Forecasting the cost of government next year is, more than ever, a game of Blind Man's Bluff. The elements of the formula are easy enough -- taxes, fees, regulatory compliance, pending legislation, and so on.
But next year's mixture is unusually volatile due to large political forces that are hard to predict.
For example, Congress is going to rewrite the law that controls such fundamentals as highway construction, fuel taxes and sizes and weights. Also, the marketplace is going to have to work through environmental regulations that already have plunged the equipment industry into turmoil. And fuel prices, already unstable, could go haywire if the United States goes to war with Iraq.
Of most immediate concern to most trucking operations is the situation they face in the states. The recession has shredded state budgets, releasing impulses that could impact trucking in a variety of ways.
. . . For the full story see the October issue of Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine.