Still Cutbacks

For the past few years, the world economy has been trying to climb back into the black. Just when people thought everything was bouncing back and the shipping industry in general was forging ahead, we are still seeing new casualties of the recession. Not only has the European fall and natural disasters made everything that much worse, but the trust levels of both customers and service providers has change the shipping industry altogether. The latest casualty seems to be FedEx, with a new plan of not buying new equipment and lessoning the load of old planes, etc. They are hoping to recover some of the losses they have encountered over the past few years. They have also recently offered a buyout to their employees with the same idea in mind. Since they are such a large shipping company as well as a public company and regularly offer low freight rates and competitive service, it is hard for people to hear that they are still struggling to meet their goals. The biggest problem with a large company like this having trouble is that it makes it scarier for small companies with less capitol even though they might be in good company. Many freight forwarders, customs brokers and other areas of the shipping industry see these types of changes in such a large player and become concerned for their own problems. This is why cutbacks, especially public cutbacks can be so hard on the industry. Rising out of this downward turn depends on everyone to get together working toward fighting this ever challenging market.