General Motors has emerged from bankruptcy as a new, leaner company with the help of $50 billion in emergency financing from the federal government. The news offers some hope for car and auto parts haulers,
whose trucks and drivers have been sitting around waiting for the assembly lines to crank back up.

"Business as usual is over at GM," said Fritz Henderson, president and CEO, in a statement Friday. "Today marks a new beginning for General Motors, one that will allow every employee, including me, to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers."

Since 2006, the number of cars moved by the trucking industry dropped by 6 million, according to Robert Farrell, executive director of the American Trucking Associations' Automobile Carriers Conference.

The 39-day bankruptcy of GM as well as the fallout of other auto companies has put about 5,000 Teamsters within the auto transport division on long-term layoff, according to Fred Zuckerman, director of the Teamsters' Automobile Transport Division. Seventy percent of the division's work is tied to GM, Chrysler and Ford. "We've lost a lot of work," he said. "When they come back, we know we're going to be smaller, 'cause they're going to be smaller."

The new GM has come back smaller, according to the manufacturer. Even though the company will have a fresh lineup of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC cars and trucks, it had to shed its Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands. As part of the restructuring, the company also has plans to reduce the number of dealers in the U.S. from 6,000 to 3,600 by the end of the year. By the end of 2010, the company will cut down its assembly, powertrain and stamping plants to 34 from 47 in 2008. Its workforce in the U.S. will decline from about 91,000 at the end of 2008 to about 64,000 at the end of 2009.

Despite the cuts, GM's plan for a new small, fuel-efficient car at a plant in Orion Township, Mich., will create about 1,400 additional jobs.

According to Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express, which ships parts for GM, the company has been up front with its suppliers. Burch said it's been refreshing to be in the loop on where GM is going from here.