppliers noted that China was buying up their stock at higher pricing than the U.S. market would support. The projections that the U.S. will soon not be the top of the food chain for consumption are coming to pass."

A shortage of crate lumber has the potential to put the brakes on everything. If equipment is de-installed, it may have a place to go, but it can't get there safely.

The deal with de-installs
"The biggest thing is planning ahead. Sometimes you walk into a room and you weren't given all the information needed," says James Gant, owner of KNJ Tech Service. "Our biggest issue we run into is that cables running underneath the floors in the ducts and those could be in sterilized rooms and you can't get in until certain hours."

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